Walmart keen on further expansion

Walmart Inc, a US retail giant and owner of Sam's Club, is doubling down on China, betting its omnichannel strategy and continued expansion of both its membership warehouse chain and hypermarket business will sustain growth.

Walmart China President and Chief Executive Officer Zhu Xiaojing said online sales accounted for more than half of the company's revenue in China in 2025, highlighting the retailer's transformation from a traditional brick-and-mortar operator into an omnichannel retailer.

Over the past three decades, Walmart China has built an integrated retail network spanning hypermarkets, neighborhood stores, Sam's Club warehouses, cloud warehouses and digital channels, Zhu said.

"Walmart will continue investing in China by expanding its omnichannel footprint, strengthening localized merchandise development with suppliers and deepening its presence in local communities," said Zhu.

As part of its latest expansion, Walmart signed cooperation agreements with local governments in five cities. The projects include new Walmart and Sam's Club developments in Yantai, Shandong province; Walmart stores in Beijing's Changping district and Shenyang, Liaoning province; and Sam's Club locations in Wuhan, Hubei province, and Nantong, Jiangsu province.

The investment marks the latest phase of Walmart's decade-long transformation in China.

After entering the market in 1996, Walmart expanded rapidly through its hypermarket business. However, the rise of e-commerce, changing consumer habits and intensifying competition from warehouse clubs and fresh-food retailers prompted the company to overhaul its strategy.

Beginning in 2016, Walmart accelerated the closure of underperforming hypermarkets while shifting investment toward Sam's Club, which has since become the company's biggest growth engine in China.

According to the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, or CCFA, Walmart and Sam's Club operated a combined 342 stores in China in 2025, about 100 fewer than their peak in 2019. Despite the smaller store network, Walmart China's sales exceeded 190 billion yuan ($28.18 billion) last year, with Sam's Club contributing more than 100 billion yuan, according to public data.

The strategy has helped Walmart maintain its position as the country's largest modern grocery retailer, although competition in the membership warehouse segment is intensifying.

Costco Wholesale Corp, which currently operates seven stores in China, plans to more than double that number to 16 by fiscal 2030, with most new locations concentrated in eastern and southern China.

Although Costco has expanded more cautiously than Sam's Club, it generated more than 10 billion yuan in China sales in 2025, with average annual revenue exceeding 1.4 billion yuan per store, according to figures cited by the CCFA.

At the same time, Sam's Club is facing growing operational challenges as its membership base expands. Consumer complaints over product quality have increased and the chain was summoned by China's market regulator in June over food safety issues. Shortly afterward, Zhang Qing, Sam's Club China's chief merchandising officer, resigned.

More broadly, China's grocery sector continues to undergo structural change as consumers gravitate toward value-oriented, convenience-focused and digitally integrated retail formats.

Data from Worldpanel by Numerator showed sales across modern grocery channels — including hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores — fell 2.5 percent in the first half from a year earlier. Neighborhood supermarkets outperformed, with sales rising 3.6 percent, while convenience stores posted the steepest declines.

wangzhuoqiong@chinadaily.com.cn