In China’s fast-paced lifestyle, consumers are demanding more immediacy and convenience from their shopping experiences. With just a few taps on their phones, they want products delivered within the hour. This growing trend has led to the rise of instant retail, a retail model where products are ordered online and delivered to consumers in as […]
China Retail Market (Bricks and Mortar)
Check out historical data on China retail sales here.
China's retail market is undergoing digital transformation led by the top technology and e-commerce companies such as Alibaba, JD, and Tencent.
Top Chinese retailers based on Deloitte's Global Powers of Retailing 2020 report:
- JD.com (15) - e-commerce
- Suning (32) - Electronics Specialty
- A.S. Watson Group (49), HK - Drug Store/Pharmacy
- China Resources Vanguard Co., Ltd. (82) - Hypermarket/Supercenter/Superstore
- Vipshop (87) - e-commerce
- Dairy Farm International (89), HK - Supermarket
- Yonghui Superstores Co., Ltd. (106) - Hypermarket/Supercenter/Superstore
- Gome Retail Holdings Limited (109) - Electronics Specialty
- Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited (123), HK
- Shanghai Bailian Group Co., Ltd. (150) - Hypermarket/Supercenter/Superstore
- Alibaba Group Holding Limited/ New Retail (179), HK - Department store
- Wumart Holdings, Inc. (191) - supermarket
- Chongqing Department Store Co., Ltd. (250) - Department store
These 13 companies account for 4.3% of Top 250 revenues, with an average retail revenue of US$15,832 million.
China’s online retail sales exceeded 7 trillion RMB in the first half of 2024
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China has released data indicating a significant increase in online retail sales in the first half of 2024. The total online retail sales reached 7.0991 trillion RMB (US$981 billion), marking a 9.8% year-on-year growth.
China’s Retail Witnesses 7.2% Growth in 2023
In a remarkable close to 2023, China’s total retail sales of consumer goods soared to 4,355.0 billion yuan in December, marking a 7.4% year-on-year increase.
China online retail sales up 4% in 2022
In December 2021, the total retail sales of social consumer goods in China were 4,054.2 billion yuan, a decrease of 1.8 percent compared to the previous year. Retail sales of consumer goods, excluding automobiles, totaled 3,543.8 billion yuan, a decrease of 2.6 percent.
Private domain operation trends of retail chain enterprises in China
WeChat ecosystem has boosted retail chain brands’ business through Official Accounts, WeChat community, personal accounts, mini programs, live streaming, and etc. It delivers better customer retention, higher repeat purchase, and optimal value per customer. Compared with the traditional online channel, the private domain traffic operation saves the platform commission and the platform traffic purchase cost; […]
Alibaba acquires controlling stake in Sun Art Retail Group with US$3.6 billion
Alibaba today announced it will invest approximately USD3.6 billion in respect of Sun Art Retail Group Limited (Sun Art), a leading hypermarket and supermarket operator in China, that will raise its aggregate direct and indirect stake to approximately 72% .
Alibaba opening its first Costco competitor store in Shanghai in Oct
Alibaba is launching Hema x Member on the coming National Day 1 October 2020 in Shanghai, the first domestic funded warehousing membership retail brand in China. The first Hema x Member store will be officially opened on October 1st on the B1 floor of Senlan commercial center in Pudong, Shanghai, covering an area of 18,000 […]
AI + Retail market in China to reach US$390 million by 2020
In 2019, the scale of AI + retail market reached 650 million yuan (US$95 million) in China. With the continuous improvement of AI solution capability and increasing demand, it is estimated that the market will reach 2.67 billion yuan (US$390 million) by 2022, and CAGR will reach 44.6% in 2018-2022. The main reason for the […]
Burberry launched its first luxury social retail store, empowered by WeChat
Burberry launched its first luxury social retail store in Shenzhen on July 31 and Tencent provides technical support empowering “Retail store + social networking”. The WeChat Mini Program “Burberry Social Retail Store” integrates the online and offline store operations.
JD reached 15,000 home appliance stores in H1 2020; market share up to 29%
The number of JD Home Appliance Stores, Jingdong’s offline home appliance stores for lower-tier markets, has surpassed 15,000 in the first half of 2020. JD started building JD Home Appliance Stores in 2016. Now it has 15,000 stores serving 25,000 towns and 600,000 villages in China. During the 618 sale, sales at JD Home Appliance […]
Pinduoduo’s first strategic investment: household appliance retailer GOME
China’s leading social e-commerce platform Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PDD) announced on 19 April 2020 it will subscribe to US$200 million in convertible bonds (“CBs”) issued by household appliance and electronics retailer GOME Retail Holdings Limited (“GOME”) (HKEX: 493.HK) as part of a strategic partnership to bring more value-for-money merchandise to its 585.2 million users.
Megvii to empower cosmetics retailers with virtual makeup solutions
Kuangshi Technologies, or Megvii as China’s largest facial recognition developer, released FaceStyle beauty cloud solution to empower the beauty industry with AI technologies such as face recognition and human image processing. Through the online makeup trial SDK/API and offline makeup trial app solutions for brick-and-mortar stores, consumers can easily and virtually try out the makeup […]
China’s retail sales grew by 8% in 2019; online up 16.5%
In 2019, the total retail sales of consumer goods in China reached 41,164.9 billion yuan (US$6,010 bn), up by 8.0% year-on-year (nominal growth rate). The real growth rate was 6.0%. Of the total, the retail sales of consumer goods excluding automobiles reached 37,226.0 billion yuan, with an increase of 9.0%.
KFC & Ting Hsin’s attempts in membership e-commerce in China
At the KFC V Mall, an order was placed with excitement. The price was pretty good! It’s 10 yuan lower with a 20 yuan coupon and 999 credit points than Taobao’s Juhuasuan. What’ so special about KFC V Mall? In the KFC V Mall, there are quite a few categories – household and kitchen, fresh […]
How a popular vlog celebrity in China expanded from online to offline retail
Millennial foodies in China are all familiar with “Cat’s Kitchen” (日食记). It is a popular food vlog that now has over 35 million subscribers with an average of 20 million views per episode. It first became popular following its hit video “Christmas Gingerbread Man” 5 years ago. Thanks to a rich storyline that focuses on […]