Rapidly Changing Landscape of Retail in China

Can Warehouse Membership Clubs Win Chinese Consumers

DOI

10.2991/aebmr.k.220307.361How to use a DOI?

Keywords

China; Retailing; Warehouse Membership Club; Marketing

Abstract

The retail sector is undergoing a drastic change in China: thanks to the growing wealth and new technology, the public’s higher demand for quality is now heating competition between different retailers, both local and foreign ones. Among the competitors, a player quite new to the Chinese market is warehouse membership clubs (WMC). Even though WMCs’ operation in the US is largely successful, critics have been skeptical about the feasibility of this retail format in China. This study seeks to evaluate China’s retail sector’s environment and find the most optimal way of operation of WMCs. This study begins with a glance at China’s retail industry. Local retailers are ramping up their pace of transformation while foreign retailers often face difficulties understanding local customs. The following part sheds light on the business model of WMCs, identifying three prominent characteristics of this type of retail: integration of warehouse and retail to curb inventory cost; lower assortment and higher quality; and owning of private labels. With all these findings, the research discusses what adaptions can WMCs make in the Chinese market and how local retailers can leverage their strength. It concludes that WMC has a promising future in China as the nation’s retail sector is embracing new ideas. Local retailers can outstrip foreign ones who are less familiar with local customs and harder to identify with.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press International B.V.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ze Yuan
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/03/26
TI  - Rapidly Changing Landscape of Retail in China
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 7th International Conference on Financial Innovation and Economic Development (ICFIED 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 2200
EP  - 2207
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.220307.361
DO  - 10.2991/aebmr.k.220307.361
ID  - Yuan2022
ER  -