How Suning’s Digital Transformation Is Shaping the Future of Retail

On June 18‑19, 2019, the China Retail Forum was held in Hangzhou under the theme “Choosing in Turbulence.” Suning Retail Technology Research Institute Director Wang Junjie delivered a keynote titled “Retail Reform, Breaking the Deadlock: Building a Smart Ecosystem with Digitalization.”

China’s retail sector has undergone three major waves of change—chain stores, internet models, and digital retail. Suning, with forward‑looking thinking, transitioned from “+Internet” to “Internet+,” using technology to empower retail and becoming a leader in the third wave by completing a smart retail layout.

Wang emphasizes that the key to overcoming retail bottlenecks is technology empowerment . Over the past 30 years, Suning has built core commercial capabilities in procurement, supply chain, marketing, store operations, logistics, and after‑sales, while also achieving platformization of IT, management, merchandise, and supply chain, forming strong digital tech‑operational capacity.

The essence of smart retail is digital retail: leveraging innovative digital technologies to drive retail transformation, focusing on user management, scenario internet, and smart supply chain. The most effective path from traditional to full‑scenario smart retail is comprehensive digital technology adoption.

Suning now operates more than 4,000 self‑developed systems, offering over 100,000 services, establishing a robust digital operation capability. By solidly implementing big data, IoT, AI, cloud computing, and 5G, Suning has created a “two‑big, two‑small, many‑special” digital business model. Wang outlines four dimensions of Suning’s digital practice: personalized consumer services, precise merchandise operation, digital scenario experience, and intelligent store management.

For precise merchandise operation, Suning uses deep learning, AI, and big data to analyze a year’s data from at least 4,800 stores, enabling the selection of the most suitable 2,000 products out of roughly 48 million items for each region.

Suning’s technology layout is far‑reaching; in the smart retail transformation, it continues to play a leading role. Its tech not only fuels rapid growth across eight of its own industries but also shares innovative tech‑business integration results with partners, helping upgrade the smart retail ecosystem.