Pioneering new-age retail

"We see Mini Program as an important tool to empower merchants and brands in acquiring traffic at a lower cost through WeChat's large social network," said Karen Chan, an equity analyst from Jefferies Group, in a report.

Global retailers are scrambling to leverage technologies to navigate the world's biggest consumer market. For instance, Walmart's WeChat Mini Program now has over 30 million members and is developing an e-commerce service based on WeChat to help customers shop more easily and more accurately.

Wern-Yuen Tan, president and CEO of Walmart China, told China Daily earlier this month that the company is moving from intuitions and experience of the local operation team to the use of technology like artificial intelligence and big data in order to pinpoint customer needs.

As China enters the new consumer economy era, three aspects of its retail industry are being transformed: geographic location, population and technology, according to a latest report from global advisory and audit firm KPMG.

"Retailers have to rethink their business models and positioning strategies, and establish customer-focused business operating systems in order to remain competitive during the transformation process," Jessie Qian, sector head of consumer markets at KPMG China.

Many are swarming the digital trend. French hypermarket chain Carrefour SA opened its first smart retail store last year in Shanghai, featuring technologies ranging from facial recognition payment to personalized mobile advertisements backed by Tencent.

With a staggering 1 billion users, Tencent can claim its marketing prowess is something no-one can ignore. It is backed by an entire suite of digital marketing tools built into WeChat, from Mini Programs, advertising placements on WeChat Moments (a Facebook-like mobile feed on news and information), as well as Tencent Video.

"Consumption data collected via WeChat Pay can help us pinpoint customers and predict their preferences. We can feed promotional deals to attract new customers, or push in-app notifications to engage with recurring shoppers," said Tian Jiangxue, deputy general manager in charge of strategy at Tencent Smart Retail.

Experts believed that digitalization is not simply the application of informational tools but requires more "systematic transformation" at the corporate level.