China is leading the “New Retail revolution” (also called NewGen Retail), a concept first introduced by Alibaba to describe how its stores Hema Xiansheng use technology to provide a more convenient and holistic customer experience and gain operational efficiency. To give an example of the scale of the New Retail, there are over 65 Hema Xiansheng stores in China and Alibaba plans to open 2000 new stores in the next 3-5 years.

All the Chinese tech giant, from Alibaba to Tencent and JC.com, are involved in transforming the retail industry online and more and more offline.  China’s embrace of New Retail  is driven by its mobile payment adoption (thanks to Alipay and WeChat pay), cheap labor costs for inexpensive delivery, ubiquity of QR codes and the government’s active push of growth through digital transformation.  China has also led the “O2O (online-to-offline) revolution”, making everything accessible from your app, from the laundry service to the doctors consultation.

Most of these NewGen Retail stores can be experienced in Shanghai and Beijing.

China is going through serious food challenges with a growing population but only 5 to 7% of its arable land.  An ongoing string of food safety scandals has shaken consumer confidence in the food supply chain. That has pushed agricultural innovation to the top of the country’s agenda, and that’s why food tech startups are growing rapidly in China. 260 national agriculture and science technology parks are built across the country to serve as part-technology showcase, part R&D pilot farms. Shanghai hosts the first Chinese food tech accelerator.  The chinese food industry is expected to evolve in a similar fashion to their internet industry, where 4 of the world’s top 10 companies are Chinese.

China’s health-conscious younger generation, overcrowded hospitals and a shortage of doctors are shaping China’s Health tech industry, which reached $5.6 billion in 2017. 47% of the population had a wearable device in 2016. The Shanghai region hosts China’s first cloud hospital with services such as online appointments, video consultation, diagnosis to e-prescription, online payment and medicine delivery at home. Many Chinese prefer to self-diagnose and monitor individual fitness and food intake to eliminate the need to consult directly with a doctor, which opened up a market for healthtech such as blood pressure monitors, food safety checkers, activity trackers and more. Founded by We Doctor and headquartered in Shanghai, Wuzhen Internet Hospital is China’s largest online hospital registration booking system, medical treatment and healthcare service platform. After 4 years of its founding, 270 million consultations have been given through this system.