Fashion
Wal-Mart Stores Inc stock is now trading 20.29% below its 52-week-high, 3.06% above its 52-week-low.
Wal-Mart Stores CEO Doug McMillon has already increased starting wages and cut a layer of management in stores to try to tackle the situation at the stores. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT) reported last quarter earnings on May 19.
However, the company has strived to adopt the local culture in China and the consumers’ buying patterns. In an update, Walmart said today that Yihaodian now has over 100 million registered customers, and more than eight million products on offer.
Wal-Mart, France’s Carrefour SA and Britain’s Tesco PLC have all seen sales growth slip over the last five years in China, losing market share to local rivals, according to consumer analytics firm Kantar Worldpanel. It has decreased by 1% from the same period of last month. With fiscal year 2015 revenue of $486 billion, Walmart employs more than 2 million associates worldwide.
Walmart is cutting its hours in dozens of its stores.
We reached out to Wal-Mart for a comment. That kind of integration is often referred to as online-to-offline (O2O), and has been a focus recently for Chinese Internet companies that are forging growing alliances with traditional retailers like department and convenience stores. State-owned China Resources controls 13.9%, while Wal-Mart lags behind both with 10.6%. Analysts at Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Wal-Mart Stores from $82.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Wal-Mart did not, however, disclose the size of the shareholding held by each party. US online retailing giant Amazon has tried a similar strategy in China, but so far has met with limited success and is still a relatively small player.
The road aheadTo keep up with Sun Art, Wal-Mart plans to open 33 more stores and clubs this year, especially in the southern regions, where it enjoys a stronger market presence. Later this quarter, it will launch a mobile app which will let Chinese customers order products online and select in-store pickup or home delivery. Prior to joining Walmart Global eCommerce, Wang Lu was responsible for managing CBS Interactive in China, including the IT group, Auto group, Women & Fashion group and Lifestyle group.
The retail juggernaut previously bought a 51% stake in the e-commerce retail enterprise back in 2012 in an aggressive push to benefit from the Asian country’s booming e-commerce space.
