Walmart China has pledged to further its online/offline integration strategy with increased focus on fresh food distribution, private brands and membership services. The firm’s president and CEO Tan Wern-Yuen said the business will focus on “consolidating its upstream resources and to further improve product quality”. The firm is set to invest more than RMB700 million (US$103.7 million) in its first perishable food distribution centre in Dongguan this March, its largest investment in its 22 years of operations in China. The centre will serve its South Chinese stores.
Walmart plans to build or renovate around a dozen such centers within the next 20 years, with fresh food now taking up a quarter of Walmart’s overall sales. Tan added that Walmart’s e-commerce transactions have now hit a consistent 150 per cent year-on-year growth rate. Its WeChat mini program “Scan and Go” counted more than 20 million users by the end of last year.