Like many industries in China, the past 20 years have seen almost unimaginable growth in China’s retail sector. Total revenue in the sector grew a whopping tenfold from $60 billion in 2000 to over $1 trillion in 2020.

In this period the retail industry has experienced both the prosperity brought about by expansion and the troughs from shrinking dividends. Yet despite the constantly changing market in China, Chinese retail have always shown tenacious vitality from conversion, innovation, and recapitalization.

Linkshop, China’s leading retail information platform, hosted the 2021 Linkshop Conference & 20th Anniversary Celebration in Hangzhou this April, and Hanshow was on hand to take in the celebration.

Over a thousand participants convened at the event, covering the whole retail sector from department stores, shopping centers, e-commerce, boutiques, supermarkets and more.

A highlight of the event for Hanshow was receiving the 2020 China Retail Outstanding Service Award from Linkshop. With customer-centric innovation and high-quality service at the heart of what we do, Hanshow takes great pride in our service and we are honored to receive this recognition.

Hanshow also displayed our digital marketing solutions and products at the forum, giving visitors a first-hand experience of digital store solutions.

Lumina Aqua ESL Solution

Lumina Aqua is designed for fresh food retail scenarios, aiming to improve store operational efficiency and enhance profitability. Lumina Aqua is full-color LCD electronic shelf label with IP65 water and dust-resistance rating, and it supports instant refresh and multi-page displays. Lumina Aqua also includes an intelligent backend system to support advertisement and display customization.

Nebular ESL Solution

Nebular is Hanshow’s new cutting-edge electronic shelf label integrated with innovative technology and pleasing design. The ESL improved the efficiency and performance by highly integrated proprietary ESL chip developed by Hanshow; The flexible battery has significantly lowered the power consumption and make the battery life grows up to 15 years.

Digital Signage

Digital signage can be flexibly adapted to a variety of shelf sizes and also takes traditional in-store marketing displays to a whole new customized, interactive and dynamic advertising display.

Main Forum

Speakers at the forum shared perspectives on the past and future of the retail industry by deep-analysis of the retail environment while also making predictions on future trends.

"Long-term" became the most emphasized word by the speakers at the conference, focusing on ways to stay ahead in the long run by taking actions in the short run.

Below are a few highlights from keynote speakers at the event:

Wang Tian, Chairman of Better Life Group

The industry needs strong intervention.

The FMCG industry has come to a turning point. However, after 20 or even 30 years of rapid development, it may come to an end.

We hope we can all understand the need for a fair competitive environment for this industry, and the need for strong intervention from government for the market to address the unfair competitive environment.

Geping Guo, Founder of CCFA

Stick to long-termism and take benefits from time.

The retail industry is constantly changing along with consumer demand. As long as we insist on implementing this concept—embrace change and innovate continuously, I believe there will be a new retail industry growth curve. Some say it’s important not to expand your business but instead focus on making your business gorgeous. I believe there will be century-old companies in China's retail industry.

Kai Su, Investment Partner in China of Sequoia Capital

No one can fight cyclicality.

Cyclicality will always exist. Those companies that can live for a long time will become steadier. As for department stores, shopping centers and supermarkets, while the SKU continues to be optimized, it is possible to superimpose the existing retail formats. The innovation brought by the superposition of retail formats is much less risky and more direct than forming a new business.

Laichun Sun, Founder of Lingqingxuan

Consumers prefer to buy goods because of their own needs.

Most of our performance is not harvested by the Internet, but by the physical store. In fact, there are more opportunities in online businesses with low cost.

I think the O2O business and new retail are not comprehensive. Recently I am researching the pattern of OMO, which is to connect offline through online.

Ling Li, Counselor of Linkshop:

What is “eternal” in the retail industry?

We always say what will be in the future rather than considering about what will be eternal. Our purpose of retail is what we are aiming for: to meet the needs of consumers is the fundamental of retail. We have to formulate strategies and determine the direction. To sum up, we have to do 4 steps: stick to the main business, stick to the business region, stick to the quality, and stick to the service.