Walmart may have built its global business on the principle ‘big is better’, wth hypermarkets in 27 countries.
But Walmart CEO & president David Cheesewright says consumer shopping habits are changing with a trend now towards smaller stores.
In an interview with the Times of India, Cheesewright says the trend is evident in most countries when Walmart has a presence. So, too, the impact of technology, with more and more shoppers wandering aisles checking prices on their smartphones.
“Historically, behaviour was driven by reputation that you would build over a period of time. Nowadays, it’s driven by truth,” he said.
“Hypermarkets still have a big role to play. In the next 10 years, there will be growth of around $350 billion in hypermarket sales globally.
“But convenience is becoming more important, especially in developed markets. As markets mature, they will support smaller specialists. For instance, discounters and smaller top-end specialists are growing very fast in certain markets while hypermarkets are struggling with low traffic. But, generally hypermarkets are becoming less important in global growth,” Cheesewright said.
“As the basket becomes more fresh [and] products-oriented, people want to shop more frequently for fresh products. Earlier, they would go to the big stores every 10 days to top up. But now they shop closer to home for the essentials. Five years ago, the quality in small shops wasn’t that good. But now, they have upped that as well.”
- Read the full Q&A interview on the Times of India website, in which Cheesewright also addreses issues such as online shopping, his company’s fututre plans for India and the startup boom.
