Alibaba is rumored to be considering shopping mall operator Yintai Retail and its department stores, including Hema and RT-Mart, and is approaching a number of potential acquisition companies.
The above news did not receive a response from Ali. But this rumor has been revealed,Alibaba is revisiting its "new retail" strategy, which it proposed in 2016。Behind this layout, is Ali actively shrinking, or is he surviving with a broken arm?
Intime Department Store and Tmall compete for traffic?
On the timeline, Intime Department Store is the first business carrier to carry Alibaba's new retail. As early as October 2016, before Jack Ma first proposed the new retail concept at the Apsara Conference, Alibaba took a stake in Intime Department Store in 2014, becoming the second largest shareholder after Yintai founder Shen **.
In 2015, Alibaba increased its stake in Yintai ** and became the largest shareholder, with Daniel Zhang as CEO; In 2017, Alibaba privatized Yintai at a very high premium of 17.7 billion yuan, completely taking Yintai into its pocket.
On 2013's 11.11, Intime Department Store joined hands with Tmall, and on 11.11, Yintai Tmall store sold 6 times the same period last year, breaking the record of 2012's 11.11 in 25 minutes.
At that time,Offline channels are still the largest sales channel for retail。In 2009, the scale of the e-commerce market was only 260 billion yuanIt accounts for only about 2% of the country's retail sales of consumer goods.
Image source network. This may be the key reason for Alibaba's privatization of Yintai. Ali wants to swallow the entire retail market, both online and offline. In addition to Yintai,Alibaba has also made strategic investments in retail entities such as Sanjiang Shopping, Lianhua Supermarket, Sun Art Retail, and Bailian, and created a new species, the Hema horse.
However, neither Ali nor Intime Department Store expected it laterLive e-commerce is in full swing, I didn't expect that because the live broadcast anchors, whether online or offline retail, would be in a mess because of this.
During the Double 11 period in 2021, Hangzhou Yintai originally launched the activity price, Guerlain Reconstituted Honey for 870 yuan, buy 50ml and get 50ml sample, which is equivalent to 8$7 per milliliter. The ** of the same product in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room on Double 11 is 1230 yuan 120ml, which is about 10$25 per milliliter.
In order to take care of Li Jiaqi's lowest price, on the eve of Double 11, the brand Guerlain requested to cancel the preferential activities subsidized by Yintai itself. After the termination of Hangzhou Yintai's activities, the price of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room was 1,085 yuan for 120ml, equivalent to 9 ml per ml04 yuan.
It's ironicLi Jiaqi is a big anchor supported by the first hand, while Yintai is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba- This is a farce of infighting.
* It is a signboard to attract traffic, but Alibaba and Yintai are on the opposite side because of thisGive the profit to the big anchor, "the snipe and the clam fight, and the fisherman profits".。Although the "new retail" model is novel, the competition is fierce, and after 2018, the attention of most consumers has risen rapidly"Live e-commerce".Attract. The integration of online and offline retail markets, with the rise of live e-commerce, has gradually become a chicken rib.
Daniel Zhang, former CEO of Alibaba, once saidUnlike Freshippo, Yintai created something out of nothing, building high-rise buildings from the ground to successfully complete the digital reconstruction of people, goods and places. The former is similar to the renovation of the old city because it has too much stock.
It is said that Hema once appointed a team to Yintai to provide guidance on the new retail transformation, but later gave up due to excessive complexity.
If Yintai was adopted by Alibaba, it does not have Internet genes, so it is not well integrated into the group. However,Ali's "own son" Hema hatched, This time it is also rumored to be Ali **, is it really not possible for new retail to work?
The Hema listing is on hold
New retail has almost changed the direction of Alibaba's business - Ali has gone from a familyInternet companies, which are mainly e-commerce, have become a company that covers from online to offline, a comprehensive economy with diversified business-driven development.
Based on Alibaba's strong endorsement, in 2016, the first Hema Fresh store opened, and the first month of opening surprised the industry.
Hema has always been pinned on by the industry. The listing of Hema is tantamount to a "booster" for both Ali and the fresh e-commerce industry。However, on November 16 last year, Alibaba disclosed in its third-quarter earnings report that the company's IPO plan was put on hold and that the company was evaluating market conditions and other factors necessary to ensure the successful implementation of the project and enhance shareholder value. After the suspension of the IPO, Hema did not say when it would restart. This time it is rumored to be **, which may represent the fear of change within Freshippo.
The suspension of the Hema IPO may reflect the plight of the fresh e-commerce industry.
Looking at the entire fresh market, Hema has many competitors, such as Yonghui Supermarket, Wumart Supermarket and Sam's Club, and many "opponents" are not doing well. For example:Yonghui Supermarket's revenue in the third quarter of 2023 was 2006.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 954%, but the net profit was negative 3$2.1 billion.
It is reported that Hema is mainly distributed in first- and second-tier cities, and similar to Yintai, the main consumer group is the middle class and above. However, in the past two years, the sinking market and low prices have gradually become the mainstream. Ali's misjudgment of the current situation of "consumption upgrading" caused Ali to miss the best opportunity to sink.
The main reason for the failure of Alibaba's new retail is that it misjudged the current situation of consumption upgrading. Online,Ali was robbed of the low-price market by Pinduoduo, and offline, Pinduoduo also relied on the community to break through. It is reported that at present, Duoduo has covered 30 provinces across the country except **. The market share reached 45% in the second quarter of 2022, and in addition to Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangdong, Xiangbei and Hangzhou, Duoduo Grocery has achieved positive gross profit in other regions.
According to people familiar with the matter, before and after Tsai Chongxin became chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Group in September 2023, Alibaba has started discussions on related assets.
Alibaba and RT-Mart did not comment on the rumors, and a Hema spokesperson denied Alibaba's plan.
Image source network. New retail has become an abandoned child of Alibaba?
Since 2020, Ali has rarely mentioned the word "new retail".
"New Retail" strategy, which was proposed by Alibaba at the end of 2016At that time, in the cycle of consumption upgrading, Alibaba expected to transform offline retail based on the Internetto achieve a new retail model of deep integration of online and offline.
However, in the past seven years, both online and offline retail markets have undergone earth-shaking changes.
In March last year, Alibaba launched the biggest change in the pattern since its establishment 24 years ago, disrupting and reorganizing AlibabaIt is composed of six business groups and a number of business companies, which is known as the "1+6+N" structure, 1 is Alibaba Group, 6 is Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, ** Tmall Commerce, Local Life, Cainiao, International Digital Commerce, Dawen Entertainment and other six business groups, N represents a number of business companies that can be independently listed in the newly split, including Cainiao, Freshippo, etc.
From the drastic "one split six", to the suspension of the listing of Hema and Alibaba Cloud, and the shrinkage and focus on the main business, Ali has gone through two sets of leadership teams, and its strategy has changed several times.
In 2023, after Jack Ma's return, he pointed out three directions for Ali:Return to the user, return to the Internet.
Returning to the Internet, that is, attaching importance to online and cloud business, etc., there must be trade-offs in the formation of offline heavy assets that have been dragged down, as can be seen from the actions of Yintai in this plan. New retail may be abandoned because it does not match the "return to the world, return to users, and return to the Internet".
Indeed, Alibaba's new retail business has not yet seen significant results. In addition to Yintai, a typical case is Sun Art Retail.
In 2020,Alibaba spent US$3.6 billion to become the controlling shareholder of Sun Art Retail, a pioneer in the hypermarket formatSun Art Retail is also one of the core members of Alibaba's new retail matrix. From 2020 to 2023, Sun Art's retail market capitalization will change from HK$100 billion to HK$12 billion.
In 2023, Ele.me, Freshippo, Youku, and RT-Mart all reported the news that they were planned, although Alibaba denied it, but these businesses are indeed poor in terms of financial performance, and are even still losing money.
Ali CEO Wu Yongming saidAlibaba Cloud and Taotian Group are the strategic focus of the whole group.
In December 2023, Dai Shan stepped down from the position of CEO of Taotian, and Ali announced that Dai Shan would take the lead in establishing an asset management company.
According to the "Chinese Entrepreneur",Offline non-core assets such as Yintai and Sun Art Retail are most likely to be included in asset management companies and be included.
Stripping off new retail, and bidding farewell to the glory and pain of the past, Alibaba has entered a new cycle.