Phuong Nguyen Analysis of retail market in Vietnam Case : Vingroup Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences Bachelor of Business Administration International business and logistics Thesis Date 5.2017 Abstract Author(s) Phuong Nguyen Title Analysis of retail market in Vietnam. Case: Vingroup Number of Pages 59 pages Date 5.2017 Degree Bachelor of Business Administration Degree Programme International business and logistics Specialisation option International business and logistics Instructor(s) Kaija Haapasalo, Senior Lecturer Since 2008, Vietnam is ranked as the 11th in the Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) and has been one of the top 30 fastest emerging global retail markets, according to a study of management consulting firm A. Vietnam joined the WTO in 2015 and opened then officially its doors to retail business. By doing this, Vietnam allowed the establishment of 100% foreign capital retail companies.
Before that, the foreign investors who wanted to do distributor activities in Vietnam were forced to joint ventures with Vietnamese partners so that capital contribution could not exceed 49%. Vietnamese retail market has been changing both in quality and quantity. It is expected that by 2020, the total market value of retail sales in Vietnam will reach $ 180 billion.com, 2008) This thesis aims at giving an overall picture of the retail market in Vietnam and to analyze the strategy of Vinmart supermarket chain, a Vietnamese retailer which belongs to Vingroup. The company stated its intention of becoming Vietnam's largest retailer in 2014.
A literature review related to retail theories, retail concepts and e-commerce were adopted as a knowledge base for the research and case implementation. A qualitative research method was applied and the data was collected from secondary sources such as articles, journals, books, and reports to achieve the study’s objectives. The results show the potential of the Vietnamese retail market and how intense competition between domestic and international retailers is as well as the possibilities to develop the retail sector in the future. It also shows that Vingroup is currently the top domestic retail brand in Vietnam and creates a balance between the Vietnamese businesses and foreign retailers in the domestic retail market.
Keywords Vietnam, retail, Vingroup, e-commerce i Contents List of Tables and figures 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Vietnamese retail market 1 1.2 Research objectives and methodology 4 1.3 Case company Vingroup 5 2 Retail industry 8 2.1 Definition of retail 8 2.2 Theory of wheel of retailing 10 2.3 Types of retailers 11 Organization’s Retail 11 2.1 Store based retailers 11 2.2 Non- Store based retailers 13 2.4 Marketing decisions of retail businesses 15 3 E-commerce in retail 17 3.1 Characteristics of E-commerce 17 3.2 Omni-channel retailing 20 4 Analysis of the Vietnam food retail market 21 4.1 Current status of Vietnamese retail sales 21 4.2 The main competitors in Vietnam’s retail market.3 Swot analysis of Vietnam’s retail market 25 4.5 Governmental influences in Vietnamese retail market 30 5 E-Commerce in Vietnam 32 5.1 The overview of Vietnam’s E-commerce market 32 5.2 The difference between traditional retail and online retail 37 5.3 Challenges 37 6 Case company analysis 39 ii 6.1 Vingroup retail sales 39 6.2 The growth strategy of Vinmart and Vinmart+ 40 6.3 Merge and acquisition 42 6.2 Competitor Big C in Hanoi and Vinmart 43 6.3 Competitor 7-eleven and Vinmart+ 45 6.5 Challenges and opportunities of Vingroup 46 7 Conclusion and recommendations 48 iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1. The population pyramid of Vietnam (CIA 2016). 2 Figure 2: Vietnam GDP growth rate (General statistics office of Vietnam 2017). 2 Figure 3: The rise of the middle class (The Economist, 2016).
3 Figure 4: Vietnam retail sales 2016-2017 (General statistics office,2017). 4 Figure 5 : 2015- year of M&A in Vietnam (Nielsel Market pulse 2015). 7 Figure 6: Multi- channel distribution system (Kotler et al. 9 Figure 7: Four stages of wheel of retail (Hollander, 1960).
10 Figure 8: Vietnam retail sales growth (general statistics office, 2017). 23 Figure 9: Major international retailers in Vietnam (DealStreetAsia, 2017). 24 Figure 10: traditional grocery vs convenience stores 2014 vs 2012 (Nielsen thought leadership,2014). 28 Figure 11: Digital in Vietnam (SMI Inteligence, 2016).
33 Figure 12: Market size of Vietnam ecommerce and its growth rate (Japanese ministry of economy). 34 Figure 13: Online categories (Euromonitor 2016). 35 Figure 14: Payment method when shopping online (Asia plus Inc. 36 Figure 15 : Retail sector result of Vingroup (Vingroup, 2016).
39 Figure 16 : Big C and Vinmart location in Hanoi (Marketing chien luoc, 2016). 44 Table 1 : Vingroup business sector (Vingroup, 2017). 5 Table 2: Type of retailers (Arvind, 2011). 11 Table 3: Types of ecommerce (Chaffey, 2007).
18 Table 4: Comparison between traditional retail and e retail (LeVandung-LinkedIn, 2015). 18 Table 5: GRDI retail development index (AT Kearney, 2016) .1 Vietnamese retail market With the population of 95 million and 70% of people aged from 15 to 64 (Le, 2016), the developing country Vietnam is now the target of many big retail companies from all around the world. The turnover of Vietnam retail market has reached over $80 billion in the past years and forecast reaches $100 billion in 2016 according to a survey by German market research company Statista (Mai, 2016). The country with mainly young consumers is potential to facilitate retail development because young people have more consumer power.
Together with the economic development, the income of the middle class has gradually increased. Middle class is increasingly more aware of the ex- penditure, as well as of the luxury retail environment, which is modern and comforta- ble. Furthermore, as shown in figure 1 the liberalization of the retail sector in 2015 has made Vietnam an extremely lucrative market for international retailers all over the world. (Tạp chí tài chính, 2015) In less than 10 years, Vietnam’s retail market has welcomed many big international re- tailers like CircleK, Shop&Go, FamilyMart, BigC, Fivimart, Citimart, Simply Mart, Aeon, Lotte, Parkson, Takashimaya (British business group Vietnam,2016) and now Walmart is also waiting for the entry.
From the consumer’s side, the variety of the market gives more options and modern shopping habits, but from the perspective of competition, the "landing" of the foreign big retailers can make domestic retailer weaker. However, in 2014, Vingroup, a real estate company, with strong financial background has decided to invest into the retail sector and is aiming at becoming Vietnam's largest retailer. The population pyramid of Vietnam (CIA 2016) According to the Central Statistical Office of Vietnam, in 2016 Vietnam's GDP for the whole year was 6. The index fell 0.
Despite the unfa- vorable trend of global economic recession, series of natural disasters and environmen- tal incidents, Vietnam's retail sector is experiencing very good growth of about 8% due to strong domestic consumption while income and salaries are improved.vn, 2016) Figure 2: Vietnam GDP growth rate (General statistics office of Vietnam 2017) 3 According to the research report "Asean connected 2016", The Hongkong and Shang- hai Banking Corporation Limited HSBC confirmed that Vietnam's middle class has the fastest growth rate in Southeast Asia and is expected to grow from 12 million in 2012 to 33 million by 2020. Consumers´spending is on the increase due to a young popula- tion, rapid urbanization, and an increasingly open economy with increased employ- ment, business, and income opportunities. Vietnam is ranked as one of the six largest economies in ASEAN (see figure 3) after Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indone- sia, and Thailand. According to the report, due to high economic openness, rapid inte- gration, and large labor force, Vietnam's GDP in 2020 could reach $ 552 billion and GDP per capita of $ 6,024 per person per year.
Figure 3: The rise of the middle class (The Economist, 2016) The blooming for retail business happened in 2015 after the liberalization of the retail sector when Vietnam joined WTO. As shown in figure 4, in 2016, retail sales grew by 10.2 percent, faster than a 9.8 percent growth in 2015 (general statistics office of Vi- etnam, 2016). Even though modern retail formats such as discount store and vending machines have appeared in Vietnam long time ago but they are still primitive. On the other hand, E-commerce and online sales market in Vietnam are very potential but not really booming yet.
With a population of over 90 million, the retail market of Vietnam 4 still has plenty of room for domestic and foreign investors. It is not too late for domestic businesses like Vingroup to be more prepared to compete on the retail market. Figure 4: Vietnam retail sales 2016-2017 (General statistics office,201 7) 1.2 Research objectives and methodology There are two main objectives in this thesis. One is to provide an overview of the retail market in Vietnam.
The second target is to analyze Vingroup’s strategy on the retail sector and give suggestions how it could grow and win more market share. The thesis aims at answering the following research questions: • What is the current retail market situation in Vietnam? • Who are the main players in the market? • How has Vingroup positioned itself in the competition? • What are competitive strategies of the main players? • What is the growth strategy of Vingroup? Vietnam’s retail market is a large topic and therefore all the aspects with details could not be covered within the limit of a thesis. The Vingroup case company is discussed and the focus is mainly on the specific field of Vinmart supermarket and Vinmart con- venience store, not all types of retail industry. 5 The research approach of this thesis is inductive, and it is qualitative research.
The data was collected from secondary sources such as articles, journals, books, and re- ports. The market predictions and recommended solutions for the case company were mainly based on the data from the secondary sources.3 Case company Vingroup Vingroup Joint Stock Company (Vingroup Corporation) formerly known as Technocom Group, was established in Ukraine in 1993 by a group of young Vietnamese who worked in the field of food and had a success with the brand Mivina. Technocom was always on the list of top 100 largest enterprises in Ukraine from the early years of the 21st century. In 2000, Technocom - Vingroup returned to Vietnam with the expectation to contribute to the Vietnam economy.) Vingroup focused on investing in tourism and real estate with the 2 strategic brands Vinpearl and Vincom.
At the moment, Vingroup is the number 1 real estate brand in Vi- etnam with series of complex of commercial center - office – luxury apartment in big cities, and famous for the trend of building urban- luxury- stylish apartment in Vi- etnam. Vincom and Vinpearl brand are also leading the tourism industry with hotel chains, resorts, sea villas, theme parks, 5-star golf park. In January 2012, Vinpearl Joint Stock Company and Vincom Joint Stock Company were merged and operates un- der the name of Vingroup Corporation.) Table 1: Vingroup business sector (Vingroup, 2017) Vincom (Department shopping center) VinEcom (eCommerce) Vinpearl (Hotels, Tourism) Vincharm (Beauty Care) Vinpearl Land (Entertainment) Vinfashion (Fashion) Almaz (Food chain and International Vinmec (Health) Convention Center) Vinschool (Education) Vinmart (Retail Business) Vinhomes (Apartment and luxury Apart- Vincom Office (Office for rent) ment) 6 According to VF Franchise Consulting, a Singapore-based consultancy based in Asia, in the first six months of 2016, it has advised for more than 20 brands (mainly in Food and Beverages business) looking for a franchise partner in Vietnam. In 2016, the fran- chise in Vietnam increased by 15-20% compared to 2015.
Data from the Ministry of In- dustry and Trade shows that from 2009 to July 2016, Vietnam received 148 interna- tionally registered trademarks. Most franchise brands are rapidly expanding their net- works immediately and leading to enormous pressure for Vietnamese companies that are entering the field, especially in the retail sector.