China’s car market will grow 20 percent

ChinaFotoPress | Getty Images

Cars at the end of National Day Holiday on October 6, 2015 in Beijing, China.

“I think everything is changing. As you know, Jack Ma mentioned about ‘new retail.’ I think the ‘new retail’ concept works well for SouChe,” Yuan said, adding that the company has connected more than 100,000 auto dealers through digital systems.

The concept of “new retail,” as explained by Ma, is the creation of smooth connections between offline and digital sales platforms.

That allows the company to “digitalize and bring online their operations.” They can then boost their inventory as well as increase their operational efficiency, Yuan said.

Digitizing operations will also help customers who are unable to find the cars they have chosen in the brick and mortar stores in their vicinity, he said.

“Some of them may go to a store near their community, but the store may not have the car with them,” Yuan said, adding that an integration of both the online and offline approach will be fundamental to the concept of “new retail.”