Christina Zhu, the head of Walmart's China business, remembers when Chinese shoppers did not have much choice.
As a child, she watched her parents wake up at 4:30 a.m. on Sundays to go to the wet market. "They had to haggle, and high-quality produce wasn't always guaranteed," Zhu, born in 1973, recalled at the Fortune Leaders Forum in Macau in September.
Today, Chinese shoppers are "probably the group with the most choices [in the world]," and they have become "the most demanding customers," she said.
Meeting those rising expectations has become the defining challenge for retailers in China, and Walmart has managed it better than most. It entered China in 1996 with a Supercenter and a Sam's Club in Shenzhen. Three decades later, the U.S. retailer is thriving in the world's second-largest economy even as other foreign brands struggle.
China represents 3% of Walmart's overall business, but it is growing, generating $24.6 billion in sales in its past fiscal year, a 19.3% jump. Sales grew 20.7% last quarter, faster than the 5.9% reported by the company as a whole.
#China
As a child, she watched her parents wake up at 4:30 a.m. on Sundays to go to the wet market. "They had to haggle, and high-quality produce wasn't always guaranteed," Zhu, born in 1973, recalled at the Fortune Leaders Forum in Macau in September.
Today, Chinese shoppers are "probably the group with the most choices [in the world]," and they have become "the most demanding customers," she said.
Meeting those rising expectations has become the defining challenge for retailers in China, and Walmart has managed it better than most. It entered China in 1996 with a Supercenter and a Sam's Club in Shenzhen. Three decades later, the U.S. retailer is thriving in the world's second-largest economy even as other foreign brands struggle.
China represents 3% of Walmart's overall business, but it is growing, generating $24.6 billion in sales in its past fiscal year, a 19.3% jump. Sales grew 20.7% last quarter, faster than the 5.9% reported by the company as a whole.
#China
20 hours ago
