SOLUM Group wins the Alibaba Group tender

SOLUM Group international is very pleased to announce that it has got an award as the first tender in China for the ongoing supply of electronic shelf Labels, to the Alibaba Group for the ongoing innovative “Alibaba offline ecosystem program”.

The ecosystem will support several major retailers in China (like Alibaba’s store brand Hema) with ESLs with a cloud server for operation and access to an e-commerce service which is unparalleled and fast delivery service of 30 min in a radius of 3 kilometers.

The evaluation of the tender was based principally on the following aspects:

1. Response time by being able to work on a global scale.
2. Quality control by being a manufacturer.
3. Prospects of a long term relationship by being for seral years on the market.

With the offline supermarket concept, Alibaba is showing how on- and offline retail can merge smoothly, day and night with a 24-hour delivery service. In the next five years, thousands of these stores should be equipped with ESL solutions. But that is only the beginning.

Alibaba plans the “ideal community within a 3-kilometer radius” – guaranteed deliveries in 30 minutes is just one building block. Hema is usually opened in residential areas, and orders of shopping require downloading Hema App, which only supports Alipay payment and cash, and does not accept any other payment methods such as bank cards. Alibaba offers a membership service for Hema Xiansheng consumers, who can register using Taobao or Alipay accounts so that consumers can view and buy goods from the nearest store. Hema can track consumer buying behavior in the future and make personalized Suggestions with the help of big data.

"We continue to receive record levels of inquiries from buyers of our ESLs on a global scale to this day." We look forward to making further announcements as the digital age continues." Jeho Lee, Head of ESL, SOLUM Group