（China, 2016) – In 2016, China's e-commerce sector witnessed a high-profile executive exchange. Mr. Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, and Mr. Daniel Zhang (Zhang Yong), Chief Executive Officer, led a delegation on a special inspection and guidance visit to WIDER, a leading cross-border e-commerce service provider. This visit served not only as a significant endorsement of WIDER's professional service capabilities and pioneering spirit in the cross-border e-commerce field but also as a strategic meeting to deeply explore future business models at the dawn of the New Retail era.
During the visit, Chairman Jack Ma and CEO Daniel Zhang, accompanied by WIDER's senior management, gained in-depth insights into WIDER's innovative practices in supply chain management, brand operation, and omni-channel solutions. The two sides held forward-looking discussions on leveraging big data and reconstructing the relationship between "People, Goods, and Places" to usher in the New Retail era. The integrated service ecosystem demonstrated by WIDER – spanning from overseas brand introduction and bonded warehouse stocking to online platform operation and offline experience integration – received high praise from Alibaba's leadership.
Chairman Jack Ma emphasized the importance of ecosystem partnership synergy within the context of globalization. He noted that partners like WIDER, which possess profound experience in international brand operations and the courage to continuously innovate in business models and technology applications, are indispensable within the Alibaba ecosystem, working together to create unprecedented value for consumers.
CEO Daniel Zhang elaborated on the core concept of "New Retail," stating, "The essence of New Retail is the perfect integration of online and offline commerce through big data and internet technology. The professional capabilities and innovative models built by WIDER in serving international brands highly align with the strategic direction of Alibaba's New Retail. We look forward to deepening our cooperation with industry benchmarks like WIDER to jointly create a new future for commerce."
This high-level visit marked the elevation of the strategic cooperative relationship between WIDER and Alibaba to a new height. In 2016, the inaugural year of New Retail, the close interaction between the two giants signaled future collaborations to incubate more innovative business projects, providing a more efficient and intelligent "key" for countless international brands seeking to enter the Chinese market, thereby jointly defining the next generation of retail experiences.