In the first quarter of this year, retail sales of goods reached some 1.18 quadrillion VND (50.31 billion USD), up 11.4% year-on-year. (Source: VNA) Therefore, to exist and grow, retailers should be well equipped to catch up with market trends and adapt to changes, experts suggested at a workshop held by the Association of Vietnam Retailers (AVR) and Thuong Truong Magazine in Hanoi on April 6.
The domestic retail market grew stably in during the 2017-2022 period despite impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Dinh Thi Bao Linh, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Industry and Trade Information Centre at the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
In the first quarter of this year, retail sales of goods reached some 1.18 quadrillion VND (50.31billion USD), up 11.4% year-on-year, accounting for up to 78.9% of the total retail sales of goods and services, she continued.
Linh stressed that the industrial revolution and technological advancement will speed up automation and form networks of information and data sharing on a large scale and without borders of space and time.
Apart from efforts by the State in improving the business environment, retailers need to step by step create processes, making it easier for their customers to select goods and services themselves.
Nguyen Thanh Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), said Vietnam’s e-commerce retail rocketed to 20 billion USD in 2022 from only 4 billion USD in 2015, and e-commerce now makes up 7% of the combined retail sales of goods.
Le Huy Khoi, from the MoIT’s Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), pointed to limitations in e-commerce in Vietnam regarding product quality, and stressed the need to regularly review relevant legal documents to better control counterfeit goods.
Others suggested close coordination between State, retailers, and professionalisation of delivery services producers in order to give a boost to the retail sector./.
VNA
