Foreign retailers, from Metro, Auchan, Casino Group to Parkson, have had to leave Vietnam because they did not understand the market well.

Local retail businesses should focus on developing their own brands, improving the product quality and diversifying products in order to enhance their competitiveness in the domestic market.

By buying rivals and expanding networks, Vietnamese retailers are dominating the domestic retail market.

Some foreign retail groups have left Vietnam recently. Is this because the retail market is no longer attractive?

The retailer community last week was stirred up by the news that a Vietnamese enterprise had acquired a famous foreign retail brand just after one month of negotiations.

Auchan has left the Vietnamese market. MM Mega Market and Big C have seen revenue decrease. But Aeon Mall and Lotte Mart continue to expand.

Saigon Co.op has officially taken over 18 Auchan supermarkets in the country after the French retail group announced its withdrawal last month from the Vietnamese market by selling its loss-making business.

It is still unclear who will take over the Auchan chain in Vietnam, though the announcement about the departure was made many days ago.

The Gioi So (Digiworld), the mobile phone retail chain, is seeking to distribute office equipment, while FPT Shop is trying online sale models and The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World) is focusing on its department stores.

More foreign investors have had to leave Vietnam after taking losses for a long time, though Vietnam is considered an attractive market with increasingly high purchasing power.

The Vietnamese retail market would hardly attract more European retail groups in the mass segment due to the harsh competition.

Once putting high hopes on the Vietnamese retail market, described as very promising with 90 million consumers, many retailers have had to leave the country.

VietNamNet Bridge - In early 2015, Parkson My Dinh shut down and at the end of the year, Big C announced it planned to leave Vietnam, proving to be a challenging year for retailers, including the most powerful firms.