Membership stores are booming in China.Recently, Sam’s club officially opened the 4th store in Shanghai and the 37th store in China.
Sam’s Club in China
Sam’s Club is a high-end membership store format under Walmart, the No. 1 in the Global 500. It entered the Chinese market in 1996 and opened its first store in Shanghai in 2010. In June 2019, it opened the second store in Shanghai. Since then, the popularity of Shanghai’s membership store has soared. Firstly, in October 2019, Costco opened its first store in Minhang district. Secondly, in October of the following year, Hema X membership store opened its first store in Pudong district. So far, it has 4 stores in Shanghai. Thirdly, in September 2021, the world’s largest Sam’s Club store opened in Pudong. Lastly, in the fourth quarter of 2021, the first Carrefour membership store in Chengshan and the second store in Qingpu Park opened successively.
The total retail sales of consumer goods in China has increased by more than 40 times in the past 30 years. And the retail industry underwent a major cyclical adjustment almost every 10 to 15 years. For a retail enterprise to win in the cyclical adjustment, the core capability is to return to the basic skills of retail. Firstly, to continuously create value for customers by improving the power of commodities. Secondly, to increase the overall efficiency of the supply chain.
In developed countries in Europe and the United States, the target audience of membership stores is mainly the urban middle class. Shanghai has a permanent resident population of nearly 25 million, and its per capita GDP has exceeded 20,000 US dollars. The scale of the company ranks first in the country, and the market capacity is large enough.
Membership stores in China are booming wildly
In September, Carrefour will open two new membership stores at the same time. In the fourth quarter of last year, Metro China announced a comprehensive layout of member stores. By the end of August this year, Metro had opened 22 membership stores nationwide, involving 10 cities. Its first membership store in Shanghai, Metro Baoshan store, will open before the end of this year. In addition, the remaining seven Metro malls in Shanghai will also transform into membership stores one after another. The Hema X membership store in the East Hongqiao Center will also open by the end of this year.
Deep Digital China will continue to report trends of retail market in China.