Many retail companies in Viet Nam have tapped into new potential markets while others have been forced to close down due to tough economic conditions.
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| Customers shop for cooking oil at a VinaFood Mart in the southern province of Dong Thap. Retailers are trying to open stores in rural areas to take advantage of an unexploited market. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Hue |
HA NOI —
The successful have opened new stores and supermarkets in many disadvantaged regions, small provinces and rural areas.
Dinh Anh Huan, general director of dienmay.com , a company selling electronic products, said that most companies trading in electronics had opened branches in HCM City and Ha Noi.
However, he said his company had decided to access unexploited regions such as Binh Thanh, Tan Phu and Binh Tan districts of HCM City and rural provinces including Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Soc Trang and Binh Duong.
Heading in the same direction as dienmay.com, the Nguyen Kim electronic supermarket has also opened new stores in Can Tho City and Tien Giang, An Giang, Kien Giang, Binh Phuoc and Dak Lak provinces.
In the past, these companies only operated in big cities like HCM City and Da Nang but now they wanted to exploit new markets, said an official from the firm.
Nguyen Duc Tai, general director of the World Mobile JSC, affirmed there were many opportunities for retail companies in virginal, underinvested markets.
These new markets were hungry for new business. The question remained how to effectively exploit them, he said.
The new direction highlights the efforts made by Vietnamese retail companies during the world recession. It also shows that the local retail market still has potential to grow with 90 million people, but only 638 supermarkets, 120 trade centres and more than 1,000 convenient shops.
Moreover, experts predicted that retail sales in Viet Nam would increase by 23 per year from 2014.
In this difficult time, retail companies should define where their markets were to have new products. They must also find new markets, advised the Association of Vietnamese Retailers.
It reported that in the first four months of this year, nearly 18,000 companies closed down. Of these, about 5,300 operated in retail.
Growth in retail sales during this time was only 5 per cent.
The association attributed the slow growth to people's tightened consumption policy.
The most difficult problem now was high production and transportation costs. Meanwhile, the market had narrowed and many foreign retailers had set foot on the Vietnamese market, they said. — VNS