From its glory days as the 'most profitable supermarket' to now facing a potential sale, RT-Mart's story is a commercial drama full of ups and downs. After a 20-day trading halt, on the evening of October 15, Sun Art Retail announced that on September 27 it had received a letter from a potential buyer expressing interest in acquiring all issued shares. Although the announcement did not reveal the identity of this mysterious buyer, the news still drew market attention. On October 16, as Sun Art Retail resumed trading, its share price surged over 25% at one point. RT-Mart was once one of the most profitable supermarkets in China. During the golden age of traditional retail, it not only surpassed international giants like Carrefour and Walmart but also firmly held the position of the largest domestic retail supermarket. However, the good times did not last. With the rise of e-commerce and changes in consumer shopping habits, RT-Mart gradually felt unprecedented pressure. In 2017, Alibaba took a stake in RT-Mart, attempting to reshape the fate of this veteran retailer through the 'new retail' model. This move, seen by outsiders as a key step in Alibaba's new retail strategy, now seems to have failed to sustain RT-Mart's glory. Seven years have passed, and from a traditional retail powerhouse to a high-profile new retail experiment, RT-Mart has undergone a series of transformations and challenges. What has RT-Mart experienced during this turbulent period? Now, facing new uncertainties, can RT-Mart still control its own destiny? Unfinished New Retail Transformation With the continuous development of e-commerce, physical retail such as department stores and supermarkets faced challenges as early as 2016. As more consumers shifted their shopping habits from offline to online, traditional retailers like RT-Mart had to seek transformation to cope with market changes. In 2017, RT-Mart, at a low point, saw a turning point—Alibaba announced the purchase of 36.16% of Sun Art Retail's shares for HK$22.4 billion, becoming a significant shareholder. The cooperation between the traditional retail giant and the internet giant attracted widespread industry attention. Subsequently, in 2020, Alibaba invested an additional HK$28 billion, further consolidating its control over RT-Mart and demonstrating its ambition in the new retail sector. As an important testing ground for Alibaba's new retail strategy, from the beginning of its investment, Alibaba was committed to integrating RT-Mart's online and offline operations, launching a series of measures for comprehensive digital upgrades. In 2018, Alibaba connected RT-Mart to its platforms such as Taoxianda, Ele.me, and Tmall Supermarket, using these online entrances to gain new growth points. At the same time, to strengthen its fresh food business, it launched 'RT-Mart Youxian', which offers one-hour delivery service. 2018 was the first full fiscal year after Alibaba took over, but RT-Mart did not achieve the expected significant growth; instead, it saw its first double decline in revenue and profit since 2016. In 2020, Alibaba continued to increase support for RT-Mart. At that time, Lin Xiaohai, a former Alibaba vice president, joined Sun Art Retail to accelerate the reform process. A series of measures included introducing new technologies such as self-checkout machines, electronic price tags, and face-swipe payment, as well as cooperating with Hema to launch the 'Hema Xiaoma' project, aiming to improve store operational efficiency. Additionally, to cater to higher-end market demand, RT-Mart also tried the membership store model, launching new formats such as Zhongrunfa and M Membership Store. In the short term, Alibaba's new retail transformation did bring performance growth to RT-Mart. In 2020, RT-Mart ranked first on the China Chain Store & Franchise Association (CCFA) list of top 100 Chinese supermarkets with sales of 105.989 billion yuan. But the good times did not last; the growth in online traffic failed to sustain overall performance. After 2021, RT-Mart experienced two consecutive years of declining performance. Although it barely returned to profitability in 2023, it still could not hide its decline. By 2024, RT-Mart's financial situation became even more severe. Sun Art Retail's fiscal year 2024 performance report showed that for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, the company's revenue was 72.567 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.3%. At the same time, the company recorded a loss of 1.668 billion yuan for the year, a significant increase compared to the profit of 78 million yuan in the same period last year. Looking back at RT-Mart's new retail transformation path, from the traditional supermarket model to the integration of online and offline, and then to exploring new formats like warehouse membership supermarkets, although many innovative attempts were made, it ultimately failed to successfully transform. On one hand, while competing for online traffic, RT-Mart lost its original price advantage; on the other hand, its efforts to attract mid-to-high-end members did not fully match the needs of its existing consumer base, failing to meet their high demands for service quality and personalized experience. Moreover, RT-Mart's timing for establishing warehouse supermarkets was somewhat late. Besides the two international chains Sam's Club and Costco, there were already domestic newcomers like Hema, fudi, and Yonghui, making competition with these rivals no easy task. After the pandemic, further changes in consumer habits, especially the rise of community group buying, brought greater pressure to offline physical retail, exacerbating RT-Mart's performance decline. The King of Supermarkets, No Longer What It Was In 2018, RT-Mart founder Huang Mingduan said in an interview with New Retail Think Tank that Alibaba and RT-Mart were jointly shaping a new retail era. Although this judgment may now seem overly optimistic, it is undeniable that in the development history of China's retail industry, RT-Mart has always been a presence that cannot be ignored. This enterprise, founded in 1996, was originally transformed from a Taiwanese textile company. At the time of RT-Mart's establishment, international chain supermarkets such as Carrefour and Walmart had already established a foothold in China, but Huang Mingduan did not retreat. His first strategy was 'imitation', benchmarking Carrefour in operations, changing tall heavy shelves to light shelves for ordinary consumers to better adapt to the market demand at the time. While Carrefour and Walmart focused on first-tier cities and chose locations in bustling commercial areas, Huang Mingduan cleverly avoided direct competition with these international giants, choosing to enter second- and third-tier cities on a large scale, targeting consumer groups who valued cost-effectiveness. It was not until 2009 that RT-Mart opened its first store in Beijing. This 'rural surrounding the city' strategy allowed RT-Mart to quickly occupy blank markets. At the same time, RT-Mart keenly captured consumers' demand for price and convenience, launching the 'one-stop shopping experience' hypermarket concept. Through source procurement, controlling operating costs, and frequent promotional activities, RT-Mart won a broad consumer base in lower-tier cities. During the early rise of China's retail industry, RT-Mart quickly became a dark horse in the industry. In its third year in the market, its turnover reached over 20 billion yuan. In 2000, RT-Mart, with a membership of up to 1.5 million, was still developing at high speed. Huang Mingduan set the ambitious goal of surpassing Walmart and Carrefour to become China's number one retail enterprise. After that, RT-Mart carried out localization transformations, making store operations more suitable for consumers in different regions, and implemented a dividend system in internal management, linking employee income to store sales performance, thereby enhancing employee motivation. After 2009, RT-Mart entered an explosive period, replacing Carrefour with a turnover of over 40 billion yuan to become the leading retailer in the mainland Chinese market. In 2011, RT-Mart merged with French group Auchan to form Sun Art Retail and was listed in Hong Kong. Its stock price once reached a high of HK$13.4, with a market value of up to HK$127.8 billion, surpassing Walmart in market share, and it was hailed as the 'most profitable supermarket'. Since then, RT-Mart left behind its international retail supermarket competitors and truly entered its golden age. However, just as RT-Mart was riding the waves, an internet technology revolution quietly arrived. When RT-Mart first entered the Chinese market, e-commerce giants like JD.com and Alibaba were already beginning to emerge. After more than a decade of development, these internet companies rose rapidly, changing people's shopping and consumption habits, and bringing huge impacts to traditional retail. RT-Mart was not unaware of this crisis. In 2014, they launched their own e-commerce platform 'Feiniu.com' to meet the challenge, but after investing over 1 billion yuan in three years, it was difficult to compete with e-commerce giants like Taobao and JD.com. In 2016, a RT-Mart store in Weifang closed due to property issues, breaking its record of never closing a store in the mainland market since entering 19 years ago. Subsequently, facing transformation pressure, RT-Mart was acquired by Alibaba, but it failed to fundamentally reverse the situation. By 2024, Sun Art Retail not only recorded huge losses but also closed 20 hypermarkets, making RT-Mart's retail myth seem difficult to sustain. Who Will Save RT-Mart? In recent years, retail giants at home and abroad have faced contraction. In 2019, Suning.com acquired 80% of Carrefour China, marking Carrefour Group's official exit from the mainland Chinese market. Another retail giant, Walmart, was not spared either. According to Lianshang.com, from 2016 to 2020, Walmart closed about 80 stores in China; in the first half of 2024 alone, it closed at least 15 stores. On September 23 this year, Yonghui Superstores, a leading domestic supermarket, was acquired by Miniso for 6.3 billion yuan. Although the founder of Miniso expressed optimism about this, the industry generally held reservations about this takeover. Now, following Yonghui, RT-Mart is also facing the fate of being 'sold'. Compared to RT-Mart itself, the outside world is more concerned about the potential buyer. In addition to COFCO, which has repeatedly been rumored to be interested in acquisition, DCP Capital, Hillhouse Investment, and Ruentex Group have also been listed as possible buyers, with Hillhouse and Ruentex considered more likely. The reason Hillhouse is at the center of rumors is closely related to its rich investment experience and successful cases. It is worth noting that before Alibaba invested in RT-Mart, Zhang Lei, founder of Hillhouse Capital, personally held 5% of Sun Art Retail's shares. Additionally, Hillhouse has had successful investment cases in the retail chain industry that 'brought back to life'. In 2017, Hillhouse acquired the bankrupt shoe giant Belle International at a high price of 53.1 billion yuan. At that time, Belle's prospects were unclear, and the decision made by Hillhouse President Zhang Lei was once misunderstood by outsiders. Under Hillhouse's operation, Belle International was split into Topsports International and Belle Fashion. The former, as the largest distributor of Adidas and Nike in China, held distribution rights for multiple sports brands and successfully listed in Hong Kong in 2019. Now, Belle is still striving for listing, and Hillhouse is expected to be the behind-the-scenes winner. Another potential buyer, Ruentex Group, is RT-Mart's old owner. Huang Mingduan is still the vice chairman of Ruentex Group and has a deep connection with the group's president. Regardless of who ultimately takes over, the only certainty is that the former supermarket hegemon has been put on the 'shelf' for sale by Alibaba, but this does not mean failure. It's just that traditional supermarkets still face numerous challenges under the overall trend. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, since 2017, the number of domestic supermarket stores has continued to decline, especially large chain supermarkets, which have decreased at a faster rate. From 11,947 stores in 2012 to 5,340 in 2020, a decrease of over 55%. Looking at future development trends, domestic supermarkets may need to benchmark against warehouse membership supermarkets. Such supermarkets typically offer lower prices and higher cost-effectiveness. According to iiMedia Research data, the market size of China's warehouse membership supermarket industry reached 36.41 billion yuan in 2023, and is expected to reach 38.78 billion yuan in 2024. Against the backdrop of the decline of traditional supermarkets, regardless of who takes over, RT-Mart still faces many uncertainties and challenges. Whether RT-Mart can break free from its current predicament and regain its former glory will be an important issue for its new owner to address.