China's retail stores take online business as opportunity for development

Taking online business as an opportunity for development, China's retail stores have embarked on the road of updating.

Data from Alibaba show that 50 percent of retail stores insisted on doing business even in February, the worst period of the epidemic this year; this figure went up to more than 80 percent in March and 95 percent in April.

The outbreak of the epidemic prompted thousands of small retail stores to look for opportunities during the crisis, to seek change flexibly, and to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the business model.

The development of online business has benefited many shopkeepers.

Xing Zhonghan and his wife have come to Beijing from their hometown in northeast China's Jilin province for more than 10 years. Five years ago, they began to run a 60-square-meter shop in Chaoyang district, Beijing.

During the epidemic, the mom-and-pop store has accessed to a takeout app; afterwards, the store once became much more welcomed in several residential compounds nearby.

According to Xing Zhonghan, the average unit price of online orders in small stores is about 80 yuan (U.S.$12.17), and the monthly turnover could reach as much as more than 500 orders, which means that small stores can have tens of thousands of yuan of extra income in a month after the updating.

Furthermore, the closing time of small shops has been extended from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., in order to have an edge over large supermarkets and convenience store chains during night business hours.

Some online platforms also encourages small retail stores to open up online business through favorable policies. "Every time we sell one commodity, the platform will give us some subsidy, and we can also earn an extra commission," said Xu Jie, a shop owner in Fengtai district, Beijing.