Point-of-sale materials are often treated as a final execution detail.

In reality, they are where channel strategy, product information, price, brand, and consumer experience become visible in the store.

As China's offline retail formats diverge, one POSM system can no longer serve every channel.

Visual consultancy New Can studied representative retailers and found two broad directions: extreme efficiency and immersive experience.

Consumers Return to Stores for Different Reasons

Offline retail still represented a large share of FMCG sales when the article was published in 2025.

Consumers had not stopped shopping in physical stores, but their expectations had changed.

Some formats win through speed, simple decisions, high turnover, and a visible price advantage.

Others win through discovery, emotion, service, and a richer environment.

Every channel combines efficiency and experience, but it places them in different proportions.

Sam's Club: Reduce POSM to the Essential

The article described Sam's Club as an efficiency-led format.

Its POSM system could be reduced largely to three elements:

  • product display packaging;
  • price labels;
  • long-term navigation signs.

Price labels are simple to produce, and navigation rarely changes. Product-ready packaging carries much of the display work.

The limited system reduces store labor, material variation, and execution complexity while helping consumers understand value quickly.

Snack Discount: Make Price and Turnover Visible

Snack-discount stores also prioritize efficiency, but they operate in smaller, denser spaces with rapid product rotation.

The article cited a twenty-eight-day product-change rhythm.

Those stores cannot use large warehouse-style displays for every brand. Instead, they enlarge price communication and use display systems that employees can change very quickly.

Floor stickers draw attention to products on lower shelves that would otherwise disappear in a visually crowded assortment.

The design objective is rapid information delivery and rapid physical replacement.

Walmart Remodeling: Balance Scale and Communication

A remodeled Walmart store in Kunming represented a middle position.

Large elements delivered speed, visibility, and memory. Smaller elements provided product explanation and emotional communication.

Oversized, manually adjustable price boards allowed immediate changes when products rotated.

Large category graphics borrowed from the visual logic of retailers such as IKEA and Decathlon, while standardized smaller materials preserved consistency.

The system balanced management efficiency with consumer experience.

Freshippo: Use the Store as an Experience Laboratory

Freshippo followed a different route.

A large share of its sales came from online orders, so the physical store served not only as inventory and fulfillment infrastructure but also as a place to test new experiences.

Its POSM changed frequently. Scenario-based marketing, simple navigation, and new visual themes maintained freshness.

The store was allowed more material variation because discovery and experimentation were part of its role.

Pangdonglai: Build Emotional Communication

Pangdonglai used far more POSM, with greater investment and more varied content than the other formats in the comparison.

The materials supported emotional communication and detailed consumer guidance.

Even one dairy display could use several signs with different messages and materials.

That model carries high management cost and is difficult to standardize across a very large chain. Pangdonglai's smaller store base allowed local employees to maintain the detail required for an immersive experience.

The investment helped distinguish the retailer from efficiency-led competitors.

Management Cost Rises with Experience

Across the channel spectrum, three things generally increase together:

  • management cost;
  • demand for content;
  • dimensions of consumer communication.

Brands must understand where a target channel sits on that spectrum.

A strong product, attractive economics, and excellent supply planning can still fail when the final store communication does not fit the format.

Four Principles for POSM 2.0

The article summarized the next generation of POSM through four concepts.

1. Channel Classification

Every product should have a clear primary channel.

The brand should identify the channel's operating objective and design the POSM toolkit around it rather than send the same materials everywhere.

2. Consumer Experience

Channels are moving toward different ends of the spectrum, from pure function to strong emotion.

POSM must support the experience the retailer promises.

3. Brand Coordination

Packaging, product-ready displays, price communication, and the store system should work together.

POSM is not separate from product design or channel strategy.

4. Scenario Marketing

Growth can come from connecting several products and screens around a consumption occasion.

Scenario marketing helps the brand move beyond one isolated shelf message and create related demand.

Give Each Channel the Right Tool

Efficiency-led membership stores, discount stores, and snack chains need concise inputs.

Product information should not be long or complex. The channel needs the few messages that help staff execute and consumers decide quickly.

Experience-led key accounts and new-retail formats need stronger management of the physical place.

The brand should prepare a coherent set of materials that the retailer can choose to deploy throughout the space.

POSM is therefore a strategic execution tool, not a decorative afterthought.

Winning the next retail channel may depend on millimeters of shelf space, seconds of staff time, and the clarity of the final message delivered to the consumer.