North China's Shanxi province recently announced an initiative to accelerate the development of convenience stores and convenience chain stores, according to a statement by Shanxi Commerce Department on Oct 26.

The initiative involves five measures, including the optimization of convenience store layouts and the improvement of business conditions.

Shanxi will improve the positioning of its neighborhood convenience stores by allocating space for at least one outlet in each community and aim to achieve full coverage of convenience stores in its urban communities by the end of 2021.

There will be centralized management of convenience store chain brands, management and control of stores, store designs and service standards -- and that logistics and purchasing will be beefed up.

The province will help the convenience store chain owners to carry out integrated online and offline operations and promote mobile payment technologies and modern commodity management technologies.

This will optimize their intelligent services and consumer's experiences of convenience store chains.

In addition, Shanxi will encourage convenience store chain companies to develop multi-store franchises.