Despite a longstanding presence in China, Walmart found itself fighting for relevance on two fronts: convenience and experience. While a recent partnership with JD.com to offer e-commerce for non-fresh items addressed the convenience side, the in-store shopping experience remained an issue. In an attempt to communicate value, stores were dominated by red promotional signs making the overall look and feel congested and generic.
Read moreWalmart’s approach to providing great value in China was losing relevance in the face of changing consumer habits as well as increasing competition – it came across as transactional, generic and cluttered. We developed a new store concept based on the idea of ‘modern value’, putting fresh food at the core to increase shopping frequency and basket size.
Being known as a US retailer in China is an asset due to recurrent food safety scares, which led to consumer distrust of very low prices. We introduced a ‘trust mark’ that reinforces Walmart’s commitment to quality at every price point. In addition, we created a new graphics toolkit and explored materiality to balance perceptions of quality and value.
Instead of using photography for zone signs, we opted for a fresh illustration style that conveys optimism and value. This was combined with an extended palette leveraging brand colours, as well as materials that reinforce Walmart’s food credentials such as wood, corrugated metal and tiles. The new design is being rolled out in over 400 stores nationally.
A streamlined promotional architecture was devised to control the balance of red colour in-store and ensure the effectiveness of discounting messages.
CCO: Peter Dixon
Creative Director: Dan Vasconcelos
3D Senior Design Director: Arthur Chu
Design Director: Nuttorn Vongsurawat
Designers: Michelle Kwan, Jiupei Heung
Strategy: Blums Pineda, Eric Hor
The previous store design was over-reliant on promotional communication, with excessive use of red and yellow. This, alongside limited merchandising formats, led to a cluttered and generic shopping experience that impacted brand recognition.