FamilyMart: "Internet Plus" Strategy

As the retail industry in Chinese Mainland is facing a difficult economic climate, with the continuous decline of major retail indicators since 2016, strategic transformation in the mobile Internet era has become an urgent task and a common source of anxiety among many traditional firms. Retailers have turned to a new concept: the O2O (online-to-offline) "New Retail" model. This model leverages the advantages of the Internet-borderless coverage, real-time communication, massive quantities of data, and improved targeting-while utilizing offline capabilities, with the aim of seamlessly integrating online advantages (such as pricing) and offline advantages (such as service). This enables retailers to expand the service radius of transactions through the Internet, and widen the selection of products and services for customers. The Chairman of Ting Hsin International Group, Wei Yingxing, is beginning to consider whether the company's convenience store retail chain FamilyMart, a consistently excellent performer offline, should also explore the O2O "New Retail" model. The challenge will be how to leverage the nine million members of the Maxxipoint Card scheme that FamilyMart has created for its offline customers, and bring these customers online. Wei has asked FamilyMart's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lin Jianhong, to present a plan to the board within a month. This means that Lin has only one month to weigh the various issues and figure out whether FamilyMart should take its retail business online, and, if so, to determine what strategy to follow and how to implement it.

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