Breakthrough retail

Vietnam's retail market is a potential market waiting to be exploited. Photo: T.D

Potential market

Most major retail brands such as Vinmart and Hapromart are also promoting customer care via online sales channels. Supermarkets also work with many household market applications to bring new experiences to customers. According to a representative from AEON, after five months of cooperation with Grabmart, the average monthly revenue on this platform of five AEON Vietnam's department stores and supermarkets increased by 182%.

Smart shopping will become more and more popular in Vietnam. According to experts, the 2021 retail market of Vietnam is considered to have many growth drivers, mainly from modern distribution channels. Per Nielsen Vietnam Company, in 2021, the growth of modern distribution channels is strongly motivated by the expansion of small categories, especially mini supermarkets.

Besides, the thrust from free trade agreements (FTAs) which have been signed recently will also make the domestic retail market more exciting than ever. The evidence is that a series of international brands still come to Vietnam despite the pandemic. In some big cities such as Hanoi, HCM City and Quang Ninh, many "golden" land locations are rented and expanded by big brands such as Uniqlo, Giordano, ACE and Watson. This shows the market is more competitive, has more segmentation, and consumers benefit more.

However, experts also said the Vietnamese retail market is very potential, but not easy to trade in. To effectively exploit this potential market requires new breakthroughs.

Nguyen Anh Duc, General Director of Saigon Co-op, said that by 2021, the unit would diversify its retail types, strive to lead the market in terms of goods quality, food hygiene and safety; promote the development of private label products and complete supply chain in a modern direction.

Besides, it will promote a new image associated with the Finelife high-end supermarket chain in big cities to serve customers with more advanced and modern conditions. At Finelife, the firm will integrate more advanced choices of goods, services, infrastructure and technology, digitalisation is also calculated from the start, Nguyen Anh Duc added.

Artificial intelligence application

In the jewelry retail segment, Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ) has a big success thanks to the use of technology in the transition from the traditional retail model to the new one, combining multimedia. Specifically, when the pandemic hit and customers restricted travel, PNJ developed and transformed the retail system into a multi-channel model, successfully operated the ERP - SAP 4HANA system. This is a tool to help PNJ manage and use the maximum potential of resources, creating comprehensive strength for businesses.

Le Tri Thong, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors cum General Director of PNJ, said the company has applied big data in analysing consumer trends, improving camera systems, applying AI to the production process, bringing the system. AI cameras apply to the store to collect and provide data for customer behaviour analysis. With that "breakthrough", in 2020, the net revenue of PNJ reached more than VND 17,500 billion, exceeding 21% of the plan; consolidated profit before tax in 2020 is VND 1,345.9 billion, 28% higher than the plan; brand value reached US$93.1 million, up 18% compared to the evaluation period of 2019.

In the general impact of the pandemic, Saigon Co-op also suffered many great changes in 2020, many business plans were not fulfilled. However, Saigon Co.op maintained its leading position in the retail sector thanks to the application of science and technology according to the trend of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, strongly deployed at Saigon Co.op such as cashless payment, non-cash transaction contact, analyse big data and apply cloud computing. These services create a synergy in the development of supply chain, value chain of goods and services and increase internal competitiveness for Vietnamese brands.

In 2020, with a turnover of more than VND 36,000 billion, Saigon Co-op successfully kept an average annual sales growth of more than 26% and is one of the 100 highest tax payers in the country; contributing to the export turnover of agricultural products through ASEAN countries topped VND 150 billion. The joint venture between Saigon Co.op and Singapore's leading cooperative NTUC FairPrice is considered the most typical and effective cooperation model in the international cooperative movement.