KOTRA Holds Consultation Meeting for Consumer Goods Entry at Sam's Club, Walmart Subsidiary in China

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] KOTRA announced on the 25th that it will hold an online consultation meeting from the 26th to the 30th of this month to promote the entry of domestic premium consumer goods into Sam's Club in China.

Sam's Club, a subsidiary of global retailer Walmart, is one of the world's two largest membership warehouse discount stores along with Costco. It first entered Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China in 1996 and currently operates 32 stores mainly in major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu. KOTRA explained, "Since Sam's Club has its purchasing headquarters in Shenzhen, if our companies succeed in targeting the Shenzhen market, there is a high possibility of entering stores throughout China."

Since October last year, KOTRA has investigated Sam's Club's purchasing intentions and demand items for Korean consumer goods through store inspections and consultations with staff over four months. They identified that Sam's Club's main areas of interest are △food △household goods △cosmetics △baby products △toys △pet-related products. Based on this, KOTRA recruited promising consumer goods companies last month and selected a total of 45 companies after review with Sam's Club. Representatives from Sam's Club's purchasing departments by category will participate in this event and conduct online consultations with our companies.

Five social enterprises with highly socially contributive business models will also participate in this consultation meeting to explore the possibility of entering Sam's Club. According to KOTRA, these companies lead environmental protection by producing products using eco-friendly raw materials and contribute to solving social issues by providing jobs to socially vulnerable groups. KOTRA added, "Through this consultation meeting, we plan to expand business areas from the existing domestic market to overseas markets and establish a virtuous cycle system that returns the generated economic benefits back to society."

A purchasing manager from Sam's Club said, "The high preference of Chinese consumers for Korean consumer goods is well known within the company," and added, "We hope to reduce the import and distribution stages of Korean consumer goods to sell them more affordably to Chinese consumers." Hong Changpyo, head of KOTRA's China regional headquarters, said, "We will start our consumer goods entry in Shenzhen and expand it throughout China. We will build a long-term cooperative relationship with Sam's Club and utilize Shenzhen as an export forward base for domestic premium consumer goods."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.