Jan 23,2019(China Knowledge) -Cross-border e-commerce platforms in China are opening more offline stores to capture growing demand from middle-and-high income shoppers who are upgrading their consumption pattern.

Over the weekend,cross border e-commerce platform NetEase Kaola opened its first flagship store in Hangzhou and is planning to open another 15 stores this year.

The store in Hangzhou employs technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to predict customer needs and sell popular products to shoppers.

In addition,the store also includes interactive screens which allow customers to browse through recommended items on its online platform,integrating its offline and online store to make the purchasing process more seamless.

Similarly,e-commerce leader Alibaba Group also opened its first physical store for its Tmall Global platform in Hangzhou in April last year,with plans to open other similar stores in cities such as Shanghai,Ningbo and Shenzhen.

Demands of Chinese consumers have changed significantly in recent years as the country’s middle-and high-income consumers are starting to pay more attention to high-quality goods and lifestyles.

These traditional brick and mortar stores are able to play a complimentary role to the online platforms of these cross-border e-commerce companies by better capturing the shopping habits and preferences of consumers to make better product recommendations.