The_Future_of_Global_Retail_Preview

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INTRODUCTION The new world of disruption

Carrefour, Europe’s largest retailer, was among the first foreign retailers to enter China. That was in 1995, Carrefour, together with Walmart, brought the concept of one-stop shopping to the world’s most populous country and expanded quickly. Enjoying “first mover” competitive advantage, it remained the fastest growing foreign retailer in China for many years, and its aggressive expansion was largely considered to be a success. By 2019, Carrefour had 233 stores, 30,000 employees and annual revenues of RMB31 billion (US$4.5 billion). 1 In the world of bricks-and-mortar retail, it seemed improbable that a competitor could achieve the same sales figures with a fraction of the workforce, and inconceivable that one individual could take on a global, corporate giant. But in today’s era of “new retail”, the rules of the game have changed, and one woman with her support team of 500 – just 2% of the number of Carrefour employees – did just that. Her name is Viya. Born in 1985 to a business family in the province of Anhui, Viya became a singer and model. She travelled to Beijing and, at the age of 17, set up her

DOI: 10.4324/9781003205074-1