Microsoft’s deal with Hanshow is its latest attempt to grab a piece of the booming retail industry.
MSFT stock has slightly appreciated after Microsoft’s China arm entered into a strategic partnership with Hanshow, a Chinese retail tech company to collaborate on cloud-based software for store operators worldwide. Microsoft Corp‘s (NASDAQ: MSFT) announcement on Thursday saw its stock close at $246.48 at 4:00 EDT after opening at $243.96. At the time of writing in the pre-market, MSFT stock is 0.50% up.
Microsoft’s deal with Hanshow is its latest attempt to grab a piece of the booming retail industry which has been more on an online activity these days. The omni-channel retail, a name for the ‘integration of offline with internet-based sales strategies’ has so many innovative ways including grocery delivery, demand for which has spiked in wake of the global pandemic. The partnership which includes collaboration on internet-connected or internet of things, and technology will also see Hanshow use Microsoft’s Office 365 software including Word, and Dynamics 365, a cloud-based customer relationship management system, according to Gao Bo, the chief architect at Hanshow.
Joe Bao, China strategy officer for Microsoft, speaking at a signing ceremony at the software company’s Beijing offices stated that “Retail is one of the industries that’s seen some of the biggest disruptions in recent years,” adding that, the latest partnership is not just for the China market, but also for bringing China’s technology overseas. Bao who spoke in Mandarin revealed that the two parties were able to achieve this agreement after five years of working together. Bao stated that the two can now share their global client network and will jointly launch a research and development team.
The China strategy officer added that globalization has always been an important business strategy of Hanshow highlighting the company’s habit of weighing up culture and local news before entering a foreign market as a prime example. Bao signed out saying that his work hasn’t been significantly affected by international trade tensions.
Hanshow’s primary customers currently are supermarkets in China and Europe. The company revealed that its products include an electronic store shelf label that can reflect price changes in real-time, coupled with a system that helps workers slash the time it takes to pack products for delivery. Hanshow added that it also sells a cloud-based platform that’s equipped with simultaneously detecting the temperatures of fresh produce in stores across the globe.
Hanshow was founded in Beijing about 10 years ago and has offices in 50 countries and regions including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Australia, and Denmark as well as a newly established branch in the US, according to the company’s website.
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