After the US stock market closed on August 21, Wal Mart (WMT. N) disclosed in its latest regulatory document submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had reduced its holdings of all JD shares. This move was interpreted by the market as Wal Mart's normal capital operation to ease capital pressure and optimize capital allocation, but it did not change its trend of continuously increasing its investment layout in the Chinese market.
According to the response from Wal Mart quoted by the media, JD has always been an important partner, and we are committed to establishing a continuous business relationship with them; The reduction decision enables us to focus on Wal Mart China and Sam's Club's strong China business, and allocate funds to other priorities.
The cooperation between Wal Mart and JD began in 2016, and the two sides have carried out a series of in-depth cooperation in the field of retail and e-commerce. In 2018, both parties jointly invested in Dada to further consolidate their cooperative relationship. Through in-depth cooperation with JD, Wal Mart has achieved better results in solving the pain points of complicated SKUs, obvious weekend peaks, and high requirements for capacity flexibility, and has improved the performance efficiency and average picking timeliness as a whole.
Although Wal Mart chose to transfer the equity of JD, market analysis believes that this change will not affect the cooperation at the business level. In the past 8 years of cooperation, both parties have achieved significant results in their established strategic goals, which can be regarded as a model of mutually beneficial cooperation. Wal Mart has achieved sustained growth in China, while JD has also continued to consolidate its supply chain infrastructure and expand its global supply chain capabilities. It is expected that both parties will continue to maintain close business cooperation in the future and intend to expand their business in both domestic and international markets.
Wal Mart has a strong performance in the Chinese market, especially in e-commerce business. According to the latest financial report, the net sales of Wal Mart China in the second quarter increased by 17.7% year on year, the growth rate of net sales of e-commerce business reached 23%, and the penetration rate of e-commerce reached 49%, an increase of 200 basis points over the second quarter of last year. As an important performance support of Wal Mart China, Sam's Club's online sales will grow 29% year on year in the first half of 2024, accounting for about 50% of the total sales.
Zhu Xiaojing, president and CEO of Wal Mart China, once said that Wal Mart is confident in China's economic development and market, will continue to expand its business in China and actively develop omni channel retail business. Wal Mart not only plans to continue to open new stores in China, but also will continue to increase investment in commodity strength, innovation ability and omni channel operation to achieve quality improvement, upgrading and steady development.
It is worth noting that Wal Mart's investment layout in the Chinese market is still further extended. Recently, Wal Mart announced that it will open a new Sam's Club in Fangshan District, Beijing, and has completed the project approval, which is expected to open in early 2026. This move shows that the trend of Wal Mart's continuous increase in investment in China has not changed.
According to market analysis, although Wal Mart chose to transfer its equity in JD, this did not affect its long-term investment and development strategy in the Chinese market. In the future, Wal Mart will continue to increase its investment layout in the Chinese market, focus on quality upgrading and steady development, so as to better meet the needs of Chinese consumers and maintain a leading position in the Chinese retail market. real-time info