In my online Asia Tech Class, I talk a lot about digital superpowers, which are digital tools that upend established business. And one of these superpowers a dramatically improved user experience, such that the traditional offering is now unacceptable to users. And this sort of dramatically improved user experience is what is happening in luxury […]
In Part 1, I laid out why I think JD’s e-space was a pretty bold move – and opens a new frontier in OMO retail. My argument was that as you move from retail about buying products in the supermarket to visiting shopping malls and department malls, you start to really merge products, services and […]
Hiya, I’m sitting at the Shanghai airport, heading out to the USA shortly. I’m exhausted. It’s been a crazy couple of days out in Hangzhou with Alibaba for Singles’ Day. And just running around Shanghai. Great. But exhausting. Alibaba and e–commerce in China/Asia are going to be a big subject within this class. I think […]
So Luckin has filed for an IPO and we finally got to see their numbers. And yes, there are red flags all over the place. Big operating losses, funky corporate structures, speculative revenue growth and so on. And this is not uncommon in a tech / internet ipo. But I don’t recall ever seeing this […]
In Part 1 and Part 2, I gave some background on sports apparel in China and detailed my visit to the new Tmall – Intersport store in Beijing. It was pretty great. With lots of new digital initiatives like the magic mirrors. Note: the above picture is what happens when you change the gender setting […]
There are a couple perks to having a decent-sized following as a writer (currently closing in on 3M followers). You get to fly around the world a bit to give talks, which I love. People tend to send swag and books. Always fun. And every now and then, a company reaches out with an invitation […]
Will China’s “new retail” change sports apparel? It turns out it’s a really interesting question. Sports apparel retail is people buying running shoes, Nike gear, yoga pants, sweatshirts and so on. At first glance it looks like pretty standard retail. Lots of stores, inventory management and marketing. So lots of opportunities for digitizing operations. But […]
我始终认为，新零售业比所有人在谈论的超级市场、送货员和便利店要大得多。它并不只是魔镜（magic mirror）、机器人服务员和人脸识别支付等炫酷的新工具。虽然，这些工具都很有意思。
The Luckin vs. Starbucks fight is accelerating, both in terms of stores opened and hype. Luckin has IPO’d. And Tim Horton’s is jumping into the China coffee biz. What is going on? Why is there so much activity in the previously sleepy business of Chinese retail coffee? Recall, a similar thing happened in bike-sharing […]
From one of my standard talks in 2018 (since retired). This is about bike-sharing, mobility and super-apps. See below. Youtube link is here. Other parts of talk are below: Part 1: What is the Engine of Chinese Bike-Sharing? Part 2: Give Consumers Exactly What They Want Part 3: In Digital China, Re-Imagine Operations ASAP Part […]