"Time waits for no man, and we must seize the day to embark on a new breakthrough." This is Zhang Jindong's expectation for 2024.

The familiar Zhang Jindong has returned to his familiar position.

At the beginning of this year, after leaving Suning's power center for two and a half years, Zhang Jindong finally returned to the forefront of Suning. With this return, Zhang Jindong's ambition to "make a big splash" is already hard to conceal. In his internal speech, he spoke directly as the helmsman, stating that Suning people have experienced dark moments, but there are more opportunities ahead.

To this end, Zhang Jindong drew up Suning's development blueprint for 2024, focusing on three main areas: first, stabilizing the offline fundamentals; second, continuously deepening the development of the sinking market; and third, steadily promoting the development of online business.

From the current actions, Suning has taken the lead in opening 17 large stores in 13 cities such as Fuzhou, Nanjing, and Beijing. During this year's 618 period, Suning plans to open 21 large stores such as Suning Yijia Max and Suning.com Pro, and both store types have an overall area of over 10,000 square meters. It is expected that in the second quarter, Suning will open and renovate 43 large stores.

Image: Shandong Suning.com Pro

It is not difficult to see that Zhang Jindong is trying to lead Suning to re-enter the offline stronghold. However, returning to the offline, although Suning has "sent off" its old rival Gome, it has encountered a stronger rival JD.com.

Image: Chongqing Yangjiaping JD MALL

Currently, JD.com is also intensifying its offline layout.

During this year's 618 period, 34 JD.com Electronics self-operated stores across the country will welcome new store openings and renovations. Among them, new JD MALL stores will open in Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Suzhou. Compared to Suning, JD.com has a larger platform influence, a wider user base, and more ecological advantages for coordinated development across all channels.

So, can Zhang Jindong and Suning's chances of winning exceed 50% in this battle?

01 Two Steps Offline, Returning to the "Comfort Zone"

With this return to offline, Suning has taken two paths based on regional boundaries.

For third- and fourth-tier cities, Suning's focus is on expanding "Retail Cloud franchise stores" through a franchise model. Its core model is to integrate internal and external brands, supply chains, logistics, finance, services, and other resources and open them up to franchisees. Franchisees bear the costs of store rent, personnel, decoration, and sample products and are responsible for daily operations.

For Suning, Retail Cloud plays the role of competing with online e-commerce platforms by relying on the coverage density of franchisees in the sinking market.

In other words, Retail Cloud is Suning's best tool for laying out the sinking market. Its asset-light, low-cost operating model allows it to quickly gain a foothold in the sinking market. Furthermore, it also improves Suning's ability to resist risks and deploy in a more flexible manner.

Over the past few years, Retail Cloud has helped Suning gain a share of the sinking market. In 2023, the total sales volume of Suning Retail Cloud products grew by over