Suning Founder and Chairman Sets the Tone for the Next Decade on 30th Anniversary, Emphasizes New Opportunities for International Businesses

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NANJING, China, Jan. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 26, Suning Group held its 30^th Anniversary Public Welfare Celebration Ceremony. At the event, its founder and chairman Zhang Jindong summarized and reviewed Suning's pioneering and innovative 30-year development and released Suning's development strategy for the next 10 years, with "focus" and "service" being the keywords.

2020 is a decisive year to build a moderately well-off society in an all-round way and to fully complete the battle against poverty. High-quality development, high-level development, and unimpeded domestic circulation are the main themes of China's current supply-side structural reform and modernization.

Reflecting upon the last three decades, Zhang Jindong, Founder and Chairman of Suning Group, stated that Suning will further solidify its positioning as a social enterprise in the new era. "Suning's commercial model should be built upon the focus on the main retail segment, empowering industry development and serving social entrepreneurship."

Repaying Society and Strengthening its Mission 

Since its inception in 1990, with its 30 years' innovation and 300,000 employees, Suning has transformed from a traditional brick-and-mortar store to a smart retail service provider that operates more than 10,000 stores, promoting the development of China's retail sector through exploration and practice.

Zhang said that Suning has been devoting itself to public welfare and attaches great importance to corporate responsibility.

Suning has invested a total of CNY 2.3 billion (USD 356 million) in public welfare. In 2020, Suning focused on safeguarding the essential anti-COVID-19 supply and targeted poverty alleviation. At the beginning of the year, Zhang noted that Suning should prioritize rescue and relief efforts for the COVID-19 despite these difficult times and invested a total of CNY 1 billion (USD 155 million) to safeguard supply for anti-pandemic needs. To help the residents in the underdeveloped and poverty-stricken regions, Suning's measures for poverty alleviation has benefited 7.61 million people, and helped them sell over CNY 14 billion (USD 217 million) worth of agricultural products through its retail channels.

"A small enterprise is personal; a big enterprise is part of society and the country," Zhang said. Suning will serve society by means of business development and will repay society by virtue of its mission. It will actively merge its enterprise resources into public welfare establishments, particularly including dual circulation, rural revitalization, and other areas.

Four Basic Capabilities, Focus on Retail

"In this new era, the vision for enterprise development should be clearer, focusing on high quality with down-to-earth practices". Zhang said that for the coming ten years, Suning will focus on its main retail business, and will deepen and optimize its specialty. Zhang's vision for the company is to focus on retail and concentrate on product offerings and users. "You must learn subtraction. If you aren't on the retail track and are isolated from goods and customers, you must make bold adjustments by means of business reduction and transformation."

Suning will further focus on supply chains, customer operations, services, and technical capability, and will construct an innovative smart retail mechanism. It will comprehensively enrich its product categories, promote refined supply chain operations, carry out personalized precision marketing, continuously strengthen its service capabilities such as logistics, after-sales, and customer service, optimize the front-end solutions for its mid-end system and various tasks, enhance its data transaction and digital risk control capabilities, and boost multi-scenario smart retail implementation.

To reinforce its efforts in its main retail business, Suning will concentrate on content operations, and reduce copyright investment.

"The dawn of physical retailing embracing the internet is upon us, and Suning Smart Retail is welcoming the new opportunities for vigorous development. As long as we hold fast to our initial intention to serve customers and firmly focus on our core retail competencies, such as supply chain optimization, logistics services, scenario formats, and operation technologies, we can withstand the test of any market competition," Zhang said. "Retail is a marathon without an end. Steady and gradual movement is Suning's consistent style. Suning must unswervingly follow its own path, cultivate competitive endurance, and enhance its development resilience."

Deepening Services and Boosting Development in Four Fields 

Over the past ten years, Suning has actively explored the smart retail model combining online and offline business, which has realized the digital rebirth of retail resources and competence. Digital technology has now entered the phase of merging with physical business. In 2020, Suning took advantage of the opportunity to announce its upgrade to "retail service provider," which will expand resource output and competence, and improve efficiency and effect.

Zhang revealed that Suning will continue to strengthen its services in four key fields: industrial intelligence manufacturing, rural revitalization, micro-entrepreneurship, and dual circulation development.

In industrial intelligence manufacturing, Suning will share big data resources and cooperate with manufacturers to promote supply-side structural reform, support branded manufacturers with innovation and creativity, and help China's intelligent manufacturing innovation and development from the consumer side. For rural revitalization, it will develop a retail cloud, open Chinese style malls online, build industrial bases in rural areas, and accelerate the pace of industrial products going to the countryside and agricultural products going to the city. Suning has set a fixed target to open 4,000 retail cloud shops, 150 Chinese style malls online, and 50 industrial bases in rural areas. For small and micro-sized entrepreneurship, Suning will give full play to its omni-channel OMO operations and boost more small and micro-sized businesses such as merchants and retail outlets to innovate and start businesses. Finally, to boost dual circulation, Suning will also expand its overseas procurement and cross-border business to enrich domestic supply.

All-Staff Entrepreneurship, Struggling for a Better Life 

Regarding internal management, Zhang further explained the relationship between the company and its employees: "The company is a platform for everyone to start and develop business, and each of us is starting businesses for ourselves." He said that Suning will further reform its organization and management systems and mechanisms to reward and inspire talented people. Persistently promoting an equity incentive model for partners can stimulate employees' internal drive, strengthen the development orientation of business managers, and enable more young people to grow, stand out, and take responsibility for mutual benefits.

"A new era has been launched, and we are embarking upon a new journey. Let us live up to the times and ourselves and make unremitting efforts for the high-quality development of the country, the prosperity and revitalization of industry, a better life for customers, and career value and family happiness for Suning employees."

SOURCE Suning Group