From October 12th to October 19th, ChinaTalk spin-off ChinaTechTrip and German e-commerce event organiser K5 Future Retail took 16 German CEOs and senior managers on the latest edition of the China Retail Innovation study tour.
The group visited Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. ChinaTalk/ChinaTechTrip’s Ed Sander started each day with a morning masterclass. He took the group on various excursions, often related to the tour’s themes: e-commerce, instant retail, live commerce, C2M, cross-border e-commerce and ‘coffee wars’.
After the tour, an evaluation survey was conducted, and the group rated the tour an impressive 9.5 out of 10.
A few reactions to the tour:
- “This was a blast! Intellectually, culturally, business wise and of course with loads of great memories and fun. I really enjoyed every moment. Thank you for the great trip Ed Sander. This is highly recommended if you want to understand what China is all about and what is coming our way. (..) This was one of the most impactful journeys I have done so far, if not the one trip with the biggest impact on how I see and experience my (retail) world.” – Sven Rittau, CEO K5 Future Retail
- “The impressions of China were overwhelming. Ed Sander, I think you made a big contribution to the fact that we all had endless enthusiasm and passion for China. Thank you for this unique experience!” – Christiane Lübke, Event Manager K5 Future Retail
- “10/10 experience! (..) My fullest recommendation to this tour!” – Carsten Weiskopf, Director E-Commerce Annematie Börlind & Sado Sens
- “Thank you Ed Sander! It was really a fantastic trip. Your sessions were very insightful and layed the foundation of a better understanding of China, its society, economy, and e-commerce business models. (..) Although not everything in China is adoptable in Europe, it is in my opinion absolutely mandatory for our business to see and understand what is happening in the Chinese market because if business models from there come here, they will do it with high speed and professionalism.” – Alexander Voges, Geschäftsführer Marketing und Vertrieb bei Heinrich Heine GmbH
- “Thanks, Ed, for the insights and for the experience! Highly recommended!” – Jochen Krisch, Editor Exciting Commerce, K5 Founder
- “A real amazing trip! A big THANK YOU goes to Sven Rittau and Ed Sander for the wonderful organization. The valuable insights and experiences made this week unforgettable.” – Lars Jankowfsky, Founder at NFQ Technologies
Sharing the learnings
During the tour, K5 CEO Sven Rittau and Chinese video producer Guligo Jia created daily impressions of the tour. Together, these videos give a good impression of the week-long tour.
After the tour K5 shared this recap video:
During the tour, Sven kept a blog, summarizing each day’s content.
After the tour, Sven and Karo Junker de Neui recorded a podcast (German spoken) about their learnings.
Jochen Krisch shared his learnings in the Xchanges podcast.
Many of the group members shared their findings on their LinkedIn pages:
- Karo Junker de Neui – day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5. day 6, conclusion, instant retail
- Max Meister – post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post 5, post 6, post 7
- Matthias ‘Mattes’ Schrader – post 1, post 2
- Jochem Krisch – post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post 5. Blog.
- Alexander Voges
- Carsten Weiskopf – post 1, post 2
- Lars Jankowfsky – post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4
- Dominik Dommick – post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post 5, post 6, post 7
- Sven Rittau – day1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, post 7
K5 compiled an excellent overview of some of this content.
Matthias ‘Mattes’ Schrader took some fantastic pictures, which he shared in a Google Photo Album.ChinaTechTrip and K5 are currently planning a 2025 edition of this tour.
Meanwhile, Dutch-speaking professionals in retail and e-commerce can join the next edition of the tour in April 2025.