RT-Mart unveils its first “three-year roadmap”: aiming to shift nearly 50% of its performance online

The pressure on traditional supermarkets remains significant.

In the six months ended September 30, Sun Art Retail, the parent company of RT-Mart, achieved operating revenue of 30.502 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 12.1%; merchandise sales revenue fell 12.4% year-on-year.

The performance decline was mainly affected by two factors: intensified market competition and weak consumption leading to a drop in average transaction value, as well as the overlap of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays dispersing some consumer demand.

For RT-Mart, the stage of large-scale closure of inefficient stores has basically ended, but cost reduction and efficiency improvement are still ongoing.

During the period, personnel costs were reduced by 186 million yuan through staff optimization. However, due to the contraction in revenue, selling expenses as a percentage of sales still rose by 1.8 percentage points to 23.9%.

As a result, after achieving brief profitability in fiscal year 2025, Sun Art Retail recorded a loss of 127 million yuan again in the first half of fiscal year 2026.

Although it has not yet emerged from the pains of adjustment, in its first interim financial report since DCP Capital took over, RT-Mart proposed, for the first time, a "three-year strategy" for future development.

On one hand, it focuses on improving product competitiveness and differentiation, building cost advantages and price competitiveness through nationwide joint procurement and the upgrading of private labels.

RT-Mart has established a "1+1" dual-brand matrix around its own-brand products, covering its main customer base via the value-oriented "Super Saver" series and the quality lifestyle-oriented "RT-Mart Selected."

On the other hand, it is promoting spatial layout optimization centered on the concept of "enjoyable shopping."

For example, it is switching from long-section shelves to short-section shelves, removing the main aisle, and weakening forced routing; lowering shelf heights to increase visual transparency; creating seasonal highlight areas for fresh-made and direct-sales scenarios.

Sun Art Retail disclosed that in the new-generation hypermarket pilot stores, sales of fresh/processed food now account for over 30%.

In the future, store area will be controlled at 6,000–7,500 square meters, with SKUs streamlined to around 15,000. Store street areas will be expanded to create community living centers.

Online sales are expected to become another major growth driver during the transformation.

During the reporting period, Sun Art Retail officially launched its front-warehouse project in five locations: Shanghai, Jiangyin, Luoyang, Jinan, and Qingyuan. Each warehouse averages about 500 square meters with daily sales of about 50,000 yuan.

According to insiders close to RT-Mart, some front warehouses were converted from original stores, leveraging hypermarket resources for flexible product combinations and enabling one or multiple deliveries per day.

In the next three years, Sun Art Retail plans to increase the share of online sales to 40%–50%.

However, at this stage, online channels contribute incremental sales volume, but show a trend of "volume growth and price decline."

In the six months ended September 30, Sun Art Retail's online B2C order volume achieved about 7.4% same-store growth, while same-store online sales grew by only 2.1%.

The transformation of Sun Art Retail is still in its early stages.

In September, the two RT-Mart brands contributed more than 2% of total sales.

For comparison, Yonghui Superstores, which began its "fat transformation" earlier, has seen its own brands contribute between 5% and 15% of store sales.

In terms of adjustment progress, Sun Art Retail opened three new stores, completed renovations of three East China stores, and adjusted the fresh food sections in three South China stores during the first half of fiscal 2026, with related capital expenditures reaching 264 million yuan.

According to the plan, the company will complete renovations of more than 30 stores in fiscal 2026 and over 200 stores cumulatively by fiscal 2027.

Intensive adjustment inevitably brings short-term pain and financial pressure. Yonghui Superstores' current losses have already reflected the common challenges of industry transformation.

In the coming period, Sun Art Retail may face the dual test of rising expenses and intensified competition.

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