By Qi Yunlan, Research Institute of Market Economy of DRC

Research Report No 179, 2015 (Total 4864)

Abstract:

China's alcohol industry is at a critical period of transformation and innovation. Alcohol circulation channels and organizational forms continue to make innovations, new distribution means keep emerging including e-commerce, chain management, and integration of Internet Plus offline chain. However, alcohol circulation is poorly organized, products of high and low quality are intermingled, pricing is not quite reasonable, laws and standards-based systems are not complete, regulation mechanisms lag behind, and media environment is worsening. These problems restrict the transformation and innovation in alcohol circulation channels. Policy options are offered as follows. Efforts should be made to improve laws and standards-based systems of alcohol market management, further define the functions of government regulators in line with the integration of powers and responsibilities, regulate supervision behaviors, raise the effectiveness of law enforcement, facilitate the bridging and linking roles of industry associations, actively promote the combination of the Internet, e-commerce, and alcohol entities, and propel the integration of online and offline development so as to accelerate the transformation and innovation in alcohol circulation channels, organization forms, and commercial models, realize the efficient and safe circulation of alcohol products, and stimulate the optimized development of alcohol circulation systems through internal momentum and innovation.

Key words: alcohol circulation, transformation and innovation, development trends, policy options