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On the ground
Based in China
We live and work in China, so we see these ideas in daily use long before they turn into case studies.
We help retail companies discover and adapt China's business innovations to create sustainable growth and competitive advantage in Western markets.
What we focus on
How brands build experience infrastructure, with utility as the reason people come back.
It starts with one thing the customer finds useful. Each service added on top gives them another reason to return, and the pieces can sit in one app or in several, because usefulness is what holds them together. Done well, the brand ends up part of how the customer runs their day.
Where entertainment and purchase intent converge in real time.
Western retail treats live shopping as a campaign. In China a brand’s live room stays open all day, with hosts working in shifts and every minute of it measured. The operating model behind that is what a Western retailer can copy.
Physical touchpoints that start a digital relationship.
Omnichannel usually means the channels have been wired together, while the physical side still does very little. A store or a machine is seen by thousands of people and leaves behind no data and no reason to come back. In China that same touchpoint is the way in.
The platforms Chinese consumers already live in, and how brands build inside them.
The Western instinct is to build another app and buy the installs. Chinese brands open a mini-program inside WeChat or Alipay, or a storefront inside Meituan, and use the login and the wallet the customer already has. Alibaba takes the idea further, with one account that carries across shopping, food delivery, travel and payments.
About Intel-led
We explain why an idea works in China and what it would take to make it work for you.
We live and work in China, so we see these ideas in daily use long before they turn into case studies.
Recognising that something works in China is the easy half. We explain the consumer logic underneath it — which is the part that determines whether it can work anywhere else.
We rework a Chinese concept around your customers and your margins. Only what survives that goes in front of you.
We look for the ideas that grow revenue, usually by bringing in new customers or bringing existing ones back more often.
Our services
Most clients start with a single assessment and go deeper only once it earns the next step.
We look at one Chinese innovation and whether it fits your business. After focused research and a series of video calls you get a clear recommendation, enough to decide whether to go deeper.
We work out in detail how the opportunity would run in your business. That covers the adapted concept, a business case built on your own numbers, what it needs operationally, how you’d measure success and a roadmap to a pilot.
We find the Chinese partners who can bring the opportunity to life and check them before you meet them. Being based in China, we stay in the room from the first shortlist to the signed agreement.
We stay with you while the idea is tested in your market and then scaled. Each stage is measured and adjusted before the next one starts, so the risk stays small and the part that made it work in China survives the rollout.
Our latest thinking
“Reverse Innovation” used to mean cheap, simple products travelling from emerging markets to the West. The ideas coming out of China today are some of the most advanced in consumer engagement anywhere.
Our latest article looks at what that means for Western retailers, and why the head start won’t last.
