Key Insights

• Walmart China is accelerating its strategic transformation with the rollout of "small, curated, nearby" community stores — a hyper-localized format delivering unmatched convenience (10-minute access), curated quality, and extreme value.

• This expansion marks a critical milestone in Walmart's omnichannel evolution, creating seamless synergy between hypermarkets, e-commerce, and neighborhood touchpoints to serve customers anytime, anywhere.

Walmart inaugurated its fourth community store in Bao'an, Shenzhen, advancing its rollout of the community stores that are a strategic pillar of Walmart's omnichannel ecosystem. The "Small, Curated, and Nearby" community stores, through their compact footprints, high-value product offerings, and neighborhood proximity, deliver "the good life at your doorstep" for urban mass-market middle-class customers.

 Walmart' fourth community store officially opened in Shenzhen.

Following rigorous testing and iterative refinement, Walmart has commenced scaled deployment of community stores across Shenzhen. This expansion marks a strategic milestone demonstrating that Walmart's omnichannel convenience is now advancing into a phase of refined execution and deep market cultivation. As synergies intensify among hypermarkets, community stores, and e-commerce operations, Walmart strengthens its ability to serve customers across all shopping scenarios while advancing its strategic transformation.

Leadership Vision

"Walmart is committed to becoming China's most trusted and preferred omnichannel retail destination," said Jun Zhu, Senior Vice President of Walmart China and Chief Merchandising Officer of Walmart Store. "Community stores are a crucial element of our omnichannel presence — representing a bold reimagining of neighborhood retail, extending our reach through localized networks, and complementing our hypermarkets and digital platforms. This allows customers to shop seamlessly anytime, anywhere, living out our purpose of helping people save money and live better."

Walmart's Bao'an Community Store buzzed with shoppers.

‌In recent years, Walmart has continuously focused on upgrading and transformation, targeting urban mass-market middle-class households and individuals as its core customer groups. Centering around their needs, Walmart has established three core strategic directions: "providing premium fresh foods and groceries, curated FMCG and non-food products，consistent Every Day Low Prices (EDLP) and seamless omnichannel convenience." Since 2024, Walmart has increased investment in store upgrades and renovations while actively exploring new store models, including community stores.

Adhering to the philosophy of "based in the community providing ultimate convenience," community stores introduced the "10-minute living circle" concept. Through a model featuring "approximately 500-square-meter standard store size, focusing on high-quality and cost-effective goods for five daily meals," it is precisely aligned with high-density urban community lifestyles.

Key Highlights    Highlight 1: Marketside's Ongoing Rollout: Good Quality, Good Taste, and Good Value

Walmart community stores offer approximately 2000 curated SKUs across bakery, fresh, deli, ready-to-eat meals, snacks, beverages, as well as frequently purchased non-food items and daily necessities. Among these, hundreds of Marketside products stand out through trustworthy quality and exceptional value.

Marketside adheres to three development principles:  Using clean ingredients and high food safety to solidify quality  In-depth co-creation with leading suppliers, ensuring quality and surety of supply  Achieving ultimate cost-effectiveness through end-to-end efficiency improvements  "Quality that customers trust, prices that excite" — the upgraded Marketside epitomizes Walmart's product differentiation.

"Minimal additives with essential ingredients only" is a core principle for Marketside's health series. Walmart deeply engages in the full chain from product planning to raw material sourcing and production, eliminating non-essential additives. Examples include single-ingredient plain nuts, organic chestnuts, pumpkin seeds, and "0 preservative" toast.

To ensure quality consistency and surety of supply, Walmart collaborates and co-creates with leading suppliers. For Marketside condiments, retail insights merge with suppliers' research and development and quality control capabilities to create star products like 5-ingredient premium soy sauce, traditionally brewed Zhenjiang vinegar, and oyster sauce with 45%+ oyster extract. This series became a category leader within one month of launch.

Innovation shines in Marketside's "Rich Broth Noodle Series", including vegetable noodles in morel mushroom broth, buckwheat noodles in herbal beef bone broth, yam noodles in chicken ginseng broth; and "HPP Fruit Tea Series", with kale-chia tea, guava-canarium tea, bitter gourd-lemon tea, blend traditional ingredients with modern flavors.

Marketside's 4.0 UHT milk — renowned for "rich flavor, high protein/calcium, and high value for money" — inspired extended lines like 4.0 milk ice cream, rose-Pu'er milk tea, and matcha-tieguanyin milk tea. These innovations continue to offer customers exceptional value for money and empower regional dairy partners to diversify from a single product, expand market access, and pioneer new growth trajectories.

Marketside 4.0 Protein Milk has gained widespread popularity for its rich dairy flavor, high protein and calcium content, and exceptional value-for-money.

Precise consumer insights drove Marketside's optimized packaging: single-serving instant meals and small-portion frozen foods/beverages accommodate compact living spaces while enabling diverse flavor experimentation.

Marketside has developed its range of single-serve and small-pack products.

Beyond five daily meals, community stores create "surprise treasure hunt experiences" via big brands at low prices (for example, Lenor Fabric Softener at ¥39.99/4.05kg*) and curated lifestyle items like stuffed toys and dinnerware associated with popular IPs, Japanese incense, and fresh flowers.

‌Highlight 2: Delivering Uncompromising Value Through Every Day Low Prices

(Every Day Low Prices) EDLP remains Walmart's core strategy to help customers save money and live better through consistent value.

Marketside ensures long-term omnichannel price stability via direct sourcing, economies of scale, supply-chain efficiency and product customization – prioritizing quality while offering globally sourced products. Simplified price bands (for example, 30+ bakery items, HPP and NFC juices, dumplings, and rich broth noodles all at ¥9.99*) enhance shopping experiences by reducing promotions.

Strategic partnerships with brands like Crest, Junlebao, Mengniu, and Yili maximize cost-effectiveness through SKU simplification and supply-chain integration.

‌Highlight 3: Hyper-Local Store Deployment Powering Omnichannel Synergy

Community stores are vital to Walmart's store-based omnichannel matrix, working with hypermarkets and e-commerce platforms to serve core customers' diverse needs across all shopping scenarios and times:  Hypermarkets:One-stop "destination shopping" with full FMCG/non-food assortments offering rich shopping experience  Community Stores: Small, curated, nearby — for quick replenishment for daily essentials  E-commerce: Flexible fulfillment with fastest 30-minute delivery, on-time, city-wide and nationwide delivery, and supplier direct shipping, continuously improving coverage and delivery speed

This new model extends Walmart's reach into underserved neighborhoods, introducing revitalized brand experiences through curated assortment and omnichannel access.

Future Outlook

Walmart will continue focusing on upgrades and transformation to respond to customers' needs. Committed to product differentiation, store remodeling, omnichannel capabilities, and superior products and experience, Walmart is reshaping its brand to become China's most trusted and preferred omnichannel retail destination.

*Subject to actual retail pricing