Poly Developments and Walmart China Sign Strategic Cooperation, Resurgence of Retail-Property Partnerships

After years of relative quiet, a new wave of collaboration between supermarket chains and real estate developers is underway.

Poly Developments and Walmart China Sign Strategic Agreement

Poly Developments, China's largest real estate developer by sales, recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with retail giant Walmart China. The partnership will focus on project development, operations, and services, with further exploration of membership systems and supply chain integration.

Under the agreement, Walmart China will enter regional markets already covered by Poly Developments. The two parties will jointly advance commercial project investment and development in core cities, while Poly's commercial spaces will introduce Walmart supermarkets and community stores.

Since last year, Walmart China has focused on membership stores, large-format supermarkets, and community supermarkets. As new store formats enter an expansion phase, Walmart China's demand for suitable locations has increased. To support this, the company has brought in professional managers with deeper knowledge of China's real estate market.

A Broader Industry Shift

Walmart China's renewed expansion reflects a wider industry trend. As traditional supermarkets accelerate transformation, new sub-sectors such as community stores, discount stores, and membership stores have emerged, driving a profound restructuring of China's supermarket retail sector.

For retailers, finding suitable properties and accelerating store expansion has become a priority. For developers, under pressure from a sluggish property market, commercial spaces need new narratives to fill their floors. These shifts on both the supply and demand sides are pushing retailers and developers back together.

The last wave of intensive cooperation between supermarkets and developers occurred around 2018, when internet giants like Alibaba and JD.com were aggressively expanding into offline retail under the "New Retail" banner. At that time, Hema Fresh signed agreements with 13 major developers, JD 7FRESH partnered with 16, and Yonghui's Super Species planned to open 100 new stores. However, as the New Retail boom cooled, compounded by the pandemic and changing consumer habits, many traditional supermarkets entered a phase of store closures and adjustments, and cooperation with developers faded.

Now, that partnership is being revived, signaling a new expansion cycle.

Walmart China's Real Estate Team Takes Center Stage

At the signing ceremony with Poly Developments, Walmart China's newly formed real estate team made its first public appearance. Zhang Jinyuan and Liu Lizheng were introduced as Walmart China's Vice President of Real Estate and Senior Director of Real Estate Development, respectively.

Zhang Jinyuan, reportedly recruited last year, previously served as Assistant President of Gemdale Group and Senior Vice President of Gemdale Commercial Property. Liu Lizheng is a former colleague from Gemdale.

The restructuring of the real estate team reflects a shift in Walmart China's store expansion strategy. In recent years, Sam's Club and e-commerce have been key growth drivers, while traditional hypermarket formats have struggled, leading to a net reduction in total store count. However, that contraction has now halted.

As of July 31, 2026, Walmart China operated 345 stores: 278 Walmart supermarkets and 67 Sam's Club locations. Compared to the same period last year, the total store count increased by a net 10, with Sam's Club adding 11 stores and Walmart supermarkets decreasing by one.

Walmart supermarkets, long in contraction, have also begun to expand again. Last year, Walmart China dropped the "Walmart Hypermarket" label, moving away from the traditional large-format model, and announced a renewed focus on store growth.

Under the new format system, Walmart stores now include large-format stores and community stores. Community stores are a key new format Walmart China has been exploring. Last year, the first four community stores opened in Shenzhen. This year, the community store format has launched a national expansion, alongside a "100-store upgrade and renovation plan." The first new-generation large-format store also opened this year.

Sam's Club continues its rapid expansion, and with new formats entering a growth phase, Walmart China's demand for commercial properties has increased. Since the start of the year, the real estate team has been actively engaging with various partners to discuss project cooperation and store expansion.

On August 31, Liu Lizheng led a team to visit Beijing's Shoufa Investment Group to discuss cooperation in warehousing and logistics, supply chain integration, and commercial space development. In late May, in Nanchang, Liu Lizheng signed an investment cooperation agreement with Dingtou Company, a subsidiary of Nanchang Municipal Public Utilities Group, to advance cooperation on Nanchang's second Sam's Club.

From rebuilding its real estate team to proactively sourcing store projects, Walmart China is ramping up its offline expansion. This signals a renewed warming of relations between retailers and developers after years of dormancy.

Beyond Walmart: A Broader Retail Expansion Wave

Traditional supermarkets are accelerating transformation, while emerging sub-sectors like community stores, discount supermarkets, and membership-based stores are entering a boom phase. Major retail brands are once again "staking claims," and quality commercial properties have become a critical resource for physical expansion.

According to an incomplete tally by Time Finance, retailers and developers that have announced strategic cooperation in the past year include Walmart China, ALDI, RT-Mart, Hongqi Chain, Happy Monkey, Poly Developments, Golden Eagle International Group,新城吾悦, Guang'an Development Group, and Guangdong Hengfu Group.

Among them, RT-Mart's parent company, Gaoxin Retail, is pushing to transform hypermarkets into community lifestyle centers, developing a "large store + mid-size supermarket + dark store" model. On August 21, Gaoxin Retail signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with新城吾悦 Commercial Management Group, which operates 212 Wuyue Plazas. The first project will be located at Wuyue Plaza in Lianshui East, Huai'an, Jiangsu.

ALDI, the German hard-discount pioneer, is also accelerating its China expansion. Last year, ALDI reached a strategic cooperation with Jiangsu-based developer Golden Eagle International Group. As of the end of March 2026, Golden Eagle operated 40 commercial retail projects, 37 of which are self-owned, primarily in East China.

In April last year, ALDI expanded beyond Shanghai for the first time, entering Jiangsu. This year, its expansion focus has shifted to the broader East China region. As of September 21, 2026, ALDI operated 124 stores nationwide, a net increase of 56 since March 31, 2025. Of these, Shanghai added 7 stores, while areas outside Shanghai added 49.

Meanwhile, emerging physical retail formats like "fresh snacks" are also accelerating store expansion. Jinlimen, for example, entered a fast track for national expansion this year. According to its mini-program, as of September 23, Jinlimen had 60 stores nationwide, a net increase of 30 in just two and a half months.

Most of these stores are located in shopping malls, with 14 opening in commercial projects under China Resources Mixc Lifestyle. Market rumors have suggested that Jinlimen is in talks for a Series A funding round, with a valuation range of 2 to 3 billion yuan, and that China Resources-affiliated capital is a potential investor. However, Jinlimen has not responded to these rumors.

The Rules of the Game Have Changed

Around 2018, as Alibaba, JD.com, and other internet giants accelerated their offline retail布局, the retail sector experienced a wave of "New Retail" enthusiasm. Fueled by capital, brands quickly staked their claims. JD 7FRESH, Hema Fresh, Yonghui Super Species, and Suning's Su Fresh all sought partnerships with developers.

In March 2018, Hema Fresh signed strategic new retail agreements with 13 national developers, including SCP Group,新城, Evergrande, Country Garden, Sunac, Shimao, Kaisa, China Overseas, Fosun, and Yintai. In September of the same year, JD 7FRESH signed project implementation agreements with 16 national developers, including Poly, Joy City, Vanke, Yuexiu, and Greenland, simultaneously launching store opening plans in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu, with a target of 1,000 stores nationwide within 3 to 5 years.

Although both rounds of cooperation between retail brands and developers were ostensibly about driving traffic, enabling each other, and complementing strengths, the industry environment and logic behind the partnerships have fundamentally changed.

Around 2018, the real estate industry was still in a phase of scale expansion, and retail was riding the "New Retail" wave. In that context, cooperation emphasized brand, scale, and strategic layout. Partners were primarily major brands, and store count, market coverage, and national expansion were key considerations. For retailers, the number of projects a developer could provide and the cities it could cover were themselves part of the partnership's value.

Today, however, the real estate industry has entered a phase of competition over existing stock. Commercial projects face multiple pressures, including foot traffic, occupancy rates, and operational efficiency. At the same time, the consumer market has become more rational. Retailers are no longer solely focused on store count and scale expansion but are paying more attention to the operational quality and profitability of individual stores. Cooperation now emphasizes whether projects are a good match and whether stores can succeed.

When announcing its cooperation with Walmart China, Poly Developments stated that introducing Walmart's formats would help improve foot traffic stability and brand structure quality in its commercial spaces, shortening the market cultivation period for new projects. Stable operational expectations from anchor tenants would also provide solid support for project valuation and asset operations.

In other words, the commercial projects held by developers and the store needs of retailers remain the foundation of cooperation. But the competition is no longer just about who has more projects or more stores. It is about whether both sides can find the right projects and the right operating models.

A veteran shopping center leasing and operations professional told Time Finance that, in his view, essential-needs supermarkets have found new growth through improved product selection, procurement, and operating models, generating increased demand for space. However, the fundamental requirements for such supermarkets have not changed. Given a sufficient base of local customers, they need stable landlords, long lease terms, favorable leasing conditions, and large floor areas.

For new consumer and new retail brands, the site selection logic has become more complex. The same source noted that in the past, brands could gain consumers simply by maximizing exposure and entering more markets. Now, they need to think more carefully about which consumer groups they are suited for and how to reach and present themselves to those consumers. "In short, brands need to find developers who truly understand them."

The land grab continues, but the rules of the game have changed.