Hanoi (VNA) - Convenience stores with many advantages areexpected to dominate the local retail market, according to experts.

Many famous retail brands have entered Vietnam market like Circle K of the USopening its stores in Vietnam from August 2008 or Shop & Go of Singaporeopening its stores from 2005.

At present, in the two big cities of Hanoi and HCM City, Circle K has more than300 stores while Shop & Go has more than 160 stores, reported bnews.vn.

Convenience stores are well received by consumers, so not only foreignbusinesses expand their markets, but also many domestic enterprises areconstantly developing their convenience store chains.

In December 2018 alone, Vingroup’s retail arm, VinCommerce, opened 238VinMart stores nationwide, bringing the total number of its convenience storesup to 1,700 in Vietnam.

According to CBRE Vietnam, a real estate management and consultancy company, Vietnam’sretail market has seen a strong competition between foreign and local investorsin developing their convenience store systems. They will expand their marketshares by opening more convenience stores.

VinMart has planned to open other 3,000 stores in the future on the domesticmarket. Meanwhile, GS25, the convenience store chain of the Republic of Korea,has entered the Vietnamese market and has planned to open more than 2,500stores. This is a sign of strong development of this market this year andbeyond.

Hanoi targets to have 1,000 more convenience stores by 2020 under a plan ondeveloping trade and service sectors in the city until 2025 issued by the municipalPeople’s Committee in May 2018, according to deputy director of the Departmentof Industry and Trade of Hanoi Tran Thi Phuong Lan.

Lan said the convenience stores are located on a small place but they bring allkinds of daily goods to consumers, from food and drinks to needles and threads,and from brush, toothpaste to stationery and phone memory cards.

Even, the customers can pay electricity, tapped-water and telephone bills andwithdraw money at the convenience stores. Besides that, most convenience storesalso offer fast food and fresh food.

Dinh Thi My Loan, chairwoman of the Vietnam Retailers Association, said it iseasier to get operation permission for a store with an area of 500sq.m at mostthan permission on opening a supermarket or hypermarket. In addition, theopening of store will contribute to promoting store brand.

Another advantage of opening convenience stores or mini supermarkets is tochange the shopping habits of consumers, not to mention advantages in ensuringfood hygiene and safety standards.-VNA