Freshippo Opens 2 New ‘Store X’ Outlets, Nears 3 Million Members

Freshippo, the fast-growing supermarket and grocery delivery chain owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, continues to expand its domestic big box “Store X” format, which it says has reached nearly 3 million paying members after launching just over two years ago.

The company celebrated the opening of the Store X East Hongqiao Center outlet on Nov. 25. Another new Shanghai location, the Zhenru outlet, began fulfilling online orders on Dec. 15 and is scheduled to open its doors to in-store customers by Jan. 10. Located in Shanghai’s Putuo District, the new Zhenru outlet is the ninth Store X outlet overall and the sixth in Shanghai. It is also nearer to downtown Shanghai than any other Store X location so far.

Freshippo opened the first Store X in Shanghai in October 2020. It is a membership-based big box format with a focus on bulk purchasing. The Zhenru store covers an area of more than 16,000 square meters, three to four times the size of an ordinary Freshippo supermarket. However, it carries only about 3,000 stock keeping units, about a third of the number of items at an ordinary Freshippo store (which is also unofficially called Hema Fresh).

Freshippo Store X sales have increased by 247% this year while the average ticket size is up about 30%, despite the impact of lockdowns in Shanghai earlier in the year and other pandemic-related disruptions. The proportion of own-brand Freshippo Max products at Store X outlets has reached 40%, a figure that is expected to increase to 50% during the coming year.

Store X now has nearly 3 million members paying its annual membership fee of 258 Chinese yuan ($37), according to Freshippo. The company also reports that the Store X membership base has gradually trended younger over time, with Store X members 10 years younger on average than those of other membership-based retailers in China.

Images: Alibaba

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.