Malaysian hypermarket retailing development and expansion

Purpose – The hypermarket industry in Malaysia has created a huge momentum for modern retailing concepts. The industry has been developing impressively, and the word hypermarket seems in need of a new definition. There is an overlap of the definitions for hypermarket, supermarket and shopping mall. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to focus on recent Malaysian hypermarket retailing developments that could be used as sources for definition. A few expansion opportunities are also emphasized in this paper.

Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature from various research studies in the field was made. In order to strengthen the existing findings, practical implementations on hypermarket retailing within the Malaysian market were also studied in this research. In general, this research focuses on hypermarket retailing in the Malaysian scenario.

Findings – Malaysian hypermarkets can be defined using retail developments within the industry as sources for definition works. This industry can also be expanded further through: product brand extension; service experience enhancement; self-checkout technology; coupons promotion; online hypermarket; and one district one industry (SDSI) market intervention program.

Originality/value – The definition of hypermarket in this research paper is streamlined further to differentiate it from a supermarket or shopping mall. With the potential expansion opportunities, it is expected that there will be a clearer path to outgrow this industry.