Chinese retail enterprises need to adapt to the era of great changes full of challenges, and the annual CIIE continues to bring us more opportunities and a broader perspective. As a company, Hema will seize the opportunity to use the global supply chain to deeply cultivate the local market, which is also an opportunity to overtake the curve. "On November 6th, Hema Chief Financial Officer Yan Xiaolei stated at the launch ceremony of Hema CIIE Week.
On the morning of November 6th, Hema Jinbo Week officially launched. At the launch ceremony, a reporter from Time Weekly learned that as a representative new retail enterprise, Hema has reached strategic cooperation with nearly 60 overseas retailers and brand merchants since the beginning of this year, bringing a wealth of imported goods into the Chinese market and delivering them to the dining tables of thousands of "box district houses".
In addition, Hema's "Global Shopping" business will undergo a comprehensive upgrade and will open offline experience stores in more stores. Consumers can experience over 1500 products from over 20 countries around the world, place orders online through cross-border e-commerce bonded online shopping mode, and arrive home the next day.
Relying on the CIIE to continuously create "popular products"
A reporter from Time Weekly noticed that at the CIIE booth, Hema showcased over 200 imported products, from Thai coconut green and Australian stone toast to British health products and Peruvian vermilion wax balls, covering multiple scenes of consumer eating, drinking, and playing.
Jia Meng, the head of Hema's global purchasing business, believes that the cooperation model between Hema and overseas retailers and brand merchants has been upgraded from product introduction to joint manufacturing, providing a "Hema solution" for global high-quality goods to enter the Chinese market and creating a pathway connecting global delicacies and Chinese flavors.
Creating explosive products with a global supply chain means having a clear positioning and image on the consumer end, "shared the general manager of Swiss retail manufacturer Migros in China on Hema's forum.
At the subsequent roundtable forum, Hema invited partners from Swiss retail manufacturer Migros, Brazilian juice brand Natural One, and British nutritional supplement brand Brunel Healthcare to jointly explore how to create extreme explosive products through global supply chains.
Migros is the largest retail manufacturing enterprise in Switzerland, committed to providing consumers with high-quality and low-priced products by building its own brand. Jose Antonio Chiu, the general manager of Migros China, shared the case of ice black tea in his experience of creating popular products. In Switzerland, iced black tea is one of the most common beverages. Migros has improved its ingredients by replacing black tea powder with tea leaves and white sugar with Luoshen flowers, giving iced black tea a more layered taste. Once introduced, it has been widely loved by consumers. Now, Migros' iced black tea has become one of the highest per capita consumption items in Switzerland.
Nowadays, Hema is also developing towards a high quality to price ratio and expanding its own brand. Jose Antonio Chiu, General Manager of Migros in China, revealed that Hema and Migros will work together to customize cost-effective products that are more suitable for local Chinese consumers based on nearly 100 production bases in Switzerland and overseas.
Brunel Healthcare is the largest health product manufacturer in the UK, and its general manager in China, Shi Jiemu, shared that most of the multi-dimensional tablets in the foreign market have a diameter of 1.5 to 2 centimeters, which is difficult for Asians to swallow and has a poor product experience. In order to improve the competitiveness of products in China, on the one hand, Brunel Healthcare starts with market analysis and collects Chinese consumers' requirements and eating habits for efficacy. On the other hand, Brunel Healthcare has started collaborating with Hema this year to customize health products and supplements with better efficacy and specifications tailored to China's consumer needs. The price will also be reduced to around 70% of the same type of product already available on the market, which is more cost-effective.
Natural One, a fruit juice brand from Brazil, has established a direct harvesting partnership with Hema. Neng Jen Huei, General Manager of Natural One in China, stated that in addition to the star products already on sale, he has also developed a composite fruit juice specifically for Hema based on the taste preferences of Chinese consumers.
The sales growth rate of the "Global Purchase" business reached 78%
It is worth noting that on the afternoon of November 6th, Hema announced at the China International Import Expo that its "global shopping" business has been fully upgraded, and it will open offline experience stores in more Hema stores to provide consumers with offline experience of imported goods and services provided by the last online delivery.
This Just Skin isolation cream was very popular online before, but due to its high unit price, I didn't dare to place an order hastily. I tried it today and it felt good. Recently, at the "Hema Global Purchase" physical store in Senlan Mall, Pudong, Shanghai, Ms. Li was selecting a isolation cream. After listening to the salesperson's introduction and completing the order, she personally tried it and prepared to place an order.
"This is the internationally famous luxury cosmetics brand Shantika. Because there is no offline physical store in Shanghai, many customers come to experience, try out, and have a detailed understanding of the product." The "Hema Global Shopping" guide introduced Tiantian. In terms of beauty cosmetics, there are large individual preferences in the taste of perfume and the color number of lipstick. The lack of online experience has always been a consumer pain point. At the "Hema Global Shopping" store, consumers can experience over 1500 products from over 20 countries around the world, and then place an order online through the cross-border e-commerce bonded online shopping model, which can be delivered to their home the next day.
Jia Meng stated that after three years of pilot in Pudong, Shanghai, this "cross-border new retail model" has been promoted to 10 Hema X member stores and some Hema Fresh stores nationwide, and will be gradually promoted nationwide in the future.
Jia Meng introduced that when selling overseas brands and popular models in China, they often have different consumption habits, which lead to "acclimatization". However, Hema, which is closer to Chinese consumers, uses its own advantages to solve consumer pain points and goes to overseas factories to customize products.
She gave an example that imported deep-sea concentrated fish oil often has high particle size and a strong fishy smell, making it difficult for Chinese people to swallow. Hema is internationally renowned
Collaborating with fish oil factories to customize natural flavored fish oil for Chinese consumers, bringing fish oil with smaller particle size and better flavor to the Chinese people; At the same time, based on the purchasing behavior insights of Hema users, consumers who purchase fish oil often bring a piece of lecithin with them, which provides inspiration for fish oil capsules that are compounded with lecithin; Hema also collaborated with well-known Asian pharmaceutical brands to customize three medicine boxes for white-collar workers, silver haired families, and families with children, to adapt to various scenarios such as white-collar health, elderly care, and family emergencies.
'Hema Global Purchase' is committed to exploring the world's best production areas, lowest costs, latest technologies, and optimal links, bringing the world's best products to China. Jia Meng revealed that in the field of mother and baby water milk, Hema buyers have traveled to eight countries around the world to explore original factory processes and optimal transportation links, reducing the purchase of imported water milk products by 20% and ultimately benefiting consumers.
Since the beginning of this year, Hema's global sales growth rate has reached 78%, opening up new channels for over 200 international brands to enter China.
Jia Meng stated that with the help of this year's CIIE, Hema has also signed a batch of heavyweight cooperation agreements, covering fields such as mother and baby, organic, health care, and beverages, allowing more foreign brands and factories to provide in-depth services to the Chinese market. She said that from "imported brands" to "imported experiences," Hema looks forward to more brands yearning for the Chinese market, working together with Hema Global Shopping to have more innovative development on the cross-border new retail track.