On March 20th, the '2026 China Big Consumer Annual Ceremony & Forbes China Awards', co-hosted by the globally renowned consulting firm Frost & Sullivan (Frost & Sullivan, abbreviated as 'Frost & Sullivan') and the China Big Consumer CXO Innovation Center, with special support from Forbes China, was successfully held in Shanghai. With the theme of 'Breaking Boundaries & Leading the Tide', the ceremony focused on cutting-edge exploration and breakthroughs in the consumer industry under the backdrop of technological evolution and industrial transformation. Experts, scholars, industry leaders, and investment institutions gathered together to discuss the value creation and long-term development paths of China's large consumer industry from multiple perspectives such as technology, channels, brand, platform, marketing, and going global.
The China Greater Consumer CXO Innovation Center, in collaboration with Zhongku Holdings Technology, launched the 'Spring Baisa Health Industry Fund'; MPP Group, in conjunction with China's instant retail sector, initiated the 'Chain Dynamics Ecosystem & Instant Retail Supply Chain Innovation Ecosystem'; the event witnessed the establishment and implementation of the 'Méditerran Health Diet Sensory Research Center' and the 'Méditerran Supply Chain National Central Warehouse Project'. The event also grandly unveiled the '2026 Forbes China Greater Consumer Series Selection' and the '20206 Frost & Sullivan China Greater Consumer Series Selection'. .
Artificial intelligence marketing wins with credibility
Brands need to build a trusted knowledge network
Wang Chenhui, Partner-in-Chief and President of Frost & Sullivan China
As Generative Engine Optimization moves from volume and intelligence-based strategies to one based on trust, opportunities and challenges coexist in the marketing industry. In the context of AI-driven marketing, brand awareness can be diluted and data pollution may occur. In the future, consumer decisions will heavily rely on AI assistants, making trust a core weight in AI marketing.
Brands need to build a credible knowledge network relying on scientific methodologies through systems such as real data and authoritative research. This is the brand's 'armor' in response to the AI era. Leading enterprises can take this opportunity to gain control of industry discourse in the new era, achieve symbiotic communication with AI, and place their brands on consumers' AI decision-making lists.
Zhang Qinglian, President of Forbes China Group, stated that China has become one of the most dynamic consumer markets globally. Driven by the evolution of digital technology and consumer demand, local consumer brands have risen rapidly, and the industry is moving from "scale growth" to "value creation." To this end, Forbes China has joined hands with the China Great Consumption CXO Innovation Center to launch the "Forbes China Great Consumption Series Awards" for three consecutive years. The aim is to systematically observe the deep changes in China's consumer industry from a global perspective and with long-termism as the anchor point, identify those key forces with long-term value creation capabilities and the ability to lead industry direction, discuss new growth under existing conditions with important participants in the consumer field, and jointly move towards a new era of high-quality and sustainable consumption.
Xu Shaochuan, Chairman and Co-CEO of Medtronic Business Group Co., Ltd.
At present, China's artificial intelligence industry has moved from a cognitive revolution to an execution revolution. New productive forces centered on artificial intelligence are becoming the core engine driving the evolution of consumer industries. Meanwhile, China's consumer market has entered a new cycle, characterized by changes in population structure, the rise of emotional value, and accelerated channel differentiation. Consumption has become the key point for breaking through this era's challenges. This grand event will focus on topics such as new quality retail with artificial intelligence, channel evolution, and global layout, to jointly explore new paths for the growth of the consumer industry, help China's large consumer industry stand at the forefront of the times, and promote the transformation of China's consumer industry from scale expansion to value creation.
Wang Jinchuan, Founder of China's Leading Consumer CXO Innovation Center
The CXO Innovation Center brings together nearly 4,000 CXOs and 500 core members, connecting with over 300 investment institutions and 2,800 influential enterprises, with a dispatchable capital of 2 trillion yuan. The industrial ecosystem has grown to exceed 10 trillion yuan, covering more than 80% of core decision-makers. The CXO Innovation Center is committed to focusing on entrepreneurs as the core, identifying directions, expanding resources, and connecting with capital. In the future, it will concentrate on three major directions: deepening channel cultivation, mergers and acquisitions opportunities, and artificial intelligence technology, continuously empowering large consumer enterprises for a new journey towards high-quality development.
Technical reconstruction of the underlying logic of industries
Reinventing the entire food and consumption chain
Jin Zhengyu, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Doctoral Supervisor at Jiangnan University
Currently, seven disruptive technologies including artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction and simulation, electronics and quantum computing, and interdisciplinary biosciences are reconstructing the underlying logic of the food industry. Cutting-edge technologies are reshaping production and R&D, food traceability, and even consumer experience.. Intelligent manufacturing is driving the realization of unmanned production and digital upgrading. The application of biotechnology in the food industry meets the strong demand for consumers' nutritional health and has become a focus of industrial innovation.
Technology transfer, solution output, and innovation financing are viable paths for commercializing technology. A new R&D model controlled by scientists, involving open-source technology, and coordinated with demand industries can effectively shorten the innovation chain and improve technology transfer efficiency. Enterprises and research institutions should join hands to embrace new productive forces, using technological innovation to overcome industrial bottlenecks. Activate consumption potential through business innovation, push China's food technology and brands towards global leadership, and assist in implementing the domestic demand expansion strategy.
Dual-directional pursuit of localized operations
Strategies for Domestic Expansion and Overseas Expansion Tools
Benign competition drives product upgrades and industry progress. Currently, the Chinese consumer market is significantly polarized, and the key to a company's success or failure lies in technological innovation, product upgrades, and consumer insights. Companies should return to value creation, breaking through price wars through technology, models, and brands.. In the next decade, Chinese enterprises will embrace a wave of globalization, moving from product exports to brand and value exports, ultimately forming world-class Chinese brands in the global consumer market.
Whether it is the strategic segmentation of global enterprises in the Chinese market or the high-quality development and overseas expansion strategies of Chinese enterprises, they should respect local rules and culture and establish localized closed-loop operations.. Foreign-funded enterprises in China should not rely on rigid models of remote decision-making from headquarters and past successes. Instead, they should adapt to the local Chinese market, promote localized operations, delegate authority to local teams, and accelerate product and scenario innovation as the key to breaking through the situation. Similarly, Chinese enterprises need to avoid copying domestic strategies and should make global layouts based on product advantages and localization capabilities.
Anti-rural involution and mergers and acquisitions
The New Paradigm for Enterprises' Cyclical Growth
Anti-rankinization is not anti-competition, but rather a measure to curb homogeneous competition and vicious price wars below cost. The impact of corporate pricing on profits far exceeds sales volume and costs. It should shift from cost-based pricing to value-based pricing, abandon the passive mindset of 'following the market', change the traditional paradigm of 'large scale, low cost', and improve quality and efficiency. Enterprises should break out of the red ocean through differentiation, segmentation, high-endization, and branding, and build competitive barriers relying on technological innovation and quality upgrading..
Currently, the year of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has begun, which can enhance industry concentration, aid in countering involution and global layout. The key to success lies in strategic leadership and deep integration, especially emphasizing cultural integration to achieve a synergistic effect of 1+1>2. Chinese entrepreneurs should embrace the combined policy efforts through innovation, branding, and M&A restructuring, adhere to value creation, and achieve high-quality development by transcending cycles.
From category pioneer to ecosystem builder
Breakthrough model of new product categories entering the Chinese market
Zhang ChunPresident of OATLY Greater China
When OATLY entered China, facing the predicament of having no categories, brands, or channels, the Chinese team abandoned the original European 'anti-milk' brand positioning and adopted a localized strategy of 'making friends with milk'. Focusing on the demand for lactose intolerance, they used coffee scenarios to break through and quickly opened up the Chinese market.
After OATLY established a plant-based track in China, it jointly released an industry white paper and promoted the construction of industry standards, practicing sustainable development with business in mind for social good. In the future, OATLY will leverage technological innovation and ecological collaboration to jointly promote the popularization of plant-based foods through industry-wide efforts. OATLY's transformation from a category pioneer to an ecological builder provides a replicable model for the localization of foreign brands and the cultivation of new consumer tracks.
Viewing the Chinese Market from a Global Perspective
New Paradigm for Future Growth
Zhang Xiqiang (right), Co-Chair of the Global Household Paper Management Committee of Indonesia's Golden Light APP Group
Laiweikang Precision Nutrition, Founder and President
Daniel & Zipser (left), Global Senior Partner at McKinsey
Although China's economic growth rate has slowed down compared to the past, and its population structure is changing, the overall consumption willingness of Chinese consumers is steadily rising. In the next 5-10 years, driven by urbanization in China, it is expected that middle- to high-income consumers will continue to grow at a rate of 5%, with significant potential in areas related to tourism, experience, consumption, health, and wellness.
Investment is key to driving innovation and industrial upgrading. The proportion of foreign investment is crucial for technology transfer and for China's connection with the world.. The decline in the performance of multinational enterprises in China cannot be attributed to the local preferences of Chinese consumers. The core reason for the increase in market share of local enterprises is the advantages of products and strategies. Introducing Chinese partners for operation can help multinational enterprises occupy more market share.
The stratification of retail channels in China is intensifying
A sense of value becomes the core to breaking through barriers
Zheng YeNeilson's Chief Growth Officer and Business General Manager
The Chinese consumer market is undergoing profound changes, with the stratification of consumer groups and fragmentation of channels intensifying. Under these market changes, corresponding value perceptions are provided for different stratified consumer groups. It is at the core of brand and channel breakthroughs. The value demands of Chinese consumers are distributed in a pyramid shape; 'safety' and 'quality' are basic thresholds, while 'health' and 'convenience' are higher-level pursuits. Emotional value experience is the core premium point for demand; consumer characteristics vary significantly across different age groups: people over 60 years old have the strongest purchasing power and willingness, rejecting the 'senior label'; people aged 45-60 are the most frugal, emphasizing cost-effectiveness; people aged 30-45 are willing to pay for emotional value; IP is the core way to reach people under 30 years old.
In terms of channels, offline large-scale channels are under significant pressure. The number of hypermarkets has halved, and the effect of supermarket adjustments has been diminishing marginally. Independent brands have become the main driver of growth in large channels but pose a balance risk; small supermarkets and convenience stores continue to open and grow, gradually penetrating middle- and lower-tier cities; grocery stores have experienced negative growth for the first time. Snack discount stores, as one of the small channels for offline growth, are challenging traditional convenience systems with their low unit prices, high efficiency, and rapid growth scale. However, it is worth noting that as consumers' sense of freshness decreases, the turnover rate of individual snack stores has declined.
Localized operations that value consumer feedback
The key to multinational companies occupying the Chinese market
The global market is full of uncertainties, and China's consumer market is shifting from conspicuous consumption to cautious consumption. The platform ecosystem and consumer trends are constantly changing, with pain points and opportunities coexisting amidst the transformation. From an investor's perspective, the founder's experience and the ability to continuously adjust according to market changes are far more important than business concepts. Enterprises should focus more on the market itself, do a good job in localization, and find their own value chain. Innovation holds investment and development opportunities, and capital always flows towards value.
Multinational enterprises should not copy the strategies of European and American markets when deeply engaging with the Chinese market. Instead, they should collaborate with local partners to build resilient supply chains..Similarly, Chinese enterprises should first deeply cultivate the Chinese market by gathering feedback, and when expanding overseas, they should collaborate with local partners and integrate into local culture. Whether they are giants or startups, they need to pay attention to consumer feedback, persist in innovation to create unique experiences, and embrace technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Instant retail enters the era of digital intelligence
The four superpowers have become the core force reshaping the industry
Bei Nianjun, Founder and CEO of MPP Group
In the future, the instant retail ecosystem will give rise to super brands, super channels, super platforms, and super operations, which are the core forces of industry reconstruction. Lightweight strategies such as scenario customization, big data supply and demand mapping, in-depth exploration of full-dimensional scenarios, and dual-wheel drive of near and far-field e-commerce can enable emerging brands to achieve rapid breakthroughs in instant retail without high investment.
In 2026, instant retail has entered a mental era centered on value awakening, ecological reconstruction, and digital intelligence rejuvenation. AI empowerment helps achieve 'understand & get it'.. China's experience in the development of instant retail will focus on supply chain, hyper-operation, and digital intelligence capabilities. It will move from the Chinese origin to the global market, achieving 'understand and get it now' for global markets.
Searching for Growth in the Existing Market
Return to user and family scenarios
Chen Gaoming, General Manager of Business Marketing & Brand at Xiaomi's Business Secret Internet Business Department
The Chinese market has passed through the era of channel expansion and traffic dividends. In the existing market, enterprises need to return to the core of user management, do a good job in user segmentation, distinguish between main users, high-potential users, cross-border users, and increase penetration rates, so as to achieve effective growth with a people-oriented mindset; attach importance to attribution in the post-link stage to make marketing effects traceable.
In-depth reconstruction of retail channels
AI Empowers Business Model Evolution
China's offline retail channels are undergoing a profound restructuring, evolving from traditional hypermarkets towards three major directions: quality retail, efficiency retail, and instant retail. People, goods, locations, and supply chains together constitute a new pattern. Regional localization and the integration of multiple business formats will become the main trends in the future. The core strengths of new retail forces come from capital support and high-quality talent.
Offline retail is shifting from 'big and comprehensive' to 'small and exquisite', with 'single-item supremacy' as the focus. Enterprises need to create differentiated category strategies based on customer segmentation.. Product development should revolve around consumer feedback. It is necessary to first clarify the target customer group, then create scenarios and build inventory. Brand owners, with their advantages in both channel and consumer insights, should coexist and create value with retailers; cross-border retailers need to find local procurement mechanisms, as their own brands are seen as the core growth engine.
Industry applications and investment prospects of artificial intelligence
HuaguichaoChairman and CEO of Inovance Electronics (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd.,
Chairman of Sino-Global 4D Ecological Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd.
Artificial intelligence is driving a comprehensive upgrade in the value of the agricultural industry. Through large-scale data collection, analysis, and precise control, the technology has overcome traditional agricultural constraints such as relying on the weather for food production, food safety issues, and limited resources. It can achieve zero pesticide residues and zero pollution in food safety assurance, greatly shortening the planting cycle and increasing output value.
Fei Fei, General Manager and Managing Partner of Spotting Capital
The sudden popularity of OpenClaw (XiaoLongAnt) has shown the capital market the huge potential of AI's implementation. The development of AI has not only reshaped various industries but also spurred multiple investment opportunities in hardware and software. As infrastructure, computing power will see strong demand in the next three years, and AI-side applications have reached a critical point of explosive growth. Investment should be based on an industrial chain mindset, investing early on small projects and embracing leading companies, while patiently focusing on long-term value.
Technology reconstructs the consumer, goods, and ecosystem
Scenario Revolution and Ecological Symbiosis
Artificial intelligence has comprehensively and disruptively reconstructed the 'person - goods - place': precise profiling can effectively predict and guide consumer behavior, allowing practitioners in the consumer industry to change their working methods with the help of AI; products achieve flexible manufacturing production according to precise demand; the layout of stores and supply chains can be adjusted flexibly through data, and AI will replace repetitive and efficient manual labor in supply chains, C2C sales, and other links, optimizing data matching and transmission efficiency, and reshaping development opportunities for the upstream and downstream of consumption. The entire lifecycle has been connected, and the technological iteration speed is extremely fast.
In the wave of technological reconstruction of consumption, enterprises should reconstruct their organizational forms and continuously maintain talent and technical reserves; pay attention to core capabilities such as R&D and quality, explore new consumer scenarios around consumer needs, tap into technological research to uncover new value in product innovation, return to the most primal and long-term basic demands of consumers, and uphold the primary principle of consumer goods; deeply cultivate operations, supply chains, customer services, etc., thereby forming long-term competitiveness.
