cooks it of course on the spot in the stores dining area we use the hema business model to explore this new path of new retail as of the end of december 2018 we have digitized approximately 470 sun art stores with our new retail knowhow and technology enabling these stores to better manage their retail systems while allowing consumers to place orders through the taobao app and secure delivery through our ondemand delivery platform the upgraded rtmart stores offer onehour delivery for customers living within a threekilometer radius delivery is powered by hema supermarkets cuttingedge logistics and resources in its ongoing push into the retail space alibaba in late 2017 invested us288 billion to acquire a 36 stake of sun art retail group which operates over 400 hypermarkets under the auchan and rtmart banners in china can a concept like new retail can work in a market like india for any market we see that the consumers prefer a convenient customized endtoend shopping experience across offline to online for brands to win in such a scenario new retail is the solution relying on the backbone of technology new retail is enabling brands to completely transform how they operate and how they engage with the consumer in the long term which i believe is the need of the hour in every market is new retail currently confined to the chinese market are you planning to try it out in the other markets we have piloted the program in singapore as well with the launch of an offline home living store called taobao home at a leading shopping center we felt it was an excellent opportunity for us to bring our new retail concept to singapore and the first time outside of china for a longer period of time and have shoppers there be able to experience this vision with a fresh perspective on the retail landscape in singapore we also wanted to give homeowners inspirations for new interior design ideas and styles via the storein which all sectors the concept of new retail can be adoptedthe concept of new retail is not sector dependent weve already seen examples across automobile traditional retail and others enabled by leadingedge technology new retail has created an imperative for brands alibaba ceo daniel zhang summed up the unfolding challenge in a letter to investors when he said companies must use big data analytics to redefine the traditional core elements of retailingconsumers merchandise and storesand the relationship among those elements to upgrade current formats and create new retail occasions as new retail takes root the aim will be to accelerate the digital transformation of businesses through the recently announced alibaba operating system which will be helping to drive our a100 partnership programme the programme offers companies a holistic onestop solution that encompasses sales logistics supply chain optimization payments marketing and a wide range of supporting services powered by cloudbased technologies by deploying our sophisticated cloudcomputing capabilities we want to provide brands with the technological