Retail Digitalization and Unification of Online/Offline in China

Speakers

Dr. Daniel Zhang

Founder and Owner, Wumart Group

ZHANG, Wenzhong (Daniel), Ph.D., Stanford alumnus, leading Chinese entrepreneur, Founder and Chairman of Wumart/Dmall. Dr. Zhang has been dedicated to digital retail, online/offline integration, and retail business cooperation and development.

In 1994, Dr. Zhang founded China’s first modern supermarket chain, Wumart Stores in Beijing and one of the leading multi-banner retailers in China overseeing more than 1,800 multi-format stores nation-wide. In 2020, the Group’s total annualized revenue is over 100 billion RMB (eq. 16 billion USD). Wumart’s demonstrated success was centered around technology driven platforms used to modernize retail systems in China.  Dr. Zhang’s academic background and expertise in the field of system engineering was also pivotal in Wumart’s accelerated growth.

Dr. Zhang is also Founding Chairman of e-commerce company Dmall, China’s leading O2O fresh grocery retailer since 2017. Since 2014, Dr. Zhang and the Dmall team have developed distributed ecommerce solutions and retail operation system, empowering supermarkets to become omni-channel retailers with online-offline integration through a mobile APP. By collaborating with Dmall, established traditional retailers improved their operational efficiency and optimized customer experience by technology uplift, fast and convenient checkout, instant delivery, improved supply chain, optimized supply chain management, assortment management, inventory and warehouse management, membership management and marketing. By August 2020, DMALL is ranked as the 7^th most popular mobile retailing app in China, and witnesses its 110 million registered users and 18 million MAUs increasing continuously. Now, DMALL has empowered over 110 supermarket chains covering over 13,000+ brick-and-mortar stores to become omni-channel retailers.

Dr. Zhang is a successful consolidator of Chinese retail industry with extensive experience in post-M&A integration and synergies building. The transaction and turnaround story of B&Q China business former controlled by Kingfisher is a good example as well as Xinhua Dept Store, Lotte Norther China and a number of SOE retail companies.  In April 2020, Wumart successfully completed the deal to hold 80% stake in the Fortune 500 Germany-based METRO’s China business.

Dr. Zhang obtained his Bachelor degree of Science in Mathematics and Master in Economics from Nankai University; he was Doctor of Systems Science from Chinese Academy of Sciences and completed his postdoc at Stanford University’s School of Engineering.

Latest Honors & Award: Honorary President, China General Chamber of Commerce; Chinese Retail Businessman of the Year 2017-2018, 2019-2020; China’s Most Influential 50 Business Leaders of the Year 2019; China’s Most Influential 25 Entrepreneurs of the Year 2019; Top 10 Economic Personages of Year 2018.

WUMART Group

Founded by Dr. Zhang Wenzhong in 1994 and headquartered in Beijing, WUMART Group is one of the leading multi-banner retailers in China overseeing more than 1,800 multi-format stores nation-wide. In 2020, the Group’s total annualized revenue is over 100 billion RMB (eq. 16 billion USD).

The first WUMART store in Beijing was a pioneering supermarket prototype in a modern sense equipped with arguably the first batch of POS machines back then. Ever since, WUMART Group’s expansion strategy, focusing on a few regions a time only to achieve the optimal density of stores within each region, has succeeded with substantial benefits from higher efficiency in logistics, procurement and operation. As of July 2020, WUMART Stores alone has over 700 supermarkets and convenience stores contributing annualized revenue of 50 billion RMB (eq. 7 billion USD).

The Group’s committed execution of its ambitious digitalization strategy has enabled not only hundreds of retailers, including itself, improving efficiency and revenue, but also creating more convenient and satisfactory O2O experience for millions of customers.

Since founded by Dr. Zhang in 2014, the unicorn app DMALL has been a pivotal partner facilitating WUMART Group’s overarching digitalization strategy. DMALL is ranked as the 7^th most popular mobile retailing app in China, and witnesses its 110 million registered users and 18 million MAUs increasing continuously. Now, DMALL has empowered over 110 supermarket chains to become omni-channel retailers in mainland China and Hong Kong.

In addition to its strong organic growth, WUMART Group has outstanding track record in M&A and follow-up consolidation. In April 2020, it successfully completed the deal of 14.5 billion RMB (eq. 2.1 billion USD) to hold 80% stake in the Fortune 500 Germany-based METRO’s China business. Since 2015, the Group was also highly acclaimed for its buy-and-turnaround story of the China business of B&Q, a British multinational DIY and home improvement retailer, solely owned by the Fortune 500 Kingfisher Plc. before the transaction.

Previously, WUMART Group also bought MerryMart (the 4^th largest retailer in Beijing), the publicly listed Xinhua Department Store (the largest of its kind in North-west China), the Korean retailer Lotte’s business in North China, and the 1950-established Chongqing Department Store (the oldest and largest among peers in South-west China).

In future, its embedded pioneering vision, digitalization DNA, and its M&A and consolidation capacity are surely to help the Group win in the fast paced competitive O2O retailing market in China and beyond.