Ten Trends of Supermarket Development

Market development of supermarket industry

The cumulative year-on-year growth rate of supermarket retail sales nationwide fluctuated, and the overall growth rate began to slow down from 202 1. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, the retail sales of supermarkets in retail units above designated size increased by 6.0% in 20021year compared with the previous year. In 2022, the retail sales of supermarkets in retail units above designated size increased by 3.0% over the previous year; In the first quarter of 2023, the growth rate of supermarket retail sales was 1.4%.

SWOT Analysis of Supermarket Industry

From the competition of traditional large-scale stores such as Carrefour, Metro and Wal-Mart, to the same-city retail business of Internet companies such as JD.COM, Ali and Meituan, there are also community group purchases that go deep into the "capillary" of the community, and there are also the influx of fresh e-commerce platforms such as Youxian, Ding Dong and Pupu. The domestic retail competition has already become fierce. Although after years of accumulation and precipitation, most supermarkets have initially completed the logistics layout and built a stable supply chain of the whole industry chain, but affected by the new retail format and epidemic situation, the business risks of enterprises have intensified in recent years. Generally speaking, the development opportunities and challenges of the supermarket industry coexist.

Life cycle of supermarket industry

In June 2022, International Business Daily held an online seminar with the theme of "Transformation and Development of Traditional Supermarket". Experts and scholars attending the seminar agreed that the era of rapid expansion of supermarkets in China is over. At present, there are many pain points and challenges, but it is still a huge consumer market with strong sustainable development ability, in which countless changes and opportunities are brewing. Different market segments of the supermarket industry in China are in a state of differentiated development, such as the traditional large-scale comprehensive supermarket format is entering a recession; However, the emerging community discount supermarket is still in its infancy, and the industry business model is still in the exploratory stage.

Market size prediction of supermarket industry

Fresh food, food and daily necessities sold in supermarkets are fast-moving products for people's livelihood, which meet the daily needs of the people. At present, China has formed large chain enterprises, including Wal-Mart, Yonghui, CR Vanguard, Lianhua and Wu Mei. Chain enterprises have obvious economies of scale and expanding market share. In the future, the supermarket industry will continue to stage joint, merger and reorganization, realize enterprise network expansion and capital expansion, and further improve market concentration. It is estimated that by 2028, the market size of China supermarket industry will grow steadily to 3.55 trillion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 2%.

Analysis on the Development Trend of Supermarket Industry

At present, the whole supermarket industry in China is undergoing transformation and optimization, which is the inevitable trend of industry development. Throughout the world, the retail industry in Japan and other countries has also undergone reshuffle and adjustment. Retailers in China have achieved brilliant development in the past 30 years, but the situation of excessive development is also very obvious, especially in first-tier cities. In the past two years, most of the enterprises that have been severely hit in the industry are national or cross-regional enterprises, especially those that have developed in the mode of hypermarket. Comparatively speaking, the development pressure of regional supermarkets is weak. This is mainly due to the localized operation of some regional enterprises, which has established good stickiness and connection with consumers. In the future, adjustment, merger and reorganization will appear one after another.

As the strategy of small profits but quick turnover gradually loses its appeal, some supermarkets will turn to differentiation strategy, gradually form different positioning and focus on their target customer groups, thus achieving certain market differentiation.

The above data comes from the Analysis Report on Business Model and Investment Strategic Planning of Supermarket Industry in China by Prospective Industry Research Institute.