With a career spanning over 20 years across state-owned enterprises, internet platforms, and A-share listed companies, Mr. Chen has witnessed and participated in the complete evolution of China's retail industry—from the expansion of traditional chain stores and digital transformation to the emergence of new internet-driven retail formats. He is recognized as a deep participant, promoter, and practitioner in the transformation of China's retail sector.
Since late 2023, he has been leading city'super's China Mainland operations, driving supply chain restructuring, store digitalization, and brand revitalization, resulting in significant performance improvements in recent years.
Previously, he served as President of Sanjiang Shopping Co., Ltd., where he led the regional retail leader through a systematic transformation toward new retail. As an early core manager of Alibaba's Freshippo, he played a key role in incubating the "supermarket + dining" and integrated online-offline store model, and was the first to achieve profitability while independently operating a regional market, providing early validation of Freshippo's new retail viability.
He began his career at China Resources Vanguard Co., Ltd., where over 16 years he developed deep expertise in supermarket operations and M&A integration. His professional domains encompass strategic planning, digital transformation, supply chain optimization, and organizational change.
In the Chinese market, high-quality retail has long relied on a relatively stable premise: premium products carried inherent consensus, discerning consumers would naturally gravitate toward them, and buyers’ judgments were automatically recognized as valuable. However, this premise is shifting. Post-pandemic, core customer segments have fragmented and some have been lost, while consumption patterns and lifestyles have changed significantly. At the same time, limited online channel capabilities have further widened the communication gap between high-quality retail and the new generation of consumers.
Against this backdrop, buyer-led retail—centered on judgment and professional expertise—is now facing more complex challenges in scaling operations, including cash efficiency, organizational governance, and supplier collaboration models. For city’super, the question is no longer simply how to continuously select “great products,” but how to rebuild retail relationships that are understood, chosen, and trusted over the long term, in an environment of shifting customer segments and operational constraints. This evolution requires the buyer system to upgrade from a single product-selection mechanism to a structured, organization-supported, system-managed, and supplier-collaborative model.
This session will share city’super’s recent adjustments in the Chinese market and discuss the core challenges facing buyer-led retail today, including restructuring organizational systems, balancing buyer judgment with cash management, transforming supplier relationships from transactional to collaborative, and reestablishing effective communication with target consumer segments in the new consumption landscape.