Some time in the middle of last year, subway commuters in Beijing and Shanghai stumbled across an interesting experiment–the walls of select stations had been turned into virtual supermarkets by Yihaodian, a Chinese online supermarket. All a commuter had to do was scan the QR codes of whatever he needed on the ‘virtual supermarket aisles’ and check-out. The grocery would soon be delivered to his or her house.
What started as an experiment is now being scaled up. Yihaodian has announced plans of setting up 1,000 such virtual supermarkets.
It is innovations like these that have helped Yihaodian grow so fast in such a short space of time. In Part 2 of his interview with CKGSB Knowledge, Yihaodian Chairman and Co-founder Gang Yu elaborates on the company’s journey so far, some new experiments and the deal with Walmart.
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