JD.com boss Richard Liu talks to Retail Week at the World Retail Congress about his UK ambitions, Cambridge vs. Silicon Valley and staying relevant.

You predicted in your interview yesterday that robots would take over from humans in retail operations. When do you see that becoming a reality?

Within 10 years. Maybe not 100% done without human beings, but 80% of the human jobs in retail will be replaced by robots by then.

Like the supermarket in Spain here, each one has dozens of workers, but in the future maybe just one or two will be enough.

How do you reconcile such job losses with creating the best possible customer experience?

Today, the people who work in our logistics systems like delivery drivers must drive dozens of kilometres every day, picking up from our warehouse and delivering heavy items to our shoppers. It’s hard work.

New technology will mean they will stay at an office and use a CCTV system to observe the whole delivery system, removing manual labour from the process.

Today, we work eight hours a day, five days a week, but in the future maybe we can keep the same number of employees but they will work an hour or two per day. Or two days per week.

“You shouldn’t leave what your traditions are behind, but you must remember that younger generations will always want something new”

Richard Liu, JD.com

China is your biggest market, but your ambition is to bring in 50% of JD.com’s revenue from overseas. What are your targets for the UK market?

My company is trying to build a bridge to connect the two countries. Chinese people really like British brands – fashion, home and food is fantastic in the UK.

But there are also more UK people buying Chinese local brands because it’s exactly the same quality at a lower price. I want JD.com to bring those products to the UK, so we can benefit both sides.

The problem today is we use the cross-border model to sell to the UK, which doesn’t work.

The world is quite small, so in the future we will build a fulfilment centre in the UK and bring China’s local brands to the UK so you can enjoy our fast delivery service.

The customer experience will be fantastic so I’m sure the GMV (gross merchandise value) and revenue will increase a lot, so that’s our next step.

You’ve developed automated convenience shops in China – what does a successful shop look like in the modern retailing world?

Every offline shop needs to be more intelligent. The door should open automatically and the shop should already know what your purpose is and what you want to buy there. It should let you take less time, be more efficient and let you buy exactly what you want.

Today’s offline stores are not efficient. The revenue per square metre is not very high and the cost of running them is too high, so our consumers have to pay more for a less efficient process.

If they made the process more efficient, we could sell products cheaper, so it would benefit both sides.

You’ve described change as an opportunity – what is the biggest change JD.com is facing?

My challenge is how to deeply understand a new generation. Today my customers are people born in the 1990s, but today’s college students were born in the 2000s.

I have to think about what they like or dislike because they are going to be my customers in a few years or even today.

If you look at China’s young generation, if their parents love a shop, they will reject it.

They want to go to shops their parents never think about, so we have to upgrade our business model, stores, interface, service and goods and structures very frequently so we always feel new to keep up with them.

What advice would you give to traditional UK businesses that are struggling?

Keep traditions in your mind, but change your operations and stores physically.

You need to attract new generations, not just their parents – you have no other choice.

You shouldn’t leave what your traditions are behind, but you must remember that younger generations will always want something new.

“In the UK they are very good with technology and big data, and the labour cost is cheaper than in Silicon Valley”

Richard Liu, JD.com

Is it inevitable that we will have fewer businesses in retail in the next few years, and that an increasing number of small retail operators will collapse?

I regard the retail sector as an ecosystem. In African grasslands there are some wild plants which will die so new plants grow better.

There will be retailers that cannot catch up and will die, but don’t feel sorry about that – it’s an ecosystem.

A new, better player will come very soon. We have to keep upgrading. No one, including me, can guarantee that we will survive for the next 50 years.

Can you tell me about your plans to open a research centre in the UK?

In the past 10 years when people talked about research centres they always think about Silicon Valley.

We have a research centre there, but for several years we have found that in Europe and the UK there is very good intelligence.

In the UK they are very good with technology and big data, and the labour cost is cheaper than in Silicon Valley.

The talent is higher and the cost is cheaper, so I think it is a good time for us to build a research centre in Cambridge.