The Path of Breakthrough for Retail Enterprises in the Digital Wave—Reconstructive Power of Digitalization on Operational Performance from the Perspective of T Company’s Transformation

With the deep integration of digital technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things with the retail industry, the competitive landscape of the retail market has undergone profound changes. The traditional retail model relying on offline physical stores and extensive management is increasingly facing challenges such as slow market response, low operational efficiency, and difficulty in meeting consumers’ personalized needs. Focusing on the retail industry, as an important part of the national economy, it is facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, e-commerce giants continue to expand their business areas and accelerate market penetration with their strong technical strength, rich operational experience, and large user base; on the other hand, emerging new retail enterprises bring consumers a brand-new shopping experience by integrating online and offline resources and innovating business models, further intensifying the fierce market competition. In addition, international retail enterprises have also laid out their strategies in the Chinese market one after another, competing with domestic enterprises with their advanced management concepts and mature operational models, making the competitive landscape of the domestic retail market more complex. Digital transformation has evolved from a strategic choice to a survival necessity for traditional retail enterprises. The research finds that the digital transformation of retail enterprises is jointly driven by three-dimensional factors: policy guidance and market competition, the demand for reconstructing the “person-goods-scene” model, and the internal motivation to pursue efficiency improvement and value creation. Digitalization exerts a comprehensive and in-depth impact on operational performance through three interlocking core paths: precise cost control, diversified revenue growth, and agile risk response. Through literature review, case analysis, and data verification, this paper analyzes the transformation path of T Retail Company, a leading enterprise in China’s retail industry with a development history of more than 30 years, and explores the driving forces, core paths, and universal strategies of digital transformation in the retail industry.