(Yicai) Dec. 8 -- Chinese retailers could erase their memories of sluggish Covid-19 years and enjoy prosperous sales this year by focusing on unique customer experiences and going digital. 

Listed retailers' interim reports for the first three quarters show that business should be good this year and point to a mix of livestreaming and a customer-first mindset as the secret sauce to success.

From January to September, Bailian Group recorded a net profit of CNY344 million (USD48.3 million) versus a net loss of CNY190 million a year before. Revenue from the Shanghai-based company's department store business, shopping malls, and outlets surged by 25 percent, 30 percent, and 46 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, Beijing-based department store operator Wangfujing Group reported a net profit of about CNY648 million in the same period, an annual increase of 56 percent, and revenue increased by 9 percent to CNY9.3 billion (USD1.3 billion).

The hottest trends in China's retail sector this year are digital transformation and business models that focus on customer experience including membership stores such as Sam's Club and Costco and other shopping outlets with a high performance-cost ratio, Yicai learned from interviews. 

After the Covid-19 pandemic, an increasing number of retailers, especially physical retailers, are more actively partnering with e-commerce platforms. They have started to seriously study how to boost their digital operations, Shen Jun, a senior retail analyst told Yicai.

An insider at Intime Department Store, an operator of malls in places such as Beijing and Sichuan province, said that department stores must inject digital features into their legacy business models. 

Intime's sales are quite good this year even though customer inflows are not majorly rising in the brick-and-mortar stores, the insider said, adding that the reason is that many employees in these stores are also livestreaming to sell goods. As a result, online sales in certain departments have increased to levels comparable to physical operations, which greatly improves business efficiency and profitability.

The words seem to be true as Yicai observed that many workers at one Intime outlet were busy livestreaming while at the same time serving clients on-site and preparing orders for delivery guys to pick up.

Employees of Bailian said that the retailer has been trying to enhance its customer loyalty through digital marketing on WeChat groups and livestreaming this year while exploring new operation models for sales.

As total retail sales grow slower, membership stores as well as cost-effective and experience-rich shopping outlets are grabbing market share from shrinking traditional department stores and supermarkets. Sam’s Club and Alibaba’s grocer Hema are opening new stores across the country this year to gain loyal clients with big wallets. 

However, membership stores need to have unique merchandise as well as support from highly capable supply chains, which means higher requirements for retailers.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine