Walmart news 

Speaking at the Reuters Africa Investment Summit in Johannesburg, Mark Turner, Massmart's Africa director, said the retailer was aiming to open two stores in the market by 2015 and was building its first store in Kenya. Expansion will meet strategic aim Massmart’s entry into Angola will help it meet the strategic aim of expanding into fast growing markets in sub-Saharan Africa. The two stores...

Walmart is poised to pilot ecommerce this summer, whilst in the mid term it will expand its store network by an additional 50 outlets. Trialling B2B ecommerce Walmart has recently announced plans to pilot B2B ecommerce this summer. The initiative will be launched in one of Walmart's twenty wholesale stores, in a service designed to cater for local kirana stores. The Wall Street Journal...

Walmart said it plans to open three Sam's Club in Shanghai, Wuhan and Changzhou in early 2015. In China it currently runs 10 Sam's club stores in eight cities. It has also closed three stores in China since March and is expected to close another two by the end of the month. The closures were part of the US retailer's restructuring plan in China revealed last year that 9% of its Chinese stores ...

Following its recent expansion to New York, the online grocery delivery specialist, Instacart, has now launched in Los Angeles. Connecting personal shoppers with customers Instacart, which is based in San Francisco, and initially focused its operations on the Bay area, uses personal shoppers to deliver products to customers’ homes directly. The business currently uses a range of stores in...

The latest news from leading players in the region including South Africa-based Shoprite’s opening of a store in northern Nigeria, further delays to Sonae’s first hypermarket in Angola and how Nakumatt’s acquisition of Shoprite’s stores in Tanzania has been postponed, amongst other items. Shoprite opens store in northern Nigeria As part of the retailer’s strategy to open 44 supermarkets outsi...

Asda staff have been told that c.200 redundancies will be made at its two head offices in Leeds and Lutterworth as the retailer pushes ahead with its  five-year plan. Five-year strategy devised by McKinsey Last November Asda announced its three  strategic priorities for 2018. The retailer hired consultancy McKinsey to help devise the strategy which includes the job losses. As Asda spo...

Walmart is testing an automatic ad matching initiative, Savings Catcher, in seven cities in the US. Innovating to drive low price message This new price comparison initiative forms part of Walmart’s enhanced value focus in the US to drive stronger traffic and sales in its home market. Savings Catcher requires customers to submit receipt information online, which drives an automatic price com...

Walmart has opened its first convenience store format in the US, in its hometown of Bentonville. The store is located at a standalone fuel station and is part of the retailer’s accelerated small format strategy. Offering a range of traditional c-store products, with emphasis on fresh and food-to-go Walmart’s first convenience store is a hybrid format combining a traditional convenien...

You'll hear a lot about Brazil over the next couple of years, as the nation gets ready to host two of the biggest sporting events in the world: the 2014 World Cup and the Olympic Games in 2016. It's also an election year, with President Dilma Rousseff seeking another term in office this October. These factors, combined with economic improvements over recent years, are making it a growing focus fo...

Walmart US has shared more details of its small format plans for this year. Speaking at an industry event, Bill Simon, President & CEO of Walmart US, highlighted the strength of these stores in what was a tough and challenging year overall, and the shape of its roll-out plans going forward. Small formats to capture ‘quick-trip’ spend Last month, Walmart announced a significant accelerat...