Big players like Central Retail, Aeon, and Lotte are all planning to expand their scale and increase their coverage in most of Vietnam’s provinces.

A recent Colliers report shows that since the beginning of the year, Vietnam has recorded positive signals about the economy in general and the retail market in particular. By the end of September, the total retail sales of consumer goods and services were estimated to increase by 21% over the same period last year.

International organizations have changed their forecasts for Vietnam’s economic growth this year to be higher than at the beginning of the year. In August, the World Bank (WB) forecast that Vietnam’s economic growth this year is likely to reach 7.5%, while that of Thailand is 3.1%. Colliers said that these are positive signals to attract large retail brands to participate in the Vietnamese retail market.

In addition, one of the other factors that bring the attractiveness of the Vietnamese retail market to big brands compared to other regional countries is the fact that Vietnam has strong domestic consumption demand, is less prone to be affected by foreign factors, typically the total retail sales of goods in the first eight months of this year increased by 19.2% over the same period in 2019, when the pandemic had not yet occurred.

It can be seen that Vietnam is still being evaluated as one of the top and most attractive retail markets globally.

With the promising potential of the Vietnamese retail market, big players such as Central Retail, Aeon, and Lotte are all planning to expand their scale and increase their coverage in most of Vietnam’s provinces. In the coming period, this segment will witness the presence and competition for a market share of international brands in Vietnam.

In Ho Chi Minh City, in the first 9 months of 2022, the retail market did not have many major changes. However, recently Thaco Group has confirmed that Korea’s leading retail supermarket chain Emart will launch in October in Sala Thu Thiem urban area.

Besides, a series of projects are also constantly under construction to be able to be put into operation. In addition, supermarket models like Nova Market or WinMart+ are all on a good track when a series of supermarkets under the above supermarket chain is launched on the market and this also contributes to the market becoming vibrant.

In Hanoi, after opening a series of stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Uniqlo continued to launch 3 new stores in the third quarter. In addition, it is expected that from 2023 to 2024, the retail market will provide a retail market of 312,500 m2 of the leasable area including commercial centers and retail podiums in the above period.

In particular, the projects of big companies such as Lotte, and Aeon are expected to provide the market with 200,000 m2 of floor space for lease, and 84,000 m2 of floor space for lease, respectively. This future supply helps Hanoi have more shopping options and experience more services from the new supply of the retail market.

Da Nang is a tourist city, but currently, the investments are related to the tourism sector, so investors are still cautious when investing in the retail market in Da Nang. The report said that, in the future, this will be a potential retail market when the number of tourists increases and consumption will increase.

Source: VietnamBiz