Retail businesses "aggressively" expand scale

In addition to expanding market share, retail businesses must find ways to increase their attractiveness to consumers. Illustration: H.Due

"Expanding" market share

In the past, with strong development, retail businesses want to "expand" their presence in many potential residential areas. In order to attract consumers in a competitive context, these businesses must always "headache" to find solutions to bring new experiences to customers.

In early May, Vingroup opened their 81st shopping mall, Vincom Mega Mall Smart City (Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi). Unlike previous commercial centers, Vingroup said, this is the first new generation shopping mall modeled after the first "life-design mall" model in Vietnam, built according to a future model, where products and services are personalized according to customer needs.

Meanwhile, Aeon Mall Vietnam Co., Ltd. has just announced a decision to invest in a shopping center in Dong Nai with a total capital of up to US$268 million. According to the plan, in the period of 2021-2030, Aeon Mall Vietnam will invest in about 30 trade centers in Vietnam. Moreover, Aeon Vietnam is moving to replicate the Aeon MaxValu small and medium supermarket model with full services and utilities, including door-to-door delivery, online shopping, etc. Currently, Aeon Vietnam is prioritizing and accelerating expanding the number of Aeon MaxValu supermarkets, with the goal of having twenty supermarkets in the North.

In 2022, similarly, FPT Digital Retail Joint Stock Company (FPT Retail) set a big target with a revenue of VND 27,000 billion, up 20% and pre-tax profit of VND 720 billion, up 30% compared to the results in 2021. Therefore, FPT Retail plans to continue opening more than seventy new laptop centers in order to maintain its position as the No. 1 laptop retailer in the market. At the same time, open about more one hundred FPT Shop stores to increase coverage to densely populated districts.

On the side of Long Chau pharmacy chain, FPT Retail said it would accelerate the expansion of its coverage to 63 provinces and cities in order to improve its position in the pharmaceutical market. Accordingly, it is expected to open at least 300 more stores, bringing the total number of stores to about 700-800 by the end of 2022. At the same time, FPT Long Chau will continue to invest in infrastructure and logistics systems to serve customers service for the rapid growth of the number of stores and optimization of goods.

Finding a new strategy

In early 2022, Mobile World Investment Joint Stock Company decided to invest in a series of new retail chains, officially jumping into the multi-industry retail business in the fields of fashion, sports, mother and baby, jewelry and bicycle. Previously, Mobile World cooperated with Apple to open a series of TopZone stores specializing in selling its products. With strong expansion and investment, The Gioi Di Dong is gradually achieving positive "results".

Accordingly, in the first four months of 2022, Mobile World recorded VND 47,900 billion in revenue, up 18% over the same period. The Gioi Di Dong and Dien May Xanh chains contributed more than VND9,000 billion in revenue in April, up 22%. Bach Hoa Xanh brought in nearly VND 2,200 billion, up 2% over the same period. The average revenue of a store is more than VND one billion. This company also has 250 An Khang drugstores, the accumulated sales in four months are 3.7 times higher than the same period last year. The average revenue of each pharmacy is 700-800 million VND/month with the independent model and 400-500 million VND/month with the model next to Bach Hoa Xanh store.

Talking about this issue, Mr. Nguyen Duc Tai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Gioi Di Dong, affirmed that as long as a few chains of these tests are successful, the Group will quickly cover stores throughout Vietnam to dominate the market, contributing to realizing the dream of US $10 billion in revenue by 2025.

Similarly, not only at the supermarket chain Co.opmart, the Union of Commercial Cooperatives of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon Co.op) has successfully developed a series of new modern retail models such as Co.op Food, TV shopping channel HTVCo.op, Co.opXtra hypermarket, Sense City shopping center, modern department store Co.op Smiles, Cheers convenience store, and high-end supermarket Finelife.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc, General Director of Saigon Co.op said: “The company has caught up with the modern shopping trend of the world to successfully develop a series of modern retail models. With more than 800 supermarkets, large and small commercial centers, Saigon Co.op is estimated to welcome more than one million shopping visitors every day.”

With the "big man" Masan, WinCommerce is expected to achieve sales of VND 40,000 billion in 2022, an increase of nearly 30% compared to the same period of 2021. Masan aims to expand itself to reach 10,000 mini supermarkets, at the same time develop 20,000 franchised stores by 2025.

The models under WinCommerce being operated include: mini-mall model, franchise model, mini supermarket - WinMart and supermarket - WinMart. In particular, Masan's leader said that the "trump card" of the Group is the mini-mall when a WinMart mini supermarket will integrate more financial services, tea, coffee, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals besides operations is selling groceries and groceries. Currently, integrated stores under the new model that have been tested have recorded an average revenue increase of 30%.

In addition, since the beginning of 2022, the Group will also increase the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to increase the likelihood of new stores opening and achieving break-even points faster. The latest move is that at the end of April 2022, Masan invested $65 million to buy 25% of the shares of Trusting Social Joint Stock Company, a technology company specializing in developing AI and Machine Learning in the consumer sector, personal finance.