Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/566084
76 tobaccoasia / Issue 4, 2015 (September/October) that efforts will be made to take advantage of its favorable geographical location as a leading place of origin of e-commerce in China and as a region with rapid development of the internet industries to further deepen reform, realize innovation, give full opportunities to the leading role of informa- tion technology, bring into play the support role of the latest information technology, including big data, cloud computing, and mobile internet, in order to promote systemic transformation and upgrading of its corporate management models in an in-depth way, and turn itself into a smart en- terprise with higher efficiency in management that employs the internet plus tobacco trade of Zhejiang under State monopoly principle. Overtime, ZPTC intends to deepen its co- operation with the Alibaba Group – the leading Chinese e-commerce company. First of all, the company will introduce the Alipay online payment system for accounts settlement throughout its en- tire wholesale and retail processes to optimize its customer service system. And secondly, the com- pany will make a use of the payment system to col- lect customer information and analyze marketing data in retail and consumption to improve its pre- cision marketing system and brand development mechanism. In this endeavor, ZPTC will launch pilot projects in Hangzhou and Wenzhou – two leading cities in the same province. Once the re- sults are in and if they are positive, the company will proceed to expand its operations across the entire province. Commercial enterprises have already made a use of the large quantities of relevant data col- lected to accurately analyze the replenishment of goods, the sales volume, and inventories on the part of retailers, and also to gauge consumer pref- erences; ascertain the relationship among crucial factors including the types, prices, and flavors of cigarettes; and, at the same time, provide power- ful support at the level of real marketing data in order to better guide development of competitive tobacco brands. Moreover, making use of mar- ket prices data, social inventories, and the social stock-to-sales ratio collected through terminal data collection systems, as well as sales data, they can provide accurate information to support deci- sion making in such core business areas as demand forecast, procurement of supplies, and supply of goods to the market. Internet plus does not only mean application of high-end technology including cloud computing, but also represents interaction and consumer ex- perience. Through the policy, tobacco companies of prefecture-level cities can pay more attention to guidance over marketing and crucial factors capa- ble of impacting consumer satisfaction including value-added service. By means of developing mo- bile apps, providing graphic and visual marketing guidance interfaces they can provide their clients with unique experiences. They can also manage to increase new channels for interaction between clients and consumers, upgrade customer service, and provide clients with valuable profit-making models by integrating the functions of positioning with the geographic information system (GIS) and consumer placement of orders online and taking of delivery offline, to win confidence from clients. Meanwhile, many retailers have also become aware of the great significance of internet plus to marketing, and have begun to actively make a use of the internet plus WeChat messaging and calling app model. They have mostly established their own websites using their personal comput- ers, posted images of brand-name products they sell on the websites, and have established WeChat circles of friends with clients in the vicinity, ad- vertize for the brand-name cigarette products they sell, enlarge their channels for cigarette sales, and attract consumers in the vicinity. Internet plus has not only brought many new challenges to the tobacco industry in China, but it has also, more significantly, brought many new business opportunities. In response, the industry quickly sized up the situation in a comprehensive manner and has actively applied the model of in- ternet thinking in developing internet plus opera- tions in both manufacturing and marketing, ush- ering in a new round of business development. By developing internet plus operations, the tobacco industry can enable consumers to get fully in- volved, design new products that better meet the demand of consumers, raise efficiency in both cigarette production and sales, and realize its sys- temic transformation, upgrading and innovative development, which will help the tobacco industry fucus on embracing the new era. Internet plus has become an unprecedentedly hot term in China.