---
title: "RT-Mart Finally Moves into Mini Stores!"
description: "At this stage, the trend toward smaller hypermarket formats has become an industry consensus. While several major domestic hypermarket players are rushing into new formats, RT-Mart seems to have been quiet—but is that really the case? In early March 2020, media reported that RT-Mart would launch a new store type—mini stores—positioned as community supermarkets, with an area of 500-1000 square meters, and planned to pilot in Nantong first. Recently, according to media reports, RT-Mart officially piloted its mini store, named Xiaorunfa RT-mini, with the first store located on Yuelong South Road in Nantong."
author: "长袖"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2020-07-03"
language: "en"
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---

# RT-Mart Finally Moves into Mini Stores!

> At this stage, the trend toward smaller hypermarket formats has become an industry consensus. While several major domestic hypermarket players are rushing into new formats, RT-Mart seems to have been quiet—but is that really the case? In early March 2020, media reported that RT-Mart would launch a new store type—mini stores—positioned as community supermarkets, with an area of 500-1000 square meters, and planned to pilot in Nantong first. Recently, according to media reports, RT-Mart officially piloted its mini store, named Xiaorunfa RT-mini, with the first store located on Yuelong South Road in Nantong.

At this stage, the trend toward smaller hypermarket formats has become an industry consensus. While several major domestic hypermarket players are rushing into new formats, RT-Mart seems to have been quiet—but is that really the case?
**In early March 2020, media reported that RT-Mart would open a new store type—mini stores—positioned as community supermarkets, with an area of 500-1000 square meters, and planned to pilot in Nantong first.**
Recently, according to media reports, RT-Mart officially piloted its mini store, named Xiaorunfa RT-mini, with the first store located on Yuelong South Road in Nantong. The store is currently under renovation.
As a veteran retail enterprise in China, **RT-Mart has finally made its move into the mini format**.
**-01- The Pain of Hypermarkets**
In fact, as a leading retail enterprise, RT-Mart has reasons for expanding into mini stores.
**1. Large Stores Face Difficulties**
**1) Success and Failure Both Lie in "Big and Comprehensive"**
In the era of material scarcity, hypermarkets were loved by many consumers for being "big and comprehensive." Consumers could be described as yearning for hypermarkets. Many families even enjoyed going to hypermarkets on weekends as a pastime, and in children's eyes, hypermarkets were like super-sized playgrounds.
At the same time, **hypermarkets, which bring together a wide range of household items, met the one-stop shopping needs of families, and also offered many uncommon "novel items."**
However, hypermarkets also fail because of being "big and comprehensive." As consumer demands change, hypermarkets are no longer just a one-stop shopping destination. The former "big and comprehensive" has become a burden in consumers' shopping experience.
Consumers may enter a hypermarket intending to buy only one or two items, and because consumers now have planned purchases for hypermarket goods, most shoppers already have a shopping plan when they go. However, due to the customer flow path designed by hypermarkets, buying one or two items may require walking through the entire store.
Secondly, besides planned purchases, the most frequent consumer purchases are fresh products. But hypermarkets are big and comprehensive, with no prominent product attributes. The fresh food section is poorly planned, common items are not fresh, and uncommon items are not regularly available—naturally causing consumers to lose favor.
In the past, consumers entered a store with the desire to move the whole hypermarket home; now, consumers leave hypermarkets empty-handed.
**2) Impact of New Formats**
In addition, in recent years, with the introduction of the new retail concept, many new formats have emerged, greatly satisfying consumer shopping needs. Consumers can buy global products without leaving home, and simple daily necessities can be purchased at convenience stores in or near their communities. Hypermarkets have been impacted by various new formats.
**3) Changes in Consumer Demand**
In the era of material scarcity, consumer demand was to meet basic needs. However, with the continuous advancement of China's moderately prosperous society and economic development, consumer needs can no longer be described as simple. Niche, novel, diverse, and ever-changing are the keywords for today's consumers. Yet, the development of hypermarkets seems not to have kept pace with consumer changes.
**4) Store Environment**
Along with economic and consumer development, consumers' aesthetics and demands for shopping environments have also evolved. Traditional hypermarkets with outdated decor and dim lighting—how can they attract consumers to stop and shop?
**5) Low Efficiency and High Costs**
Moreover, with continuous development, the costs of hypermarkets are also increasing: rent, utilities, labor, shrinkage, depreciation, and other costs. Without an environment that attracts consumers, and without consumer purchases, low efficiency and high costs become a vicious cycle.
**6) No Price Advantage**
Furthermore, today's hypermarket prices have basically no advantage compared to e-commerce platforms like Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, or community group buying formats. Additionally, since hypermarket shopping is planned consumption, consumers can order online and receive goods in a few days without affecting their experience; instead, they feel it is "saving money and effort."
Therefore, RT-Mart, as a veteran retail enterprise in China, also suffers from development difficulties.
**-02- First Movers: Yonghui, Walmart, Hema**
However, in China, RT-Mart is not the first retail enterprise to venture into community fresh food mini stores. The earliest were Walmart and Yonghui, and Hema's entry has also been strong.
**1. Yonghui**
Yonghui mini stores are positioned as community fresh food stores, with an average operating area of about 516 square meters. Characterized by small formats, they rely on Yonghui's huge supply chain and capture the community consumer market with nearly 60% fresh product ratio.
After opening its first mini store at the end of 2018, by the third quarter of 2019, Yonghui mini had opened 510 stores nationwide. According to Yonghui, some mini stores have already achieved profitability, and Yonghui is accelerating its expansion.
**2. Walmart**
Walmart proposed the concept of "compact hypermarkets" long ago, and in April 2018, it opened its first community format store, planning to replicate it nationwide this year. [1]
**3. Hema**
In 2019, Hema mini's first store opened in Shanghai. Since then, as a later entrant, Hema did not fear but quickly piloted in other cities with great momentum. In June this year, it was reported that Hema mini had achieved full profitability and planned to open 100 stores this year.
**-03- Development Opportunities for Smaller Hypermarkets**
Facing such strong competitors, does RT-Mart still have a chance by entering now? Yes!
**1. Small Stores Are More Professional and Flexible**
Due to the size and space limitations of hypermarkets, most hypermarkets are located far from residential areas. Although they are big and comprehensive, they still struggle to meet consumers' immediate needs.
**Mini stores, based on their spatial size, are more flexible and can go where large stores cannot, complementing the hypermarket format. At the same time, relying on the hypermarket's supply chain, mini stores have no worries.**
Moreover, **China's community-style living, with communities ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands of people, indicates that communities represent a huge consumer market.**
Mini stores located near communities can more professionally meet residents' daily needs, and can also improve the fulfillment efficiency of RT-Mart's home delivery business. The combination of hypermarkets + professional community mini stores + home delivery forms a more efficient business loop, creating a business barrier and continuously enhancing competitiveness.
**2. Driven by Consumer Demand**
In recent years, emerging formats such as e-commerce, community group buying, home delivery, and livestream selling all point to one consumer trend: convenience. So the mini store format, moving from three kilometers away to 500 meters from the community, is about **getting closer to consumers and improving convenience**.
**3. Small Stores Have Higher Efficiency**
Furthermore, compared to the "big and comprehensive" large stores, currently, more retail enterprises' small stores focus on fresh food categories, which are the highest-frequency purchases. You can go a month without drinking soda, but how long can you go without eating?
Hema's CEO Hou Yi also stated that with the same area, the efficiency of Hema mini is more than four times that of Hema Station.
**4. Mini Is Not Just Mini**
**In addition, retail enterprises' layout of mini stores not only meets community residents' consumption needs and provides offline store traffic attraction, but also improves the fulfillment capability of home delivery. By positioning in the closest place to consumers, it also enhances brand influence. For retail enterprises, it is a win-win format.**
Therefore, at present, RT-Mart's entry into mini stores has successful models from "predecessors" and is driven by numerous consumer trends. Xiaorunfa RT-mini still has a chance.
References: [1] "Hemas Become Smaller, Mini Stores Are Really Popular" - Ten Billion Consumers, Liu Ran


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