Convenience stores have become the new favorite in the retail industry, and this is not a trend but a fact. RT-Mart, Yonghui, Carrefour, China Resources Vanguard, Auchan, and others are all expanding into the convenience store format, with increasingly high-tech features.

Core Guide ☑ Carrefour, Metro, Auchan, RT-Mart, Yonghui, China Resources Vanguard, and others are entering the convenience store sector. ☑ Wangfujing and Tianhong Department Store enter convenience stores ☑ Technology-driven convenience stores ☑ Will hypermarkets and convenience stores inevitably clash?

1 Hypermarkets Enter the Convenience Store Sector Easy: Carrefour Makes Convenience Stores SO Easy Easy Carrefour. The first store opened at the end of 2014 in Longbai Xincun, Minhang, Shanghai. Carrefour positions it as a "convenience supermarket with far more products than typical convenience stores."

He Mai Jia: Metro's Move from Hypermarket to Small Convenience On May 19, 2016, two new stores of Metro's convenience store brand "He Mai Jia" officially opened in Shanghai. He Mai Jia focuses on imported goods, Metro's private labels, and traceable products. The first two He Mai Jia stores will operate under a franchise model.

V>nGO: A Product of China Resources' Multi-format Strategy In September 2007, the first V>nGO store opened in Shenzhen. With a sales area of 30-120 square meters and nearly 3,000 products, it focuses on immediate consumption, small quantities, and emergency needs, while also providing customers with multi-level services.

Auchan: Unmanned Convenience Store, Bingo Box On June 6, Auchan China's first unmanned convenience store officially began operations in Yangpu District, Shanghai. Notably, this is the world's first truly scalable 24-hour unmanned convenience store.

RT-Mart: Unmanned Convenience Store, Bingo Box Like Auchan, RT-Mart, under Sun Art Retail Group, unveiled its first Bingo Box at the headquarters of RT-Mart in Shanghai. It mainly offers convenience FMCG products suitable for office workers. Besides being open 24 hours, the biggest highlight is that there are no cashiers; customers can complete the entire shopping and payment process on their own.

Yonghui Life: Another Trial in Small Formats According to Lianshang.com, on June 18, Yonghui will open its first Yonghui Life store in Fuzhou, and more importantly, it will also be Yonghui's first 24-hour store. Located at No. 103A, B1, Vanke Plaza, Jiaotong Road, Taijiang District, Fuzhou, the store covers an area of 130 square meters.

2 Department Stores Also Express Dissatisfaction Tianhong Department Store: Opens Weiwo Convenience, Acquires Wantongdian As a traditional retail giant in Shenzhen, Tianhong Department Store has been involved in the convenience store industry since 2014. It not only launched its own convenience store brand "Tianhong Weiwo" but also spent 29.09 million yuan to acquire Wantongdian Trading Co., Ltd. and its 153 "Wantongdian" convenience stores.

Ai Bianli: Wangfujing Enters Convenience Stores Indirectly Wangfujing Group and Henan Ai Bianli Information Technology Co., Ltd. jointly announced in Beijing that 106 Wangfujing Ai Bianli stores officially opened. Among the 106 stores are Wangfujing Ai Bianli's first directly-operated store in Beijing and 105 "rebranded" mom-and-pop stores.

3 Future Convenience Stores: Technology-Driven Bingo Box: 24-Hour Unmanned Convenience Store Recently, an unmanned convenience store called Bingo Box has come to the market. As mentioned earlier, Auchan and RT-Mart were the first to use this technology to launch their own 24-hour unmanned convenience stores. How effective is it? Please watch the video.

24-Hour Unmanned: Bingo Box No Queues, No Checkout, No Cashiers In terms of shopping convenience, Bingo Box still lags behind Amazon Go. The goal of Amazon's supermarket is to allow customers to walk out without checking out.

Amazon Go Supermarket

4 Will Hypermarkets and Convenience Stores Inevitably Clash? Retail Siblings Carving Up Hypermarket Categories Hypermarkets typically have more than 20 categories, which are being continuously eroded and carved up by various small retail players.

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War, Coexistence, or What? As the table above shows, in recent years, any emerging small-format retail enterprise has basically been carving up a specific category of hypermarkets, or combining several categories.

With the development of hypermarkets, their "demographic dividend" has passed, and "economies of scale" have turned into "homogeneous competition." The accelerated pace of life has also shaken their position.

The war has already begun. It is not only small retail formats that are blocking hypermarkets by carving up their major categories, but also retail e-commerce. Small retail formats use "convenience and professionalism" to block hypermarkets, while retail e-commerce uses "convenience, variety, and low prices." However, hypermarkets entering the convenience store sector is also a counterattack using their management advantages, supply chain advantages, and capital advantages. The war may continue, but the diversification of retail ensures that no single format will disappear; it is only a matter of rise and rebalancing.

Source: Retail Circle -END-