On October 20, Alibaba Retail Connect, China's No. 1 B2B platform for fast-moving consumer goods, held an opening ceremony for its Shandong regional warehouse at Weifang Yaluo Yishang Logistics Park. The establishment of the Shandong regional warehouse will improve the overall level of Shandong's logistics distribution and supply chain management.
Wang Demin, general manager of the Peking University region of Alibaba Retail Connect, introduced that the Retail Connect Shandong warehouse business will cover the entire Shandong Province, with 13 direct delivery routes in Shandong, more than 20 vehicles dispatched daily, and an average of 18,000 parcels delivered daily, continuously and steadily delivering beverages, dairy products, snacks, daily necessities and other commodities to nearly 400,000 community stores across Shandong Province.
In July 2016, Retail Link entered the Shandong market and currently serves 400,000 community convenience stores in Shandong, making online purchasing possible for small community stores. In addition, Shandong has authorized 519 Tmall stores to join, and Retail Channel helps community stores achieve branding and chain development through light franchising.
It is worth mentioning that Retail Connect is a one-stop purchasing platform launched by Alibaba for offline retail stores. At the end of August, Alibaba Retail Connect launched the "W Plan", deciding to open digital store operating systems including POS machines and 10,000 new products exclusively for small store channels to the 1.5 million small stores it covers. A report released by the Ministry of Commerce in September showed that small stores on the Retail Channel platform accounted for 25% of the number of offline retail stores nationwide, becoming the main force in promoting the digital transformation of small stores.
