By 2020, the world’s internet penetration is 62%, meaning over 4.8 billion of the global population have access to the internet. The data generated from each user through their devices are great information for business to leverage, especially through the help with the Internet of Things and retail is one of the industries that has utilised this to their advantage, namely Alibaba.

1.What is the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (hereafter IoT) is an information infrastructure established by interconnected communication of all devices through the internet. Alibaba is one of the companies who recognise the great importance of this new technology advantage and apply it effectively in their business to create new values to the customers that are beyond the traditional e-commerce and retail. The two most notable ones being moving towards omni-channel and establishing a sticky ecosystem through the help of Alibaba’s IoT Cloud.

2. The ‘New Retail’
Retail customers have evolved through a long way, from traditional to e-commerce; and now, Alibaba is aiming to leverage it to the new Online-to-Offline (O2O) model by removing all friction at all customers touch-points and create a seamless experience across platforms and the IoT cloud system is applied throughout the process.

At the information search stage, the data from users’ searches are collected through their IoT computing cloud and used to deliver personalised ads with the help of AI to design customised banners. They can also detect the buying behaviour to get insights, quickly adapt to changes in the purchasing pattern across all platforms. Not only that, but the cloud system also provide solutions to business during the outbreak crisis by quickly set up and digitally transform into a digital business that sells through live streaming, careful stock planning and personalised customer service. Alicloud enables a faster and more efficient single value chain that optimise marketing, productivity, R&D, storage management and logistic, payment and even operation cost.

3. Conclusion and conversation

What Alibaba has to offer is a very sticky ecosystem where they are present at every step of the customer journey, helping the customers having a smooth O2O experience all at the comfort of their mobile devices while also provide businesses with valuable and powerful tools to optimise their business. Is there any sector that can digitally transform using IoT, hospitality, government for instance? And what are the network effects of IoT on these businesses?