MORRISVILLE – Lenovo has opened the first of what it is calling “new retail” stores in Beijing and plans to build a chain of stories offering hundreds of products.
The shop, which opened Sunday, is known as Zhi Zhi Life, according to media reports in China.
It;s also called Lenovo Smart Life Direct-Sale Store.
In the U.S., Lenovo sells products online and partners with a variety of retailers such as BestBuy.
The outlet “will use new technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve shoppers’ experience,” Yicai Global reported.
“The use of AI in-store draws similarities with other entrants to new retail, such as e-commerce behemoths Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.Com Inc., which are looking to make use of new tech at their physical outlets.”
The world’s No. 2 PC seller, which operates dual headquarters in China’s capital and Morrisville, is seeking to compete with other giant Chinese tech and commerce firms such as Alibaba and Jingdong.
“The store presently has on exhibition more than 400 different product categories cutting across smart home products, and several others,” Gizmo China added.
“The products include Lenovo’s branded products, Lenovo’s incubated brand products, and the company’s smart choice products and they cut across smart home, smart wear travel, the whole scene entertainment, and other areas. The total number of online and offline categories of goods in the future is expected to be more than 1,000 in the future. In addition, the direct sales (offline) will provide maintenance, training, consulting, experience, all personal custom one-piece smart services.”
China news site Yicai.com says Lenovo is betting on the stores “to uproot traditional grocery and department stores with technology.”
Lenovo disclosed plans earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show to launch a subsidiary, Tianxi Chuanqi Technology Co. Ltd., for the stores, according to Asia Times.
