On the evening of June 29, the China Chain Store & Franchise Association released the "2019 China Supermarket Top 100". China Resources Vanguard topped the list, retaining the "Supermarket No.1" title, RT-Mart ranked second, Yonghui third, and Walmart fourth; the fifth to tenth places were Lianhua, Hema, Wumart, Carrefour, Jiajiayue, and Better Life.

According to the annual survey of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, the total sales of the top 100 supermarkets in 2019 reached 979.2 billion yuan, up 4.1% year-on-year, accounting for about 18.1% of the total annual retail sales of food; the total number of stores of the top 100 supermarkets was 26,000, up 6.6% from the previous year.

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Screenshot source: China Chain Store & Franchise Association.

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2019 vs 2018

What changes are there in the top 100 rankings?

1. Separate statistics and release. The "2018 China Fast Moving Consumer Goods (Supermarkets/Convenience Stores) Top 100" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association in 2019 differs from the "2019 China Supermarket Top 100" released in 2020; now supermarkets and convenience stores are counted and released separately.

The former statistics cover FMCG including supermarkets and convenience stores; the latter only covers the supermarket format, making it more refined. So we see that companies such as Sinopec Easy Joy, PetroChina (Kunlun Hao Ke), and Dongguan Tangjiu Meiyijia are excluded from this list and will be reflected in the 2019 Convenience Store Top 100 (not yet released), which we will continue to follow.

2. China's Supermarket No.1. China Resources Vanguard topped the list with 95.1 billion yuan, successfully defending its title, though falling below 100 billion. RT-Mart ranked second with 94.7 billion yuan, Yonghui Supermarket third with 93.2 billion yuan, and Walmart fourth with 82.3 billion yuan.

3. Yonghui surpassed Walmart China for the first time. Yonghui Supermarket ranked third, with 2019 revenue directly exceeding Walmart China, growing 21.3%, and very close to RT-Mart. It is evident that Yonghui's growth momentum should not be underestimated; it may soon top the supermarket list.

4. Fastest growth. Hema Fresh, with 2019 revenue of 40 billion yuan, sales growth of 185%, and 250 stores, ranked sixth, up from 18th in 2018.

5. Highest sales per store. Chengdu Ito Yokado, with 2019 revenue of 6 billion yuan, sales growth of 8.7%, store growth of 12.5%, and average sales per store of about 670 million yuan; with only 9 stores, it ranked 30th in the top 100.

6. Most stores. Century Hualian, with 3,903 stores in 2019, a decrease from 4,269 in 2018. Last year's revenue was 17.05 billion yuan, with sales growth of 16.8% and store growth of 10.7%.

7. Walmart China grew 3.8%. The list shows that Walmart dropped from 3rd in 2018 to 4th in 2019, being surpassed by Yonghui for the first time. Walmart, which just changed its leadership (on May 7), what changes will it bring this year? We will wait and see.

8. Carrefour China's ranking declined. It dropped from 7th in 2018 to 8th in 2019. The list shows a decline of 8.3% in 2019 performance, possibly due to Suning's acquisition of Carrefour, and the instability of its team, which had a significant impact on its sales performance. After a磨合期 (running-in period) and integration, we believe Carrefour will change.

9. Regional giants expanded significantly. Jiajiayue took over Shandong China Resources Vanguard, acquired Anhui Happy Zhenbang and other companies, rapidly expanding its scale, rising from 11th in 2018 to 9th.

10. Wumart and Metro both rose in rankings. After Wumart acquired Metro, it rose from 8th in 2018 to 7th; Metro rose from 14th in 2018 to 11th.

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China Supermarket Top 100

What are the highlights?

1. Community-oriented and fresh-food-oriented

Since 2019, competition in community fresh food stores has become increasingly fierce, with not only professional players like Fresh Legend, Yipin Fresh, and Qian大妈, but also large supermarkets laying out community stores, such as Walmart Community Store, Yonghui Life and mini stores, China Resources Vanguard's Vanguard LIFE, and Hema's Hema mini stores.

The pandemic this year has further accelerated large supermarkets extending their reach into community and fresh food stores, connecting the last mile and expanding market share.

Image source: Walmart Media Center

2. Home delivery services

In 2019, online sales of the top 100 approached 50 billion yuan, doubling from the previous year, accounting for 4.7% of total sales. Nearly one-third of the top 100 companies have launched home delivery services in all their stores, with an average order value of about 75 yuan.

3. Membership marketing

Managing customers has gradually attracted attention in the supermarket industry. In 2019, member consumption accounted for 55.7% of total sales of the top 100 supermarkets, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous year. Members accounted for 50.0% of offline store foot traffic, up 2.1 percentage points, and the average member transaction value was 1.15 times the average transaction value.

4. Private brands

In 2019, the top 100 further strengthened their private brand development, with each company having an average of 865 private brand SKUs, up 32.3% from the previous year, and sales share rising from 3.2% to 4.1%, an average increase of 28.1%. The total sales of private brand products of the top 100 reached about 40 billion yuan, with each SKU achieving sales of about 500,000 yuan.

For example: Costco's Kirkland Signature, Walmart's "Great Value", "George", "MarketSide" and other brands, Hema's "Daily Fresh" and "Hema Workshop", Yonghui's "Yonghui Select", which includes brands such as Yonghui Farm, Tianqu, Yousong, Chan Dash, and Super U Select.

5. Digital marketing

Digital marketing methods such as community group buying and online live streaming have been adopted by many supermarket companies. Among them, nearly 60% of the top 100 companies have carried out group buying business, with sales accounting for about 1‰. In addition, nearly half of the top 100 companies have tried online live streaming, and operating private domain traffic has attracted increasing attention from more and more supermarket companies.

Attachment "2019 China Supermarket Top 100 List":

▲(Double-click the image to enlarge)

Source: China Retail Network (lingshouwang)

Editor: Retail Brother