Sam’s Club sets sites on ecommerce in Hong Kong

Hong Kong will soon have access to Sam’s Club through the warehouse grocer’s ecommerce portal, according to a story in the South China Morning Post.

The ecommerce service will include free delivery for purchases of more than 599 yuan (approximately $83).

An employee working in the retail giant’s Shenzhen office told the newspaper that Sam’s Club plans to launch the online shopping portal within the next two months. 

Warehouse-style stores have been a big hit with Chinese shoppers, according to the newspaper article. Walmart entered the Chinese market in 1996 and now operates 44 locations in 25 cities. 

Economists and public officials in China predict that Sam’s Club’s online sales there will have an impact on small retailers in the country. 

Simon Lee Siu-po, an economist and honorary fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Asia-Pacific Institute of Business, said online sales and delivery mean Hongkongers will no longer need to stock up at local stores. 

“Coupled with internal troubles, this will be an aggression from abroad. I am afraid this will cause a retail crisis in Hong Kong," he said, adding that the government can protect local grocers by implementing a sales tax on Sam’s Club.

The online portal poses a challenge to HKTVmall, an ecommerce portal now used by Hongkongers.