GuShiio.com ① Recently, Jack Ma appeared at Hema Changsha Wanxiang Hui store. The store employee told the Financial News Agency reporter that Jack Ma was satisfied with the store;
② Previously, the fate and retention of Hema had caused market concerns. This time, Jack Ma appeared in the store. Some market participants believed that it was a “refutation” of the rumors of Hema’s sale.
Cailian News, February 15 (Reporter Wu Weiling)After appearing in Ali Park, two days later, Jack Ma appeared at the Vientiane Store in Hema Changsha. Some netizens posted on social media saying that they had “bumped into” Jack Ma in the supermarket and had already left when they took out their mobile phone.
A reporter from the Financial Union came to the store this morning. A front-line employee of the store told the Financial Union reporter that Jack Ma did come to the store that day.”He (Jack Ma) is still very satisfied with our place.”
He Ma Xiansheng Photographed by a reporter from the Financial Union of Changsha Wanxiang Hui Store
It is understood that on the morning of February 13, Jack Ma came to Hema Changsha Wanxiang Store, inspected many shelves in the store, stopped at sushi and other stalls, and also took photos with employees with a smile.
Established in 2015, Hema is Alibaba’s daily necessities and fresh food retail platform. From December last year to January this year, Alibaba sold Intime Department Store and Gaoxin Retail successively, and the two transactions are expected to have a total loss of approximately 22.5 billion yuan. In this context, the fate and retention of box horses once caused market concerns. This time, Jack Ma’s appearance in the Hema store may inject a “booster” into the team. Some market participants believe that it is a “refutation” of the rumors of Hema selling.
At present, offline retail is still in a deep adjustment cycle. The results of a survey conducted by the China Chain Store and Chain Management Association on the operation of supermarket chains show that in 2024, less than 40% of total supermarket sales will achieve year-on-year growth, of which two-thirds of corporate profits have failed to achieve simultaneous growth.
Hema delivered a growth answer last year. At the end of last year, Hema’s new CEO Yan Xiaolei issued an internal letter stating that in the past year, Hema had achieved double-digit growth based on nine consecutive months of overall profit, and the number of customers it served increased by more than 50%.
Yan Xiaolei said in an internal letter that in the past nine months, Hema has done three things: returning to user value, focusing on development direction, and promoting organizational construction.
The “2024 Box Area Housing Consumption Trend Insight Report” shows that as of the Spring Festival of the Year of the Snake, there are nearly 430 stores in Hema across the country, and a total of 72 stores have been opened throughout the year, with an average of one store opened in 5 days, the largest number of stores opened in the past 5 years (2020-2024).
However, the challenges faced by Box Horse still cannot be underestimated. Since the middle of last year, traditional supermarkets such as Yonghui Supermarket and ST BBK have launched a “adjustment and reform trend” and regained a lot of customer flow; at the same time, member stores such as Sam and Costco have continued to expand and compete with Hema.
Zhuang Shuai, a guest consultant of China Chain Store and Chain Store Association and an expert in the retail e-commerce industry, and his team recently issued a document saying that after years of business swing, Hema currently seems to have found a more suitable development method, but the phased profits are still Not enough to show that the current path is the optimal solution and its “applicability” to the future.
