Microsoft`s new deal in China pushes to grow grocery tech market
On Thursday, Microsoft in China announced a strategic partnership with Hanshow, which is a Chinese retail tech company. It happened to collaborate on software for store operators in the world.
This deal marks the latest foray of Microsoft into the retail industry. The company is forcing to accelerate the online shift. Omnichannel retail is the integration of offline with strategies of internet-based sales. That includes the demand for grocery delivery, which surged at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Retail is considered one of the industries that have seen one of the most significant disruptions in these years. China strategy officer for Microsoft, Joe Bao, talked at the software company’s offices in Beijing during a signing ceremony.
According to a CNBC translation, this partnership is about the China market and also about bringing the technology from China overseas. Bao said this in Mandarin, and he added that the agreement came after five years of working Microsoft with Hanshow.
In 1992, the American software company showed up in China, where it has the biggest overseas development and research center. The strategic partnership came as Chinese and U.S. companies operated in an increasingly rigid political environment that focused on technology and trade.
Hanshow `s plans on the project
Currently, Hanshow’s main customers are supermarkets in Europe and China.
According to the company, it has products that include labels on the electronic store shelf that can react to price changes in real-time. There is also a system that helps its employees to shorten the time to pack products for delivery. Hanshow also said that it also sells a platform that is cloud-based. It allows a retailer to see in stores the temperatures of fresh products in the world.
This partnership includes collaboration on the internet of things or internet-connected technology.
Hanshow is going to use Microsoft’s Office 365 software as part of the deal. Those Microsoft products are Dynamics 365, Word, and a system that is cloud-based customer relationship management. CNBC gathered this information during an interview with Gao Bo after the ceremony. He said that these two companies could share a global client network and jointly launch a development and research team.
About a decade ago, Hanshow was founded in Beijing. It now has offices in France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Australia. According to the company, it has just established a new branch in the U.S.
