VietNamNet Bridge - Rural areas, which digital product retailers have ignored in the last five to seven years, have now become a major ‘battlefield’.

The Gioi Di Dong, FPT Shop, Vien Thong A and Viettel Store – the largest digital product retail chains in Vietnam – have set up retail shops in all 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam.

The Gioi Di Dong, with Dien May Xanh and Thegioididong.com brands, leads the market in the number of retail shops in localities. About 800 Thegioididong.com shops out of 1,300 shops in total and 230 out of 307 Dien May Xanh shops are in provinces. 

The Gioi Di Dong is also the first southern retailer in the north with a series of Dien May Xanh shops opened in northern border provinces of Cao Bang, Lang Son and Lai Chau.

Meanwhile, FPT Shop by mid-March had opened 257 shops in 58 provinces out of its total 400 shops in the chain. Nguyen Bach Diep, CEO of FPT Shop, has revealed that 100 more shops would open in 2017, mostly in provinces.

Rural areas, which digital product retailers have ignored in the last five to seven years, have now become a major ‘battlefield’.

However, it was Vien Thong A which pioneered the march toward rural areas. It began kicking off a plan very early in 2006. However, due to limited capability, it has lagged behind The Gioi Di Dong and FPT Shop. 

The retailer now has 170 shops in provinces out of its total 233 shops. In Binh Duong province, which is near HCMC and has high population density, it has 13 shops. 

After more than 10 years of joining the digital product retail market, Viettel Store has opened 308 supermarkets throughout the country.

As for MobiFone, one of three largest mobile network operators, 97 retail shops had been opened by January 2017.

Diep of FPT Shop said that it was the right decision to march toward rural areas.

She said the shops in provinces have revenue of VND2.5 billion a month each, lower than the shops in cities, but they are more effective.

The retail premises’ rents in provinces are much lower than in large cities. Meanwhile, the demand for mid-tier products in rural areas has been increasing rapidly and customers in rural areas do not have high demand for high-end services.

FPT Shop now has an average of four shops in each province. The retail chain plans to open shops at district level and run sale promotion campaigns like the ones in large urban areas.

There are on average 13 Thegioididong.com shops in each province and each shop brings about 3.7 billion a month in turnover. An average of nearly four Dien May Xanh shops are in each province, bringing around VND10.9 billion each.

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