Boosting retail growth: Need to start with businesses themselves

Consumers shop at Aeon Mall (Ha Dong district). Photo: Nguyen Quang

Flexible retail business selling multi-channel

According to the report of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, the total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue in Hanoi in the first quarter of 2025 reached 226.3 trillion VND, an increase of 13.3% over the same period last year.

Commenting on this result, Director of Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade Vo Nguyen Phong said that the Department has been proactive and active in promoting regional linkages, being the locomotive to support provinces and cities in connecting product consumption, ensuring supply-demand balance in the city. The supply of goods has been maintained stably, fully meeting the consumption needs of the people of the capital during holidays and Tet, contributing to controlling the city's consumer price index in the first months of the year to only increase by 2.77%, lower than the general increase of the whole country and centrally-run cities.

On the business side, they have flexibly expanded multi-channel sales combined with many incentive and promotional programs, so purchasing power and sales revenue have grown well. Distribution and consumption activities of people through e-commerce platforms have been maintained and continue to grow strongly. "Domestic manufacturing enterprises have focused on improving and enhancing product quality and design, building reasonable prices, especially agricultural products typical of localities, OCOP products have a great advantage on the shelves of distribution systems and have been welcomed and chosen by many consumers", Mr. Vo Nguyen Phong informed.

Although positive results have been achieved, in the context of the world political and economic situation continuing to have many complex fluctuations affecting the domestic and foreign commodity markets, in order to strive for total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue to reach 12%, breakthrough solutions and efforts from the retail business community are required.

Sharing about this issue, Winmart chain operations director Nguyen Trong Tuan said that Vietnam has about 65% rural areas and the rest are urban. This area will be an opportunity for retail businesses. Growth of 12% is also a challenging number. But if there is a solution to promote rural retail, it is still possible to achieve. This is also the orientation of the supermarket system to be able to achieve growth and at the same time capture a piece of the Vietnamese retail market share.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Tuan also proposed support policies such as exemption and reduction of value added tax for land lease and exemption of electricity tax to encourage businesses to expand to rural areas.

Director of External Relations of Central Retail Vietnam Pham Thi Thuy Linh suggested that the Vietnam Retailers Association organize conferences and programs to connect retailers, associations, partners with retail premises and state management agencies to develop commercial infrastructure. In addition, support retail businesses in accessing and expanding the market through online distribution channels.

Need cooperation of all parties

To boost retail growth in Vietnam to 12% by 2025, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Retailers Association Tran Thi Phuong Lan said that, in addition to the recommendations of businesses to the authorities, the participation of retail businesses themselves is needed. “We require state management agencies to reduce 30% of administrative procedures, but retail businesses have not been able to do this, especially in the stage of purchasing input products. The payment period for suppliers lasts from 30-60 days, causing difficulties for new start-up businesses, small revenue, and low capital...”, Ms. Tran Thi Phuong Lan informed.

According to Nguyen Anh Duc, Chairman of the Vietnam Retailers Association, the retail industry is contributing about 150 billion USD and according to the orientation of the Party and the State, the retail industry's sales will increase to 165 billion USD in the coming time, contributing significantly to GDP. For trade to develop in double digits, contributing to GDP, there needs to be a plan to truly develop the physical and non-physical trade infrastructure, the infrastructure platform for the period up to 2030, especially 2025 - the last year of the 5-year plan 2021-2025, because it will open up a new direction for the coming period.

Along with that, it is necessary to develop synchronously the industries that play a supporting role in the trade sector such as logistics and information technology because these two fields contribute significantly to the development of the trade sector, accompanying the general development. Promote the planning of raw material areas nationwide to avoid the situation where localities compete with each other as well as with other sources. Long-term planning is needed so that raw material areas are complementary and supportive of each other, contributing to the development of trade in general.

On the management side, the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to continue promoting solutions to take advantage of free trade agreements (FTAs) to help domestic enterprises have opportunities to boost import and export...

According to experts, the market with a scale of more than 200 billion USD will be a fierce competition between retailers, not only in terms of selling price but also in terms of increasing convenience, value, emotions and shopping experience. In order not to fall behind, businesses need to proactively anticipate consumer trends, take advantage of technology and innovation to meet the increasing needs of customers.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/thuc-day-tang-truong-ban-le-can-bat-dau-tu-chinh-doanh-nghiep-699666.html