Pioneering new-age retail

"This means changes are expected in business models, operating systems, and even corporate culture," said Gao Shulin, chairman of Rainbow Department Store Co Ltd.

For instance, Carrefour and Tencent have joined hands to shoot specialized shows featuring gourmet food and have them distributed via multiple channels including Tencent's own video platform.

This means the tie-in requires not only coordination from the traditional sales departments but engagement perhaps with media and digital departments.

And Tencent is blazing the trail in offering a one-stop solution through a unified QR code. At a news conference in Shanghai last month, the company unveiled a comprehensive offering where big data are deployed to help brands detect consumer preferences, offer advice on marketing campaigns and online ad placements, as well as engaging with clients through public account promotions and digital coupons.

All of these are designed to "employ and maximize the merchant's digital asset and raise the re-purchase rate", said Fan Yijin, an executive overseeing corporate clients at Tencent's advertisement arm.

Data showed the raft of WeChat's smart retail solutions have connected over 3 billion merchandise items being sold in China, enhanced the merchants' return on investment, or RoI, on marketing campaigns by 15 percent, and saved over 300 million yuan ($43.6 million) worth of marketing budget.

Today's digital retail landscape has "spoiled" modern consumers who now have high expectations of a personalized shopping experience, and this means that marketers must improve customer interaction and meet these demands by tapping into AI, according to industry experts.

Ren Peiyu, chief product officer and president of nEqual, a data technology firm, said that AI is helping marketers capture the right audience and engage with existing users.

He referred to the use of data management platform, which is in essence a unifying platform to manage, organize and activate any form of data from any source, and convert it in a way that is useful for marketers, publishers and other businesses to know their audiences.

Ren explained that such platforms can create a set of audiences based on a range of variables like demographics, geography and behavior to create a unified customer view. They can also translate data into useful information for marketers, publishers and other businesses to know their audiences better.

"In China, we have noticed a growing urgency for brands to trace where their marketing budget goes and how well the advertisements are tapping into prospective customers," said Ren.

Fast-moving consumer goods, maternity and baby products, as well as automobiles are the top three sectors that have embraced such smart data management tools to optimize customer outreach, he noted.

China's retail sector has moved from being the copycat of matured business models in the West to heralding some of the world's most pioneering practices, said Pei Liang, president of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association.

"With the advent of AR, virtual reality, 5G and the internet of things, the efficiency and customization of retail will be on a whole different level," he said.