The_Future_of_Global_Retail_Preview

FOUR P I LL ARS OF NEW RE TA I L

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four years old and had been listed just a year earlier; Amazon was also only four years old and had listed two years earlier. Another important Chinese player, JD, was founded by Liu Qiangdong in 1998, initially as a whole- saler for electronics products. JD did not enter into online retailing until 2003 but went on to compete aggressively with Dangdang and become the “Amazon of China”. This was both the best of times – the Chinese internet space was on the verge of explosive growth – and also the worst of times because, among other things, nobody was sure who might be among the lucky ones to survive the cutthroat competition that lay ahead. In hindsight, the paths taken by the four Chinese companies established in and around 1999 hold lessons that ought to be instructive for many. We start with the most captive character of all, Jack Ma, who is the self-appointed spokesperson for China’s e-commerce revolution. Jack Ma: the English teacher Jack Ma was born in 1964 in Hangzhou, a scenic city rich in culture and a popular tourist destination on China’s east coast. In time, the little sleepy town would become the centre of China’s e-commerce, thanks largely to him. As a teenager, Ma had a very variable academic record. His maths was very poor but his English excellent. He had to take his college entrance exam three years in a row because his maths results didn’t make the grade. On the first try, he scored only one point, out of a maximum of 120. 1 (One can’t help but wonder what could have been going on in his head for the two hours he sat there.) The second year, Ma vastly improved his performance – percentage-wise at least – by scoring 19 points. 2 Fortunately, he showed remarkable improvement on his third try by achieving a respectable score of 89 3 and was accepted by Hangzhou Normal University – then called Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute. His outstanding English probably helped him gain a place. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, China was beginning to open up to foreign visitors. Tourists from all over the world came to visit the famous Great Wall in Beijing and other scenic towns such as Hangzhou. To improve his English, Ma often cycled to West Lake, a favourite spot for tourists, to strike up conversations with visitors from abroad and offer free