Better Life selects Oracle to support growth of its hypermarket business

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Better Life selects Oracle to support growth of its hypermarket business.

Better Life Commercial Chain Share Co., the Chinese multi-format retailer, has selected a broad footprint of Oracle and Oracle Retail applications to support the growth of its hypermarket operations.

Hunan-based Better Life was China's first multi-format retailer and now operates 186 hypermarkets, department stores and consumer electronics stores, in addition to entertainment and real estate operations across Southern China.

Expansion of its hypermarket business is integral to Better Life's rapid growth strategy in an increasingly competitive market, and the retailer will use Oracle applications to establish a scalable, integrated retail foundation to underpin its expansion in the grocery market.

Better Life identified multiple components of Oracle Retail Merchandising Operations Management, Oracle Retail Merchandise Planning and Optimisation, and Oracle Retail In-Store Operations as key enablers to optimizing its operations by creating a consolidated view of product, price, inventory and associated back office information that facilitates improved fulfillment of customer demand.

With a better understanding of inventory from buying through store transactions, Better Life will gain actionable insight with which it can make smarter, more profitable decisions around planning, forecasting and replenishment.

Better Life will also implement Oracle software including the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Hyperion Planning, Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Oracle's Siebel CRM, Oracle's PeopleSoft Human Capital Management, Oracle Data Integrator, and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) to support its retail operations.  

The investment in Oracle applications in March 2012 will enable Better Life to replace legacy systems that could no longer provide the required levels of visibility or reporting to effectively support business operations.

After evaluating Oracle and SAP, Better Life selected Oracle based on its deep retail functionality and best practices, scalability and proven performance with leading grocery retailers worldwide.

"Oracle will provide us with the capabilities to manage our operations more effectively. By capturing relevant and accurate information and achieving a more holistic view of our business, we expect to drive improvements in performance, profitability and the customer experience, which will help us to manage our expanding operations and remain at the forefront of the competitive grocery market in China," said Noel Trinder, CEO of Supermarket/Hypermarket Division of Better Life.

"By aligning operations and driving performance-related insight with Oracle Retail applications, Better Life is creating an experience platform that will help it to exceed consumer expectations, achieve its strategic business objectives and drive value from its investments in Oracle ," said Mike Webster, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Retail.