Xiamen, a city in East China's Fujian province, has become part of the first batch of 38 pilot cities for the National Retail Industry Innovation and Improvement Project, which was launched by the Ministry of Commerce and other governmental departments.

In recent years, Xiamen has made significant progress in retail industry innovation and enhancement. Local residents can now easily access daily necessities, enjoy coffee and afternoon tea and handle administrative matters at convenience stores near their homes. Convenience stores in Xiamen offer a wide range of products from limited edition trendy items to unique souvenirs.

Leading convenience store enterprises such as FamilyMart, Meiyijia, and Lawson are flourishing in the city, with its urban convenience store index ranking first nationwide for the past five years straight, fully demonstrating the vitality and resilience of the retail industry.

Xiamen is making steady progress in the race of digital innovation in the retail industry. Commercial districts like Zhongshan Road have built intelligent applications such as metaverse and AR live streaming, with multiple projects selected as provincial-level AI application demonstrations.

Pilot communities have launched a 15-minute convenient shopping map, utilizing modern emerging technologies such as 5G, AI, big data, and the Internet of Things to create new experiential services and empowering the retail industry to deeply integrate online and in-store operations.

Furthermore, Xiamen has nurtured three national-level e-commerce bases and four national-level e-commerce demonstration enterprises, providing strong industrial support for the digital transformation of the retail industry.