Vietnam’s retail industry benefitted from the increasing consumer demand. In the first nine months of 2022, production activities and people's daily life gradually recovered, and the demand for goods began to increase. Total retail sales of consumer goods and services in the first nine months of 2022 have a larger scale and growth rate compared to the same period in many years and increased by 14.2% compared to the first nine months of 2019.
In September, the commodity market recovered positively, trading activities on the market were quite active, and the circulation of goods, especially food and garments increased sharply on this occasion. National Day holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival, preparing for the opening of the new school year, etc.
The supply of commodities is relatively stable, and the prices of food items tend to decrease slightly; prices of fuel and energy products tend to fall according to world prices; other commodity groups are relatively stable.
Total retail sales of goods and services in September were estimated at 493,0917 billion VND, an increase of 2.9% compared to August 2022 and an increase of 36.1% over the same period in 2021.
Specifically, the group of retail sales of goods increased by 1.9%, focusing mainly on food, garments, and means of transport (up 2.2-2.6%); accommodation and food services increased slightly (1.3%). The travel and tourism segment decreased by 0.3%. The group of other services saw an increase of 12.6%.
Deloitte released a report on October 5th, 2022, pointing out that omnichannel will likely be the future of Vietnam’s retail industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the shopping environment and behaviors in Vietnam. During this period, omnichannel has gradually become more known to the people.
Most Vietnamese living in the cities have grown accustomed to omnichannel shopping. They shop at physical stores, brand websites, and third-party messaging platforms. They order through food delivery apps. All of those happened after careful consideration of delivery time, price, promotions, and offers.
Deloitte’s report stated that non-store retail sales had grown, and omnichannel retail had become increasingly popular in the last 2 years.
Overall, omnichannel brings convenience to consumers and helps retailers take advantage of digital growth to reach new customer files and increase customer interaction.
Mr. Vu Duc Nguyen, Deputy General Director in charge of consumer goods at Deloitte Vietnam, said that Vietnam’s retail industry was expected to recover quickly in the coming time. Some consumption habits associated with the omnichannel model would become long-term when consumers got used to the convenience of omnichannel.
Deloitte Vietnam assessed that there would be two trends going on in the coming time which would impact the retail market immensely. The first one is cashless payment and the use of e-wallets. The second one is the growth of e-commerce in B2B wholesale.
Although cash is still the preferred payment method, the Vietnamese market now has many digital payment methods and e-wallets are expected to become more and more popular.
This trend is also supported by some incentives from the Government. The Government aims to increase the proportion of the population with an electronic payment account to above 50% by 2025 and above 80% by 2030.
In addition, the B2B wholesale e-commerce segment is expected to experience a boom. It is because Vietnam is currently the fastest growing B2B e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, with a market value of 13.2 billion USD in 2020, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 43% through 2025.
According to Deloitte Vietnam, these trends are geared toward Vietnam's retail industry digitalization. The sector will be a large-scale digitization process for the entire retail supply chain, not just limited to B2C or from shopping to shipping and payments.
Compiled by VietnamCredit
