| Foreign businessmen in the retail industry have speeded up their direct investment in China after the entry into WTO by China, and this would have a widespread and profound effect on the Chinese retail industry. Such a direct investment by transnational retail magnates has greatly intensified the severe competitions already present in the domestic retail sector while it has certain favorable effects on the industry, such as pushing forward the establishment of a unified Chinese market in this respect, accelerating the development of the modern retail industry in China, creating a favorable environment for the development of the Chinese international trade and the maximization of consumers' surplus, etc. China has already promised to completely open her retail market to the outside in 2005. Confronting with such an unprecedentedly severe market competition, the relatively weak retail industry in China must try every means to build its core competitive strength so as to maintain a long-term competitive superiority and ultimately achieve a win-win end with the transnational retail magnates.The core competitive strength is an enterprise's most important resources and capabilities, and the source of its competitive superiority as well. It can't be built without innovations. Among the innovations, system innovations are an important guarantee for enterprises' core competitive strength while technological innovations are the keyapproaches to raise it, administration innovations are the major means to cultivate and strengthen it, as well as enterprises' culture is the soul to establish enterprises' innovation mechanism.The creation of the core competitive strength of retail enterprises includes 3 hierarchical layers, namely, strategic integration, organizational integration, and flow integration. The strategic integration can help enterprises determine its long-term development orientation and competitive position, which is of vital importance for creating the core competitive strength of retail enterprises. It is the key link for everything. The organizational integration, including the integration of both organizational structures and its systems, is an organizational guarantee for enterprises to implement their development strategies while the flow integration is the foundation for enterprises to form their core competitive strength, for the preceding 2 integrations wouldn't be put into effect without enterprises' flow integration.Different retailers have varied superiorities of resources and combined retail patterns. Five elements- customer loyalty, selection of shop locations, relationship with suppliers, information management and sub-distribution system, low-cost operation- are of great importance for enterprises to create the core competitive strength and maintain long-term competitive superiorities. Retailers can cultivate their customer loyalty by establishing their accurate localization, providing best servicesand unique commodities, etc. The location of shops is the most important factor for customers to select desired shops, and furthermore, favorable locations of shops are deemed as irregenerated resources. Long-term friendly and mutual benefit cooperative relations with suppliers formed by retailers are a competitive superiority for another round of cooperation. Advance information management and sub-contribution systems can lead to a rapid response to customers' demand, reduce shortage possibilities for goods in stock, and keep the minimum inventory, by retailers. Low-cost operation is most important for every retailer, for it can not only attract more customers, but also help retailers obtain higher marginal profits than those of their competitors.In order to realize the win-win objective of the retail enterprises in China and the transnational retail magnates, efforts should be made to provide a system guarantee, such as perfecting and strengthening the macro regulation and control function of the Government, raising the rapid response capability, reforming and improving t... |
PDF Full Text Request