Why has Co.opmart retained its position as a leading retailer in VietNam?

As fertile land, Vietnamese retail market is witnessing fierce competition among domestic and international brands such as Co.opmart, Aeon, Lotte and Central Group. This forces existing supermarkets to change their business models and pricing strategies as well as their marketing methods.

It can be seen that the current retail market has become the most exciting when foreign corporations have attempted to take away the throne from Saigon Co.op.

For instance, Japanese Aeon Mall spent more than US$ 500 million on three trade centres in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Hanoi and set out to build nearly 20 Aeon Mall facilities by 2020. Furthermore, its system has been rapidly expanded through the merging of Aeon with Citimart (49% of the charter capital) and Fivimart (30% of the charter capital).

Lotte also cherishes a great ambition to expand its operations in Vietnam. The group currently has 13 supermarkets in Vietnam and remains committed to operating 60 supermarkets by 2020.

Additionally, it has announced its intention to strengthen its presence by engaging in all types of modern retail, including through brand acquisition and merger.

Despite such powerful competitors, Co.opmart appears to be in a more advantageous position thanks to its nature of a 100% Vietnamese group and its marketing team with an in-depth understanding of Vietnamese consumers’ psychology, the Vietnamese retail market, as well as customers’ shopping habits and tastes. It also takes advantage of possible opportunities to link with farms, manufacturers and businesses to increasingly strengthen the presence of Vietnamese goods.

The network and the distribution model diversification are the top targets in the retail industry; hence, every business aspires to own the widest network with the most retail models, each of which has its own management principle and operating mode to meet consumers’ diverse needs.

In addition, technological development requires entrepreneurial thinking to be constantly changed, updated and adapted to new trends.
“Therefore, Vietnamese enterprises should keep updated with retail models in accordance with the development trends, to deploy in the near future,” shared Nguyen Anh Duc - Deputy General Director of Saigon Co.op on the business’ website.

Innovation and creativity in business are critical to attracting customers and also highly appreciated and fully exploited by Co.opmart.
Moving forward to be the “Trustworthy Shopping Place & Friend of All Families”, Co.opmart specializes in serving fresh food, diverse technology-based products, items of numerous models and fashion garments, as well as other additional services. This destination is chosen everyday by a majority of customers to go shopping and relax with their families.

Co.opmart has been collaborating with hundreds of manufacturers and suppliers to launch the “Good price everyday” campaign with the intention of offering quality items at good prices, meeting homemakers’ daily shopping needs.

Co.opmart is also the first supermarket system to use Zalo to reach and interact with users. The subtle point in Co.opmart’s innovative thinking lies in its positive attention to the needs and psychology of shoppers when it is one among the pioneers to expand the cafeteria system right at its own supermarkets. This supermarket brand is trusted by homemakers who confidently reach there to buy a diversity of readymade or processed dishes.

Moreover, Co.opmart is the first supermarket chain to use Zalo to reach and interact with users effectively, as the trend of using the phone has increased. Daily and periodical promotion information are sent to users every day through Zalo instant messaging.
Besides, by accessing the official website of the Co.opmart Supermarket, users can also identify the nearest supermarkets, look up their cumulative points and get to know the products and promotions. Thereby, it is convenient for homemakers to grasp the price information and choose the right time and gain confidence in shopping.

Hopefully, in the future, users can go to Co.opmart supermarkets faster, using the convenient Zalo platform.

It can be seen that Co.opmart has invested, extremely seriously in each of its proposed activities and operated as a modern thinking retail system, pioneering the application of technology in its business process and access to customers.