Ho Chi MinhCity (VNA) – Negative impact of macroeconomic conditi🙈ons have been eroding the confidence of both consumers and businesses, yet the Vietnamese retail market is still thriving with new and expanding distributionchains, according to experts.

Domestic retailers have many advantages to win customers thanks to attractive price policies and deep understanding of customers, and improved post-salesservices. Last week, the HoChi Minh City Union of Trading Co-operatives (Saigon Co.op) simultaneouslyopened four new Co.op Food stores in three cities across the country - Ho ChiMinh City, Bien Hoa, and Thanh Hoa. In July only,13 Co.op Food stores opened, bringing its total nationwideto 571. Along with theCo.opmart supermarket system, Co.opXtra hypermarket and other retail brandsunder Saigon Co.op, Co.op Food are also looking for new premises not only in inner city areas but also outskirts. Co.opmartoperations director and marketing director of Saigon Co.op Nguyen Ngoc Thangsaid that the network expansion aims to diversify the ecosystem and is a foundation for it to develop e-commerce and complete the structure “online tooffline” and “offline to online” for more efficient operation. Currently,Saigon Co.op is focusing on accelerating the development of convenience storechains such as Co.op Food, Co.op Smile, and Cheers in new residential areas toaccess more customer groups. In the contextof economic difficulties, customers tend to tighten their purse string, and thedevelopment of modern distribution channels shows the seller's commitmentto offerings services and Vietnamese retailers’ internal strength to maintainand develop the business. That alsoreflects the potential of Vietnam's retail market which has room to developfurther. On the other hand, in July, headline inflation only increased by 2.1%year-on-year, much lower than the 4.5% cap set by the State Bank ofVietnam as energy inflation continued to fall. Vietnam has all the favourablefactors for growth in the third and fourth quarters of 2023. This is alsoan opportunity for domestic retailers to boost customer care services, said Nguyen Anh Duc, chairman ofthe Vietnam Retail Association. Not onlydiversifying retail models to serve all customer segments, Saigon Co.op'ssystems also show flexibility and adaptability in operation to optimise thesupply of goods and meet customer requirements in each area. Small but highly"localised" supermarkets are a trend of the modern retail market,where customers come for the closeness and convenience like they used to beserved at grocery stores. Especially,since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, customers' shopping habits and behaviours havealso changed. They tend to choose stores that are close to their home, focusingon essential products for daily life. At the Co.opFood system, after a period of opening, each Co.op Food store will build adatabase of customers with the frequency of shopping and the average value ofthe invoice. Based on the characteristics of each region, stores will haveadjustments to meet the needs and habits of consumers. Thang saidthat Vietnam's retail market with a size of 100 million people has some segments with a high degree of concentration, so retailers must have thefastest response and best concretisation to meet new consumer trends. Nguyen NguyenPhuong, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry andTrade, said that although purchasing power still tends to decrease, consumersare willing to shop if retailers have a solution to stimulate demand./.