Source: CARNOC.com/(ACT/Yu Jie) From April 18 to 20, the 13th Summit of the Chinese General Merchandise Sector, known as the Davos Forum in China’s general merchandise sector, was convened. The event was organized by the China Commerce Association for General Merchandise (“CCAGM”). Beijing Capital Airport Commercial & Trading Co., Ltd. (“ACT”) was invited to be present at the summit and was officially accepted as a member of the General Council of the CCAGM.

During the summit, ACT communicated, exchanged ideas and shared experience with experts in the sector and representatives of renowned enterprises on the current situation and the trend of development of the sector, putting the company in a brand-new viewpoint to look at its innovative development, application of new technologies, precise positioning among consumers and big data marketing in the airport-based general merchandise segment, and bringing insights into its future reform, development and innovation endeavors.

According to sources, theming “Transformation and Return”,  the summit focused on discussing the core essence of the development of the sector in an ever changing market, and exploring the future development direction and focal development points of the sector in a key transformation phase. During the two-day meeting, a number of keynote speeches, market analyses and sub-forums were made or held, including “the 15 New Scientific and Technological Trends Affecting the Global Consumption Market”, “Development, Reforms and Future Trends of Japanese Department Stores in a Great Transitional Period” and “BAT Opinion – Integrated Development of the Internet and Brick-and-mortar Stores in the General Merchandise Sector in China”. In sub-forum “BAT Opinion – Integrated Development of the Internet and Brick-and-mortar Stores in the General Merchandise Sector in China”, the three Internet players with the most competitive strengths in China, namely, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, shared their opinions on “Internet +”, “mobile payment”, “indoor and outdoor navigation and orientation technologies”, and the development trends, development routes and implementation measures of the general merchandise sector with the audience respectively. Besides, the summit also released 2014 Annual Report on the Development of the Chinese General Merchandise Sector, presented the model for evaluating the general competitiveness of enterprises in the Chinese general merchandise sector for the first time, and announced the top 50 players in the Chinese general merchandise sector in 2014 in terms of general competitiveness.

Along with the changes of the economic, policy and competition environment, China’s general merchandise sector will face more uncertainties and bigger challenges. As a rather unique component in the retail sector, the airport-based commercial and retail segment, like other components in the sector, faces a consumer era centering on analyzing and understanding consumers. Therefore, how to put into play its own strengths to provide consumers with satisfactory products and services by integrating the Internet business development model with the traditional retail model, which is based on brick-and-mortar stores, becomes a topic that needs ACT to thoroughly consider. Going forward, ACT will stand at a new strategic point, start from understanding and satisfying consumers’ demand, consistently deepen reforms and innovations, build up the core capacities of operating the business section of the airport under the delegated management model, create pleasant shopping experience for consumers, and strive to become an expert of operating and managing business sections of airports.

Link: With its inception approved by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, the China Commerce Association for General Merchandise (“CCAGM”) is a non-profit social organization with a social organization legal person status. Currently, the association has nearly 800 members and 221 General Council members.