• Walmart launches first store in Roodepoort, creating 80 jobs

• Retailer partners with 15 local SMEs and deploys its low-price strategy

• Entry adds pressure to an $82 billion market shifting toward online sales

Walmart’s first store in South Africa, announced last September, is now open. The group inaugurated the new outlet on November 22 in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg.

According to details reported by Reuters, the store’s launch created 80 new jobs and enabled the world’s largest retailer to form partnerships with 15 local small and medium enterprises.

This move marks a new phase for the American company in the country. Walmart initially acquired 51 % of Massmart in 2010 and took full control in 2022. Through this subsidiary, it already operates under the Makro, Game, and Builders brands. With stores under its own name, the company aims to expand further.

Walmart plans to attract customers with a clear value proposition: access to high-quality international products that are not widely available in other retail chains, and collaboration with local suppliers and entrepreneurs to offer low prices.

The company will deploy its “Every Day Low Prices” strategy, which allows consumers to benefit from low prices every day without waiting for seasonal promotions. This promise is seen as a key driver of its success in several markets.

“Opening the first Walmart store in South Africa is about much more than a business milestone; it is a commitment to helping customers save money and live better by consistently delivering the lowest total cost for the basket of products they need,” said Andrea Albright, Walmart’s executive vice president.

The move intensifies competition in the South African retail market, valued at 1.431 trillion rands ($82 billion) in 2024, where Shoprite, Spar Group, Woolworths Holdings, and Pick n Pay are already well established and expanding, with more than 700 stores opened last year.

While it will take time to assess Walmart’s impact on market share, observers note that the evolution of online sales will also be decisive in the coming years. This segment, once marginal, has grown rapidly since 2020 and is now central to retail strategies.

In South Africa today, one in ten rands spent on retail purchases is spent online, according to a report released in September by research firm World Wide Worx. Walmart has taken note and plans to offer a sixty-minute delivery service similar to Shoprite’s Sixty60 on-demand platform.