--- title: "Auchan Says Hypermarket Growth Nearly Stalled: Where Will They Go?" description: "Reporter: Zhao Xiaojuan | Photo: Visual China | Source: Interface News. Editor's note: With convenience stores and community supermarkets seeing double-digit growth, the hypermarket format's growth has nearly stalled. How will hypermarkets transform and revive? At the 18th China Retail Expo, Auchan CEO Jiang Yongfang said that specialty stores with deep category focus, such as fresh produce and fruit stores, are already eroding hypermarkets' share, challenging their remaining fresh advantage." author: "零售原点" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2016-11-05" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/auchan-says-hypermarket-growth-nearly-stalled-where-will-they-go-f116e118/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/auchan-says-hypermarket-growth-nearly-stalled-where-will-they-go-f116e118.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/hviJ_lhzY7cL2UL7mCk1ag" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%A4%A7%E6%B6%A6%E5%8F%91%E8%AF%B4%E5%A4%A7%E5%8D%96%E5%9C%BA%E5%A2%9E%E9%95%BF%E5%87%A0%E4%B9%8E%E5%81%9C%E6%BB%9E-%E5%AE%83%E4%BB%AC%E5%B0%86%E4%BD%95%E5%8E%BB%E4%BD%95%E4%BB%8E-f116e118.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/auchan-says-hypermarket-growth-nearly-stalled-where-will-they-go-f116e118/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Auchan Says Hypermarket Growth Nearly Stalled: Where Will They Go? > Reporter: Zhao Xiaojuan | Photo: Visual China | Source: Interface News. Editor's note: With convenience stores and community supermarkets seeing double-digit growth, the hypermarket format's growth has nearly stalled. How will hypermarkets transform and revive? At the 18th China Retail Expo, Auchan CEO Jiang Yongfang said that specialty stores with deep category focus, such as fresh produce and fruit stores, are already eroding hypermarkets' share, challenging their remaining fresh advantage. **Reporter: Zhao Xiaojuan | Photo: Visual China** ## **Source: Interface News** > **Editor's Note** > > With convenience stores and community supermarkets seeing double-digit growth, the hypermarket format's growth has nearly stalled. How will hypermarkets transform and revive? "Specialty stores with deep category focus, such as fresh produce and fruit stores, are already eroding hypermarkets' share, challenging their remaining fresh advantage." At the 18th China Retail Expo, Auchan CEO Jiang Yongfang said that while convenience stores and community supermarkets see double-digit growth, hypermarket growth is nearly stagnant, with same-store sales even negative. Auchan currently operates 351 hypermarkets in China. **In the first half of this year, Auchan's parent company, Sun Art Retail, achieved revenue of approximately 52.943 billion yuan, up 4.4% year-on-year, but net profit was 1.432 billion yuan, down 2.7% year-on-year.** At the retail summit, the survival of the hypermarket format was even a dedicated roundtable discussion topic. Almost all hypermarket-focused chains face this situation. According to Kantar Worldpanel's market share data for major retailers, in the third quarter of this year, the market shares of Auchan, China Resources Vanguard, Walmart, Carrefour, Bailian, and other retail giants all declined. **Hypermarkets face particularly severe challenges in large cities, with a 0.6% year-on-year decline in the third quarter.** A survey report by Gu Guojian, director of the Shanghai Chain Operation Research Institute, confirms this: from end-December 2014 to end-December 2015, after surveying 229 hypermarket shuttle services, he found that within one year, shuttle routes decreased by 22%, trips by 25.8%, and stops by 15.3%. Over the nearly four years surveyed, the number of customers using hypermarket shuttles fell by 26.3%. **Changes in Hypermarket Shuttle Services** **Fewer Customers Arriving by Shuttle** Gu Guojian attributes the slowdown in hypermarket development to four internal reasons: over-reliance on channel fees for profitability; conflict between centralized procurement and store-centric management; widespread rent-seeking in operations; and outdated sales methods. **While recognizing these problems, most hypermarkets have begun transformation in recent years, including enhancing customer experience, adding imported foods and private-label products, and integrating supply chains.** **Changes in Hypermarkets** **Changes in Hypermarkets** **For example, Auchan has strengthened its direct sourcing and store manager category expert roles; Yonghui has implemented international procurement and partnership systems; CP Lotus has introduced labor dividend plans and trading rule reforms; Carrefour has largely completed its logistics center plan to improve supply chain; and Better Life has developed third-generation interactive hypermarkets.** Of course, many companies are also diversifying by developing new store formats and going online. For instance, Carrefour China President Thierry Garnier said at the retail summit that the company plans to open 40 Easy Carrefour convenience stores by year-end, focusing on high-quality products and private labels. Carrefour currently operates 17 convenience stores in Shanghai. Walmart also increased its stake in JD.com to 10.8% in mid-October and opened a global shopping flagship store. Auchan's Feiniu.com and Better Life's Yunhou overseas shopping initiatives all reflect retailers accelerating omnichannel strategies. But it is still too early to judge whether these moves will help hypermarkets find survival opportunities. --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671