On May 15, 2018, Waltonchain Chief Strategy Officer, Welson Wong, and Director of Operations, Kevin Wong, were invited to visit the Shenzhen Retail Business Association (SZRBA) Headquarters.

The Shenzhen Retail Business Association was established in July 1997 and represents the leading force of Shenzhen’s commercial and service industries, covering shopping malls, department stores, supermarkets, brand chains, franchises, convenience stores and car maintenance chains. Currently, the association has over 400 members with more than 60,000 stores, over 750,000 employees and in 2015 the total sales of member companies exceeded 500 billion Yuan ($78.5bn, £58bn, €66bn).

SRBA President Hua Tao and Executive Vice Presidents Cai Peiying and Xie Yongming warmly welcomed the Waltonchain team and shared their delight in reaching a cooperation intention.

“As a leader in the blockchain + IoT industry, Waltonchain has strong competitive advantages such as the independent blockchain technology and RFID chip R&D. We hope to have the opportunity to develop in-depth cooperation with you on these aspects and obtain tailored industry solutions for the member companies of our association.” — SZRBA President Hua Tao

Left to right: Director of Media Deng Xiaolin, Deputy Secretary-General Zhang Juanjuan, Executive Vice President Xie Yongming of Shenzhen Retail Association. Waltonchain CSO Welson Wong, Director of Operations Kevin Wong.

After the meeting, President Hua Tao insisted that Waltonchain attend the 2018 China Smart Retail Expo and the 2018 Shenzhen Retail Informatization & Unmanned Retail Exhibition, organised by the China IoT Industry Application Alliance (CIoTIAA) as well as other nationally recognised associations.

China Smart Retail Expo The Expo was founded in 2009 and was the world’s first exhibition dedicated to the Internet of Things. Formally known as Shenzhen International RFID Technology and Application Exhibition, it is a professional exhibition which focuses on RFID (radio frequency identification), sensor network, intelligent network technology and applications, fully embracing the needs, features and development of the IoT industry. The 2018 China Smart Retail Expo will be held in Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center from July 31 to August 2, 2018. The total exhibit area will exceed 600,000 square feet. It is expected to gather 900+ IoT and high-tech companies from all over the world.

The Importance of China’s New Smart Retail Industry

To date, China’s retail industry has undergone three major changes: the emergence of physical retail, virtual retail and the latest ‘new’ retail transformation, namely, Smart Retail; combining both physical and virtual retail.

Alibaba Group founder, Jack Ma, introduced the concept of “New Retail” in October 2016. Numerous new technologies such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, image recognition and biometric payments have also accelerated the process of retail intelligentization.

Alibaba’s “New Retail” Explained

At the fifth session of the Twelfth National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in 2017, it was clearly stated that future retail is Smart Retail. The importance of Smart Retail for the future is absolutely self-evident.

Waltonchain has been committed to the independent and innovative development of blockchain and IoT technologies and has gained recognition within academia, government entities and fortune global 500 companies.

We promote the rapid development of blockchain in the global logistics and IoT industry in an effort to upgrade existing traditional business models. The visit to the Shenzhen Retail Business Association marks another step towards our goal of becoming the first project to implement the global “Blockchain +” real-world application.

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