从方便食品到智能手机，从奢侈品到日品杂货，中国的店铺模式以及大陆消费者想买的东西都在快速变化。零售业分析师表示，外国超市和特大型超市连锁企业很难跟上形势的变化，即使是在他们调整经营模式并在线上销售更多商品的情况下。
周三，沃尔玛(Walmart)公布了一份旨在扭转中国销售下滑势头的方案，途径是将门店数量增加25%以上，改造现有门店和引入一款新的在线购物app。
这家美国连锁企业在中国受到了多起食品安全丑闻的打击，同时其所面对的来自其他特大型超市连锁店以及新的在线零售商的竞争也在快速加剧。
零售业的困境不仅限于外资品牌。一份由OC&C咨询公司的战略顾问撰写的最新报告发现，“自2010年以来，中国几乎所有的大卖场型零售商……都出现了近乎连续的负增长。”OC&C表示，同期增长几乎完全是通过新开门店实现的。
零售业分析师表示，沃尔玛、家乐福(Carrefour)和欧尚(Auchan)的母公司高鑫零售(SunArt Retail)等实体零售连锁企业面临的最大威胁之一就是来自在线零售商的竞争。中国市场的消费者品味变化比许多成熟市场要快，在过去一两年里，在线零售商的销售额出现了爆发性增长。
OC&C表示，2014年在线零售业的同比增长幅度接近50%，而超市和特大型超市（包含新开门店）的增长仅为6.7%。零售业分析师表示，许多消费者也开始转到便利店去购物，促使沃尔玛和家乐福等厂家开始在大城市尝试新的小型门店。
沃尔玛通过持有热门在线零售商一号店(Yihaodian)51%的股权，在中国市场的电商规模已名列前茅。（中国进出口网）
From fast food to smartphones, from luxury goods to groceries, the way China shops — and what mainland shoppers want to buy — is changing rapidly. The changes are leaving foreign supermarket and hypermarket chains struggling to keep up by revamping store formats and selling more groceries online, retail analysts say.
On Wednesday Walmart announced a plan to turn round its declining sales in China by boosting store numbers by more than 25 per cent, renovating existing shops and introducing a new online shopping app.
The US chain has been hit by food safety scandals in China, along with rapidly intensifying competition from other big hypermarket chains and from new online grocers.
The sector’s woes are not limited to foreign brands either. A new report by OC&C strategy consultants finds that “nearly all the major players among China’s big-box grocers … have experienced near-consistent negative growth since 2010.” Growth during that period has come almost entirely from new store openings, OC&C said.
Competition from online grocers is one of the biggest threats to brick and mortar sales at chains such as Walmart, Carrefour and Auchan’s SunArt Retail, retail analysts say. Consumer tastes in China change more rapidly than in many established markets, and in the past year or two, online grocery sales have exploded.
OC&C says online sales rose nearly 50 per cent in 2014, year on year, compared with a paltry 6.7 per cent for hypermarkets and supermarket sales (including new store openings). Many consumers are shifting their buying to convenience stores too, retail analyst say, prompting grocers including Walmart and Carrefour to try new, smaller formats for their stores in big cities.
Walmart already has one of the strongest ecommerce presences in China, through its 51 per cent stake in Yihaodian, the popular online grocer.
