2024 Retail Major Events 2024 is destined to be a year recorded in the annals of Chinese retail history. Whether online or offline, the tidal waves of channel revolution are dismantling the precarious traditional retail order. What major events occurred in the retail industry in 2024? March 31 – Pangdonglai assists in the adjustment and transformation of Better Life (002251); May 18 – Leerle Retail Shared Warehouse opens, announcing the slogan "Charge towards 100 billion, break through 10,000 stores"; May 28 – Costco opens its first fully ecological flagship store in mainland China in Nanjing; June 12 – Mingming Henmang Group announces breaking through 10,000 stores; June 15 – Hema NB's 110th store (first franchise store) opens, focusing on discount formats; June 17 – Sichuan Provincial State-owned Assets formally approves Sichuan Commercial Investment's acquisition of control of Hongqi Chain (002697); Q3 – Wanchen Group quietly breaks through 10,000 stores; June 19 – Pangdonglai adjusts and transforms Yonghui Superstores (601933); July 21 – Zhongbai Group (000759) learns from Pangdonglai and opens its first self-adjusted store; September 23 – Miniso (09896.HK) announces acquisition of Yonghui Superstores (601933); September 24 – Douyin Hourly Delivery launches nationwide, intensifying instant retail; September 26 – Bailian Group's (600827) Lianhua Supermarket opens its first self-adjusted store; September 27 – Snacks Youming announces full entry into wholesale supermarkets; October 14 – Miniso (09896) and Meituan announce deep strategic cooperation, deepening flash warehouse collaboration; October 15 – Meituan announces over 30,000 flash warehouses, targeting over 100,000 flash warehouses with GMV of 200 billion by 2027; October 23 – At the 2024 Instant E-commerce Future Business Summit, Ele.me announces focus on building "instant retail with Ele.me characteristics"; October 28 – Three Squirrels (300783) announces acquisition of snack discount chain Ai Snacks and discount supermarket Ai Discount; November 1 – JD Seven Fresh Supermarket and front warehouses complete integration, intensifying instant retail; November 15 – Sam's Club sales exceed 90 billion, surpassing full-year 2023 sales, charging towards 100 billion; November 25 – Sun Art Retail Group (06808.HK) releases FY2025 interim report, emphasizing the second curve hypermarket format "RT-Mart Super"; December 17 – Alibaba Group announces agreement to sell all its Intime equity to a consortium led by Youngor Group and Intime management team for approximately 7.4 billion yuan; December 21 – Wanchen Group launches full-category discount supermarket model – Laiyoupin Money-Saving Supermarket; ...... Reviewing 2024, through sorting out major retail transformation events, we summarize three main market lines.
1. Discount retail, the new barbarians entering 2. Supermarket adjustment and transformation, old trees sprout new buds
3. Instant retail, the new battlefield for giants These three areas will continue with the ongoing channel revolution and become key events to watch in the 2025 retail market. Discount Retail, the New Retail Barbarians With the two major snack discount giants, Mingming Henmang and Wanchen Group, breaking through 10,000 stores, the snack discount format has established a "two superpowers, multiple strong players" pattern in China. The establishment of the pattern means the snack discount industry has entered the second half, transitioning from barbaric development to refined operations. The barbaric development of snack discount in 2024 proves that the circulation efficiency of China's food and beverage market has been inefficient with huge room for optimization. Moreover, snack discount has successfully reshaped the entire circulation chain of food and beverages, compressing the intermediate distribution links. This is why many distributors of snacks and beverages are having a hard time, but distributors in more categories will face even harder times ahead. Reviewing the development of snack discount, with limited market opportunities, more retail players are turning their attention to full-category discount supermarkets. Whether it's Leerle, which has been deeply involved in hard discount for years, Snacks Youming and Hema NB, which are creating new models, or Three Squirrels (Ai Discount), which is a giant entering the field, all are exploring how to reshape the circulation chain of general merchandise categories and improve circulation efficiency. From Guan Supermarket in Fuzhou, Xunwushe in Henan, Jinbaibai in Tianjin, to Jingxiaoh in Xi'an... the author can see more emerging regional discount supermarkets across the country, also on the way. As a result, a wave of discount retail is sweeping across the country. This has a particularly significant impact on the traditional retail system built over the past 30 years. Hard discount, as the "price butcher," has begun to rectify the entire retail industry on a large scale. This price-oriented involution competition aligns with current consumption trends and is an objective fact happening now. We need not subjectively evaluate its impact on the industry, but we can be certain that it will gradually spread throughout China. The development of full-category discount supermarkets will definitely be one of the main themes in the retail industry in the coming years. Old Trees, New Shoots – Transformation of Traditional Supermarkets Undoubtedly, the development of discount retail has had a severe impact on traditional retail, especially the hypermarket format. As a result, traditional supermarkets cannot sit idly by and have initiated a wave of transformation. Whether it's Pangdonglai's assistance or regional retail giants' self-adjustments, the essence is to work on the product assortment. On one hand, forced by the macro environment, they are abandoning the past landlord model, cutting redundant fees, and actively promoting "naked procurement" to narrow the price gap with competitors. On the other hand, they are implementing the concept of "wide categories, narrow items," reducing categories and implementing differentiated product selection to create a unique assortment. To some extent, this is an inevitable event when the retail industry develops to a certain stage. Just like Sam's Club, the "hit product maker," which was born out of Walmart's experience in the US retail industry transformation, it was directly globalized and replicated in China. Even so, after entering China in 1996, it went through a long period of dormancy before exploding at the current stage. But it's hard for a big ship to turn around. The transformation of traditional supermarkets requires surgery on the original huge system, a complex project that takes a lot of time. As seen with the aggressive Yonghui, it is expected that by 2025, it will only complete the transformation of about 100 stores, which is less than 20% of its total store count, showing the scale of the challenge. Currently, many regional supermarkets have begun to embark on the wave of self-adjustment. China Resources Vanguard, Jiajiayue, Inzone Supermarket, CP Lotus... the list continues to grow. In the coming years, we will inevitably witness traditional supermarkets of all sizes continuously undergoing self-surgery, adjusting and optimizing store by store. The New Battlefield for Giants – Instant Retail If it were only the offline retail upheaval, 2024 would not be extraordinary. Also in 2024, online giants began to increase their investment in instant retail, further catalyzing uncertainty in the retail market. Instant retail is not new, but with market penetration and continuous consumer education, mainstream front-warehouse formats such as Sam's Cloud Warehouse, Dingdong Maicai, Xiaoxiang Supermarket, and PUPU Supermarket have all achieved profitability with good growth performance. The format has reached an inflection point for explosion and has also attracted the attention of giants. Especially Meituan, with local life services as its main battlefield, not only builds an instant retail platform ecosystem through the flash warehouse model, but also has models like Xiaoxiang Supermarket, Waima Delivery, Squirrel Convenience, and Zebra Supermarket. Blooming in multiple places, it shows the giants' emphasis on it, no less than a transformation of retail infrastructure. As merchants, seeing the market potential of instant retail, they are also actively embracing it. For example, Miniso has deeply cooperated with Meituan, launching 800 flash warehouses within the year. The instant retail business means that retail consumption scenarios are no longer limited to in-store; home delivery is also a key factor to consider in the future. And with platforms like JD.com, Ele.me, and Douyin starting to pay attention and increase investment, it means that in the coming years, instant retail will inevitably continue to expand into new cities and open more warehouses, accelerating penetration. Retail consumption in the home delivery scenario will inevitably continue to divert from the in-store scenario. For traditional retail, this is undoubtedly another issue that needs to be learned to adapt to and deal with. Conclusion Although 2024 was a painful and confusing year for the entire FMCG industry, in the areas of hard discount, supermarket transformation, and instant retail, we still saw many impressive growth performances. And those FMCG practitioners who caught the above retail trends, whether brand owners, distributors, or retailers, have had very good business performance, unlike the bleak market conditions. Wealth lies in strategy, not hard work; profit lies in trends, not diligent farming. The current chaos in the retail industry is less about shrinking volume and more about the migration of existing stock. Under the general trend of decline, we can still see some structural growth trends. In 2025, many certain trends in retail will continue to ferment and penetrate the market. By grasping the trends, the FMCG industry still has great opportunities. 【New Order · Symbiosis】 The 10th China FMCG Innovation Conference Date: March 17-19, 2025 Location: Chengdu, China