A SPAR convenience store in Guangdong province in southern China is outperforming SPAR’s larger-sized supermarkets in the region.
SPAR Futongzizaicheng is located in Dongguan City’s Guancheng district, where newly built compounds have been erected in an old residential area, creating a melting pot of both traditional and modern cultures. The area is densely populated with local residents and office workers who make regular use of the store for either top-up shops or grab-and-go meals.
Covering a sales area of 267sqm, SPAR Futongzizaicheng boasts over 2,800 SKUs. The category assortments have been carefully selected, taking into consideration the best-practice learning from other SPAR partners in terms of convenience.
Fresh and foodservice
Due to SPAR Futongzizaicheng’s compact space, the layout has been carefully considered to meet the needs of shoppers and ensure easy navigation through the store based on destination departments such as fruit and veg and food to go. The fresh-produce section is located at the entrance and is therefore the first department the shopper encounters, “creating an immediate impression of choice and freshness”.
There is a wide range of product categories including food for now, food to go and general merchandise. In contrast to other SPAR Guangdong stores, 50 per cent of SPAR Futongzizaicheng’s sales are from the fresh and food-service sections – primarily ready-to-eat meals, fruits and vegetables, and chilled and frozen foods.
The vegetables are harvested and packaged on a daily basis, with a number of special offers available in fresh fruits and vegetables, highlighting SPAR’s value-for-money offerings and its focus on the promotion of healthy eating.
The food-service section offers a wide range of ready-to-eat food including noodles, sushi and other foods supplied from the SPAR Guangdong food-production centre. The dry-food section makes up 25 per cent of the store’s turnover, while 15 per cent of sales comes from non-food sections, including health and beauty and home cleaning products.
Customer convenience first
The store is open from 7am to 10pm seven days a week, with additional staff to help out during busy peak hours. A number of convenience-based services are offered, such as home delivery and pre-ordering.
In addition, a Wechat business group-messaging service has been created to send subscribers messages about promotions, new arrivals, lost and found items, etc. This is a very helpful tool for keeping connected with loyal customers and there are currently more than 300 followers who subscribe to the service.
The store accepts mobile payment from Alipay and Wechat Pay, and provides a free wifi and mobile-phone charging station for shoppers to take a break and relax in the welcoming space.
