The Instant Retail Industry Development Report (2023) released by the Institute of E-commerce of the Ministry of Commerce shows that in recent years, instant retail has been maintaining an average annual growth rate of more than 50%. 2022 market size reached 504.286 billion yuan, and it is expected that in 2025 the instant retail market size will reach three times of that in 2022. China's retail industry is developing rapidly.

At the same time, under the background of globalisation, more and more domestic enterprises choose to "go out" and lay out the global market in an attempt to obtain resources and customers in a wider scope, so that enterprises can achieve more rapid growth. This is also true for the retail industry. However, in the process of going abroad, many enterprises are faced with many pain points in the application of digitalisation, which, if not effectively solved, will seriously constrain the development of the enterprise.

"Life, not familiar with the land", there are many pain points for enterprises to go overseas

As we all know, each country and region has its own local laws and regulations, the first thing that enterprises should pay attention to overseas is compliance. Only by conducting business within the scope of local laws and regulations can we ensure sustainable development. Overseas enterprise digital action will also be due to differences in laws and regulations in different markets, the risk of enterprises operating in different markets is also different.

Local differences are not only manifested in laws and regulations, but also in the local "customs", enterprises need to face the consumer groups in different countries and regions, and need to have the ability to operate in the local market. However, due to the differences in the cultural background and consumption habits of different markets, it is difficult for enterprises to have sufficient operational capabilities in each market.

For example, consumers in different countries and regions have different needs for products, price acceptance and marketing preferences, which makes the problems faced by enterprises in different markets different.

Currently, POPMART has constructed North American and global independent stations in North America, and deeply laid out business scenarios. According to POPMART's latest annual report for 2022, the number of POPMART's Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas shops has reached 43 (including joint ventures and franchises), the number of robotic shops has reached 120 (including joint ventures and franchises), and the number of cross-border e-commerce platform sites has reached 13.

In addition to the pain points at the business level, companies need to deal with a large amount of user data in the process of going overseas, which includes personal information, transaction information and other sensitive information. However, due to the differences in laws and regulations, cultural backgrounds, etc. in different countries and regions, it is difficult for enterprises to ensure that data security and privacy protection issues in different markets are effectively addressed.

For example, different countries and regions have different regulations and standards for the protection of personal information, which makes enterprises face different legal risks in different markets. In addition, hacker attacks, network viruses, etc. also pose great threats to the data security of enterprises.

At the same time, with the growing business of enterprises, there will be more and more cross-region and even cross-country business. But at the same time also brings new challenges, in addition to the real physical space on the reach, how to use technology to achieve the Internet reach, is whether the enterprise can really make the business bigger and stronger, and even out of the country, the key to the world.

POPMART's "second venture" to the sea

POPMART is a leading trendy culture and entertainment company, as well as a leader in the new retail industry. In the rapid development of domestic business at the same time, POPMART in order to further expand its business territory, seeking space for growth, the development of vision into the international market. According to Titanium Media, POPMART formulated a development strategy as early as 2018 to seek growth space by going overseas. According to public data, by the end of 2022, POPMART has more than 400 offline shops and more than 2,000 robot shops around the world. It took four years for POPMART to achieve both domestic and international growth.

POPMART's business going overseas is like "starting a new business".

From a business point of view, Zhou Shuying, Chief Consumer Operations Officer of POPMART, said that in terms of the field of trendy games, there are obvious differences between the overseas market and the domestic market, and enterprises can't build a good online sales network only with the help of a certain set of Internet system. The 'online, offline combined' model of reaching users through the efficient online network allows users to have a better shopping experience, while empowering the development of their own business." Zhou Shuying pointed out.

From a technical point of view, POPMART CTO Xing Zongyu said that in order to accelerate the overseas business strategy, POPMART's overseas e-commerce business chose the more challenging mode of building its own website, with the goal of building and operating a global online shopping mall with the objectives of "security, stability, and controllable cost". It is also under this consideration that POPMART chose to cooperate with Amazon Cloud Technology to jointly promote the digital construction of POPMART overseas.

According to Xing Zongyu, POPMART is mainly interested in three aspects of Amazon Cloud Technology's capabilities:

Firstly, data security, "data security compliance is always the first thing to consider no matter in which country or region, and for this reason POPMART has also established its own data security committee," Xing Zongyu pointed out, "Amazon Cloud Technology is very experienced in this area. Deployment on Amazon CloudTech can directly inherit the compliance of its high-standard cloud infrastructure and meet overseas regulatory and compliance policy requirements."

Secondly, Amazon Cloud Technology has a rich layout of cloud resources globally, as well as years of deep ploughing in cloud services, so that Amazon Cloud Technology has the ability to provide mature cloud services at the same time, effectively reducing the cost of using cloud services for overseas enterprises, "What is more noteworthy is that the overall cloud services of Amazon Cloud Technology have the rapid deployment, as well as elasticity and expandability. capability. This point fits well with our overseas high concurrency business needs." Xing Zongyu emphasised.

Finally, Amazon's worldwide business system also provides good support for POPMART, "For example, we actually have a layout on Amazon e-commerce, which effectively expands business channels for us through Amazon's powerful e-commerce system." Xing Zongyu gave an example of how Amazon has also played a crucial role in POPMART's business promotion.

More Possibilities for Retail Going Overseas

In the view of Jiang Zhenyong, Architect Manager of the Solution Architect Department of Amazon Cloud Technology Greater China, at the moment, for China's retail industry, the process of going overseas is equivalent to the process of the enterprise's second venture. At the same time, with the rapid growth of the enterprise overseas business, the enterprise data flow is also more and more, the elasticity and scalability of the underlying IT platform requirements are also higher and higher.

Amazon Cloud Technology, with its rich cloud resources around the world and years of experience in cloud services, can help users build a highly elastic, scalable and secure cloud platform faster, which is one of the key reasons why many Chinese enterprises choose to co-operate with Amazon Cloud Technology in the process of going overseas. In this regard, Jiang Zhenyong said, "Based on the strong capabilities of Amazon Cloud Technology in the field of cloud services, Amazon Cloud Technology has the ability to provide the best cloud services in the world, which is the most important reason why many Chinese enterprises have chosen to co-operate with Amazon Cloud Technology in the process of going overseas. In this regard, Jiang Zhenyong said, "Based on Amazon Cloud Technology's strong ability in the field of cloud services, Amazon Cloud Technology has gained a large number of customers' trust in supporting e-commerce retail enterprises, including POPMART, in the process of going overseas."

In the sharing, Jiang Zhenyong told Titanium Media that Amazon Cloud Technology has three main advantages in supporting the retail industry to go overseas: firstly, Amazon Cloud Technology has extensive infrastructure coverage globally, which can help retail e-commerce customers to quickly build business platforms globally, as well as localised operational networks. Secondly, Amazon Cloud Technology has strong data analysis capabilities, which can help customers land marketing and promotion solutions together, "such as personalised recommendations, intelligent search for products, intelligent customer service, etc., while we also try to use new technologies such as generative AI with our customers." Jiang Zhenyong said. Finally, Amazon Cloud Technology's partners around the world, as well as Amazon's global business system, can provide customers with a range of services from digital solutions to strategic operations.

In addition to these three advantages, in terms of data security compliance, which is the most important to enterprises, Amazon Cloud Technology also has complete capabilities, as well as a wealth of experience in the event, said Jiang Zhenyong, firstly, Amazon Cloud Technology is responsible for the security compliance of the cloud itself, to ensure the security and compliance of the underlying cloud infrastructure and cloud services, which can be inherited by the customers who are going out to the sea; and secondly, it has provided more than 300 security, compliance and governance services and tools. These tools are highly integrated with Amazon CloudTech's cloud services, allowing for a high degree of automation; and finally, Amazon CloudTech shares its own more than 17 years of compliance experience with its customers and provides consulting services and corresponding solutions with its global partners.

"In the process of enterprises going overseas for their 'second business', Amazon Cloud Technology can serve as a reliable partner to help them deploy their overseas business better, faster and safer, and help them achieve rapid business growth." Jiang Zhenyong emphasised.

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