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    Case Study

    HEMA in China: Is Alibaba ahead of Amazon in retailing?

    By Stefan Michel, Marco D’Amore, Nursultan Shokanov and Yuehong Zhang
    15 pages
    February 2020
    Order this case study
    Reference: IMD-7-2097

    The case describes the dynamics and potential transition of grocery shopping into New Retail concept – a term introduced by Jack Ma and projected to disrupt the way retail industry is working now. The Case discusses and hints that there might be a different game Alibaba and Amazon are playing when merging online and offline shopping and creating a new customer experience with their respective HeMa and AmazonGo initiatives. The hype around the concept with likes of Starbucks and Zara trying to create strategic partnerships with Alibaba for creating the New Retail format suggest that there is a bigger picture involved. The Case highlights the difference in the resources and capabilities utilized by the New Retail players and the traditional brick and mortar retailers, such as Wall Mart, Carrefour and others and suggests that the wholistic “ecosystem” approach might bring a different flavour to the traditionally low margin industry through leveraging the payment system and creating a last mile delivery platform for further growth.

    Learning Objective
    • How and why develop long-term initiative outside of its core business and what are the strategic implication in terms of resources and competences adaptation.
    • Understanding the difference between traditional and platform business scalability, networking potential and monetization.
    • How grocery Key Success Factors are influenced by introduction of new technologies.
    • How initiative addresses one or more aspects of the “protecting”, “growing” and “creating” strategic horizons.
    Keywords
    Platform, Strategy, Digital Transformation, Retail
    Settings
    Alibaba Group, Hema, Amazon, Consumer Services, Retail, Consumer Goods, Information Technology, eCommerce
    2015-2018
    Type
    Published Sources
    Copyright
    © 2020
    Available Languages
    English
    Related material
    Teaching note
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    Industry Services, Telecommunications;Information Technology
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    Building on NTT (A), the case starts with NTT’s CEO having narrowed down strategic growth options with the board to prepare NTT for the future. Past international investments in AT&T Wireless and KPN to tap into foreign markets had resulted in billion $ write offs and stopped international acquisitions. However, after reviewing the disruptive changes facing the ICT industry and considering the shareholders’ views, CEO Miura committed to internationalization. The B case details NTT’s growth strategy focused on internationalization, while considering the need for new capabilities and technologies. It provides more insights into NTT, its opportunities and the Japanese experience with M&As and ends with Miura’s determination to quickly grow through international expansion to prepare NTT for the future.
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    Copyright ©2024
    Copyright owner IMD Copyright
    Organization Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
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