At its conference in the city of Bochum/Germany the North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) stressed that for growth in retail Multi Channel is a must! NRW-Minister Prof.Dr.Pinkwart (picture) offered credits for small and medium sized companies to help to implant digital investments.

To the conference were also invited speakers from the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden. Prof.Dr.Hallier during the small talks pointed to the fact that in the history of the EuroShop exhibition it was proved that scouting for best practices for retail had to go beyond the own borders. Also EuroCIS was successfully established internationally to empower retailers through IT.
 

The International Standardization Organization (ISO) was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Geneva/Switzerland. More then 150 countries are member bodies, corresponding members or subscriber members. ISO standardization needs the following seven procedures: preliminary work item – new work item proposal – working draft – committee draft – draft international standard – final draft international standard – publication international standard. Those standards are descriptions - they are not a guarantee for a quality itself.

Since the 80ies Prof. B. Hallier pushed within the food business the ISO Packaging norms as a rationalization tool: based on the module 400 x 600 mm sales-cartons and palettes by 1200 x 1000, 1200 x 800 and 600 x 800 can flow most easily from production via transportation units and depots finally into the shelves of retail. Not only efficiency was increased by this system but also damage in the transportation flow decreased: saving food waste too. More about ISO here.
 

Within the last 50 years China has turned according to Prof.Dr.B.Hallier from small local retailers towards nationally organized trade conglomerates. The Singapore magazine Retail Asia is listing as Chinese top players China Resources Holding (3665 outlets/ 15.4 billion US$ turnover) followed by Sun Art Retail Group (480/ 14.6), Suning Commerce Group (1480/ 13.9), Gome (1380/ 11.0), WalMart China (438/ 10.9), Yonghui (557/ 7.6), Bailian (3882/ 7.6), Belle International (20197/ 6.2), Carre-four China (266/ 4.6) and China Petroleum (26.500/ 4.5).

Worldwide known is the Chinese B2C platform Alibaba - founded in 1999 - selling branded goods to consumers in mainland China, Hong-Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The site accounts for nearly 50 percent of China's B2C retail - its market value is guessed to be roughly 220 billion US$ - before its acquisition of the Pakistani platform Daraz (founded in 2012). By this move Alibaba/Daraz will be also active in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanca, Myanmar and Nepal.
 

The Singapore based magazine Retail Asia honors in 2018 its top players of the analysis "TOP 500 retailers in Asia" on Oct. 15th 2018 in the Reverie Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Traveling to Far East since 1974 and being a member of the international Jury of the magazine Retail Asia for more than a decade for Prof.Dr.B.Hallier the united Vietnam is a special case of development and innovation (see: LINK YouTube). "In my student time Vietnam was the controversial hot-spot in society - dividing people according to political systems. Within the last 20 years the united Vietnam shows how important PEACE is for the human beings, economics and the region! The European Retail Academy is happy to help in this transformation by an exchange of students - working in an international Team Spirit" Prof.Hallier stated thanking his two ERA-students Trang Pham and Sampsa Hyväri for the YouTube video.
 

Having been heavily involved in the development of tracing/tracking and good agricultural practice in the middle of the 90ies by EHI, Orgainvent and Globalgap Prof. Hallier's focus today is the transfer of applied sciences into the academic sector : one of its tools is www.european-retail-academy.org/TUN.

"We need at the university-level worldwide the penetration of basic knowledge about major food-standards and standard-setters" Hallier claimed at the First International Silk Road Mayors Conference in Astana/Kazakhstan. "The revitalized Silk Road Network should be an innovation-driver for Agro-Hubs combining storage, processing, packing,logistics creating new jobs in that area as well as helping to improve food-security. Part of the teaching should be organized by blended learning to increase the learning potential!".