---
title: "RT-Mart Enters Membership Store Business"
description: "The membership store sector is getting more crowded as RT-Mart's M Membership Store lands in Yangzhou, officially entering the fray. An M Membership Store representative told Spirit Animal that the new store will open in April next year, but member recruitment began on November 1 this year. \"For now, we hope to build anticipation, and we strive not to disappoint,\" the representative said."
author: "东方"
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published: "2022-11-12"
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# RT-Mart Enters Membership Store Business

> The membership store sector is getting more crowded as RT-Mart's M Membership Store lands in Yangzhou, officially entering the fray. An M Membership Store representative told Spirit Animal that the new store will open in April next year, but member recruitment began on November 1 this year. "For now, we hope to build anticipation, and we strive not to disappoint," the representative said.

The membership store sector is getting more crowded as RT-Mart's M Membership Store lands in Yangzhou, officially entering the fray. An M Membership Store representative told Spirit Animal that the new store will open in April next year, but member recruitment began on November 1 this year. "For now, we hope to build anticipation, and we strive not to disappoint," the representative said.

**01**
**Landing in Yangzhou** On September 22, 2022, the official account "M Membership Store" was registered under the entity "Concord Investment (China) Co., Ltd." Concord Investment is the actual operating company of the RT-Mart brand, whose parent is Sun Art Retail Group. M Membership Store is Sun Art's premium paid membership store. For Yangzhou residents, RT-Mart has been closely tied to their lives, with 10 RT-Mart stores already in the city over the years. It is understood that RT-Mart M Membership Store is a key project introduced by Yangzhou in 2023, located at No. 425 Jiangyang Middle Road, Hanjiang District, covering approximately 35,000 square meters with 800 parking spaces. The M store sits in the Second City area, near Diehu Park. On the map, it forms a commercial circle with Yangzhou Wanda Plaza, Shunda Plaza, and Baolong Plaza. The store was originally the Jiangyang RT-Mart (formerly Auchan) that closed on July 18 for renovation and upgrade. It opened in December 2008 and has a 14-year history. In its early days, it was the leading retail store in southern Yangzhou, but with the successive openings of Aobang RT-Mart and Yonghui Superstores, and the impact of online channels, Auchan's foot traffic gradually declined. In June 2021, Auchan began rebranding as RT-Mart. The Jiangyang store has three floors: the first floor was originally a pedestrian street model based on supermarket traffic flow, with dining along the street and fast-fashion clothing inside; the second floor was the supermarket; the third floor was a parking lot with about 600 spaces. Given that warehouse membership stores require large sales floors and ample parking, the Jiangyang store meets the conditions for conversion. Currently, the M store is under renovation, with upgrades expected to take about 8 months. According to construction workers on site, demolition is complete, and they are now working on the flooring, which typically takes about 3 months. M Membership Store has set up multiple promotional booths in Yangzhou, and staff are recruiting members. Local residents report that many nearby residents are inquiring and some are signing up on the spot. Although Sam's Club has no store in Yangzhou, it has a certain reputation among young people in the area due to its brand strength and the online spread of its trendy food products. Currently, going to Sam's from Yangzhou requires traveling to nearby cities like Nanjing or Changzhou, which takes considerable time, so many Yangzhou residents have started "Sam's purchasing agent" businesses, mainly for snacks, desserts, beverages, and fresh produce. The news of M Membership Store, whose product categories overlap with Sam's, has also attracted attention from local young people. Many have already registered as initial members in community groups. Of course, some are concerned about product quality and are hesitant to sign up early, preferring to wait until the store opens to see the products before deciding.

**02**
**Benchmarking** Spirit Animal learned from M Membership Store's relevant person in charge that memberships can be purchased through the mini-program, app, or official community. Currently, via the M Membership Store app, users can register and log in freely, but no products are sold yet; only memberships are offered. M Membership Store offers two types of memberships: business and personal, targeting enterprises and individuals. Looking at current membership fee standards in the sector: Costco's annual fee is 299 yuan; Sam's Club's ordinary membership is 260 yuan per year, and its Plus membership is 680 yuan; Metro's PLUS annual card is 199 yuan; Hema X Membership Store charges 258 yuan per year; local newcomer fudi charges 365 yuan for ordinary membership and 680 yuan for Fuxing membership; Carrefour's membership store charges 258 yuan per year. M Membership Store's fee structure appears to benchmark against Sam's Club. It offers two types: ordinary membership at 260 yuan/year, which includes three benefits: selected quality products, omnichannel shopping, and worry-free returns, plus a free gift card for a friend or family member; and Black Gold membership at 680 yuan/year, which includes all ordinary member benefits plus five additional benefits: shopping points, online shipping vouchers, 15% off eyewear, worry-free savings shopping, and quality afternoon tea, also with a free gift card. According to the M membership handbook provided to Spirit Animal, M Membership Store features a super-large shopping space, professional sharing sessions, free tastings, and omnichannel shopping. Additionally, M Membership Store promises to prioritize food safety, carefully select products, strictly control quality, offer the lowest prices, and refine every detail. In terms of brands and products, M Membership Store selects quality brands and products from over 30 countries, including Braun, Hitachi, Philips, Panasonic, P&G, LEGO, Tiger, and Zojirushi. Spirit Animal learned that the store offers a rich variety of fresh products, such as Atlantic salmon fillets, black gold abalone, California cherries, AOP butter croissants, Australian tomahawk steaks, extra-large black tiger shrimp, and Shangri-La matsutake mushrooms. Some fresh items even boast the slogan "From catch to table, ultra-fresh in 48 hours." In terms of private label, M Membership Store also has a wide range of own-brand products, such as coconut water, calamansi lime juice, whole wheat soda crackers, and cheese-flavored egg cakes. From the current membership benefits, product features, and service experience, M Membership Store is quite similar to the top-tier players in the market, such as Sam's Club, Metro, and Costco. Beyond membership benefits, product features, and service experience, the leadership of M Membership Store has also drawn industry attention. According to related media reports, the store's leaders are Yuan Bin and Li Xinlin. Yuan Bin is a "senior retail veteran" from RT-Mart's middle generation, joining RT-Mart in 2000 and leading online strategic emerging businesses like Feiniu.com. Before taking on the membership store project, Yuan Bin led the creation of RT-Mart's community small-format store "Xiaorunfa." Li Xinlin previously served as the regional general manager for Sam's Club South Region. After leaving Sam's, he joined Carrefour, where he participated in creating and operating the Carrefour membership store format as deputy general manager. He later joined RT-Mart and became one of the main leaders of RT-Mart's membership store project.

**03**
**Seeking Change** In the past two years, with Costco entering China in 2019, Sam's Club continuously expanding, Metro accelerating store renovations, Carrefour entering the membership store sector last year, and local players like Hema, fudi, Yonghui, Jiajiayue, Hualian Supermarket, and Beiguo Supermarket, the membership store track has become fiercely competitive. The impressive performances of Sam's Club and Costco have proven the profitability and feasibility of the membership store model. Regarding RT-Mart's move into the membership store sector, some industry insiders believe it is mainly due to the impact of the pandemic and e-commerce, which have made offline retail revenue less optimistic. Coupled with the recent popularity of membership stores, RT-Mart is attempting to enter this sector to seek revenue turnaround. In fiscal year 2022, Sun Art Retail achieved revenue of 88.134 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.3%; it recorded a net loss of 826 million yuan, a 136.01% decrease compared to the net profit of 2.294 billion yuan in fiscal year 2021. In terms of revenue composition, the company's revenue mainly comes from sales of goods and rental income. Revenue from sales of goods was 84.595 billion yuan, a decrease of about 5.4% from 89.458 billion yuan in the same period last year; rental income from tenants was 3.539 billion yuan, a decrease of about 2.5% from 3.628 billion yuan in the same period last year. Now, with physical retail struggling and hypermarkets in decline, RT-Mart, as a leading enterprise, is also facing industry difficulties and tough times. This is a common challenge across the industry. Since RT-Mart opened its first hypermarket in mainland China in 1998, it now has 504 offline stores. However, with the rise of e-commerce and instant delivery platforms, the growth momentum of large offline supermarkets has clearly weakened, and news of brand transformations and store closures is frequent. RT-Mart CEO Lin Xiaohai admitted in a media interview, "The hypermarket industry faces significant challenges, but what do we do with 500 hypermarkets? We can't close them. With 100,000 employees and 100 million users, we need to restructure RT-Mart in the future." He also said, "Offline foot traffic is very low; in fact, it's because hypermarkets haven't done well themselves." As a result, operators have gradually explored an RT-Mart 2.0 version, attempting to establish a new "scenario model." After the first 2.0 reconstruction store on Wuxi Changjiang North Road, RT-Mart has launched a larger-scale 2.0 reconstruction of its hypermarket stores. In fiscal year 2022, the innovative format "Zhongrunfa" added 3 new stores, bringing the total to 9; "Xiaorunfa" opened a total of 103 stores, with 73 new ones in fiscal year 2022. Now, RT-Mart's entry into membership stores is also a move for change.

**04**
**Breaking Through** In the past two years, a clear change in consumption is "sluggishness," while consumption has also become "divergent," leading to the adaptation of upward membership store models and downward discount formats. Under the new situation of upward consumption upgrading combined with the pandemic's impact, people's consumption concepts have shifted, emphasizing quality while also highlighting cost-effectiveness and being more planned. The paid membership model, which emphasizes high quality at good prices, has thus entered a period of explosive growth. As of November, Sam's Club just opened its 39th store in Nanning, Guangxi; Metro opened 22 membership stores in 16 months; Hema opened 7 membership stores in 16 months. The membership supermarket sector in the Chinese market is currently in a blue ocean development phase, with product differentiation and supply chain influence being the biggest variables. Curating products around members, reducing consumer anxiety, lowering decision-making time costs, and enabling worry-free shopping are the values of membership stores. Therefore, creating product differentiation and a strong supply chain system around member needs is the key to success. However, doing this well is not easy. Among paid membership store operators, besides Sam's Club, Costco and Metro have the most experience. But the issue is that the key to membership stores lies not only in supply chain strength. Whether it's Yonghui Superstores, Hema, or Metro, the gap in supply chain capabilities is not that large; the fundamental difference is that the membership store format uses a "customized model" supply chain, not a "procurement model." From this logic, long-term research on members is the core. Among the companies currently entering the Chinese market, Sam's Club is the most qualified to talk about membership on the B2C side, followed by Costco. So, besides Sam's Club and Costco, no local retail enterprise has yet successfully run a membership store model and achieved profitability. At the same time, membership stores must also consider renewal rates; core product selection, operational efficiency, and member service quality are important factors influencing consumer loyalty, which also tests the enterprise's overall operational capability in the later stage. In this regard, Chen Yuefeng, founder of Spirit Animal Media, said, "Sam's Club opened its first membership store 27 years ago. It even opened a store in Kunming over a decade ago but later withdrew because the middle class wasn't large enough then, and some places lacked the soil for membership stores. But later, Sam's Club's performance has actually been quite good." He noted that some current membership stores still use traditional supplier models, maintaining a "sit-back" mentality, waiting for suppliers to come to them, charging entry fees, and not fundamentally improving product quality. "They don't, like membership stores, seek quality suppliers based on their own product structure and new product development pace." In his view, Sam's Club has already captured some consumer mindshare, and it's unlikely that other companies in the sector will surpass it in the short term. Although Costco has also achieved profitability in the Chinese market, it is still in the stage of adapting to the Chinese market. Whether in store expansion or connecting with Chinese consumers, Sam's Club is smoother. "Moreover, after consumers buy a membership card from one store, if it meets all their needs, there seems to be no reason to switch," Chen said. For local enterprises, entering the paid membership store format is still in the exploration and trial stage. The understanding of the core value of warehouse membership stores and the establishment of capability support will take time, and supply chain and operational capabilities still need cultivation. In this process, uncertainties remain significant. If it's merely a blue ocean opportunity-driven layout, it will be difficult for any retail enterprise to truly capture the overall value of warehouse membership stores. Whether RT-Mart's M Membership Store can break through first remains to be tested by time.


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