Recently, according to insiders from Hema, starting from December 13th, Hema App has adjusted its membership policy and stopped opening new paid members. Paid members who have not yet expired can still renew through Hema App normally. If expired members renew, they need to go to their local X membership store for offline processing.
Hema's paid membership service began in 2019, and paid members can enjoy a membership day discount of 88%, exclusive coupons for designated categories, and other benefits. The annual fee is 218 yuan. As of the end of 2022, the scale of Hema's paid members is close to 3 million, accounting for only 5% of registered members. However, membership fees alone can contribute to Hema's annual revenue of 588 million yuan.
In October this year, Hema officially launched a discount transformation, with the first step being to lower the prices of over 5000 products in Hema Fresh's offline stores.
Just two months later, Hema announced its "de membership".
The ultimate goal of this move is to ensure the "double line price reduction" of Hema Fresh Store, allowing everyone to purchase products with higher cost-effectiveness without any threshold, rather than needing an additional ticket.
The greatest value of a paid membership system is to enhance user repurchase stickiness. According to media reports, Sam's members mainly hoard goods in offline warehouse supermarkets, with an average unit price of up to 1000 yuan. However, a market research firm hired by Hema provided research data this year, which showed that the consumption willingness of the middle class has significantly tightened. Based on such market predictions, Hema CEO Hou Yi proposed a transformation around "price competitiveness".