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Empower Your Business With The Magic Of Machine Learning!
Greek and European retailers feel threatened by platforms such as Temu, Shein and other Chinese marketplaces. The reaction has been predictable: calls for tariffs, regulatory barriers, and even proposals such as an additional €3 charge on every parcel arriving from China.
This reaction is understandable – but it is fundamentally wrong.
Tariffs are not a strategy. They are a delay tactic.
What is happening today is not a pricing war. It is not unfair competition. It is not simply a logistics issue.
It is a structural transformation of retail.
China has not just built cheaper platforms. It has reinvented retail from the ground up. And while Europe argues about taxes and customs fees, the game has already changed.
If Greek and European retail stakeholders do not act immediately, many will not survive the next decade.
This is not an opinion. It is a conclusion clearly demonstrated in the study “The Future of Global Retail: Learning from China’s Retail Revolution”.
China’s retail revolution did not happen because of cheap labor or lax regulation.
It happened because China:
What took decades in Europe happened in China in less than ten years.
The result is New Retail.
What “New Retail” Really Means
New retail is not e-commerce.
New retail is not omnichannel.
New retail is not click & collect.
New retail is a consumer-centric operating system.
It is built on four foundational pillars:
Retailers in China do not “add” digital channels.
They are digital platforms.
Every interaction – browsing, payment, promotion, service – happens inside unified ecosystems such as Alibaba, JD, Meituan, Pinduoduo or ByteDance.
In Europe, retail still treats digital as a support channel.
In China, digital is the business.
In China, logistics is not a cost center. It is a competitive advantage.
Same-day and next-hour delivery are standard.
Returns are frictionless.
Inventory is dynamically allocated.
Companies like SF Express and JD Logistics are as critical to retail success as the product itself.
European retail still optimizes for store efficiency.
Chinese retail optimizes for consumer convenience.
3. Cashless, Invisible Payments
China skipped cards.
It went straight to mobile payments.
WeChat Pay and Alipay turned payment into a background action – invisible, instant, effortless.
In Europe, checkout is still friction.
In China, checkout is an afterthought.
Every second of friction costs conversion.
“The Future of Global Retail: Learning from China’s Retail Revolution”.
In China, social platforms are not marketing tools.
They are retail channels.
Livestreaming, influencers, creators and communities directly convert attention into transactions.
One person, one livestream, one smartphone can outperform entire retail chains.
This is not advertising.
It is retailtainment.
The study identifies five evolutionary stages that define modern retail:
1. Lifestyle Commerce
Retail integrates into daily life: food, mobility, entertainment, services.
Platforms like Meituan sell solutions, not products.
2. Online-Merge-Offline (OMO)
Physical and digital are fully integrated.
Stores are fulfillment centers, experience hubs and data generators.
3. Social Commerce
Shopping becomes collaborative, viral and community-driven.
Pinduoduo proves that trust can be social, not institutional.
4. Livestream Commerce
Sales move from shelves to screens.
Charisma, authenticity and interaction replace displays and signage.
5. Invisible Retail
AI, data and algorithms anticipate needs before consumers articulate them.
Retail disappears into experience.
Europe is still struggling with stage 2.
China is already experimenting beyond stage 5.
Temu and Shein are not dangerous because they are cheap.
They are dangerous because:
Their real advantage is not China.
It is organizational intelligence.
Tariffs will not fix this.
The European Retail Illusion
Many European retailers believe:
This is denial.
Consumers are not waiting.
They have already changed.
China’s retailers did not win because consumers were different.
They won because they adapted faster.
1. Stop Defending the Old Model
Retail associations must stop lobbying for protection and start lobbying for transformation.
Protection delays collapse.
Transformation enables survival.
2. Build Retail Ecosystems, Not Isolated Stores
No single retailer can compete alone.
Europe needs shared platforms for:
Retailers must collaborate – or disappear.
3. Invest in AI Sales Agents and Automation
China replaced salespeople with:
European retail must do the same.
Human sales alone cannot scale.
4. Turn Stores into Experience and Fulfillment Hubs
Stores must:
A store without data is dead.
5. Governments Must Enable, Not Block
Greek and European governments should:
China’s officials livestreamed to sell local products.
Europe debates customs fees.
The contrast is brutal.
Retail is not being disrupted.
It has already been disrupted.
China is not the future.
China is the present.
Every year of delay makes the gap wider.
There is no time left.
Retailers, associations and governments must learn, adapt and transform now – or accept that global platforms will own the consumer relationship forever.
The choice is not between China and Europe.
The choice is between evolution or extinction.
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