The second Indochina Retail Technology and Innovation Summit, a conference focusing on retail technology, is taking place in Ho Chi Minh City on March 7.

Delegates at the first Indochina Retail Technology and Innovation Summit held in HCM City in 2017.

Hosted by Escom, an international business conference organiser focused on the fast-growing Asia Pacific markets, the event has attracted nearly 300 delegates including stakeholders, decision makers, technology leaders, retailers, mall developers, and store operators in the region.

Delegates discuss the retail sector, which is growing rapidly in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.

Key topics include “Reinventing Vietnam’s retail industry – Retail tourism”, “Customer loyalty in a world dominated by artificial, exponential technologies”, “Farm to table and the Omni-channel Retail 4.0”, “Retail in the Age of Empowered Consumers,” and “Vietnam retail market: Winning formula in the age of the mix (online-offline-Omni-channel).”

According to the organiser, the summit will bring together retail professionals and innovators of all kinds under one roof and the interactive event is designed to offer a focused peer group of Asia retail executives the opportunity to network and discuss omni-channel best practices.

Attendees can meet with potential partners and source the latest technologies and embrace innovations and trends.

Traditional retailers are rapidly expanding and innovating, while with the wave of e-shops and mobile shops the way consumers shop has changed drastically, and the retail industry has had to adapt to embrace the omni-channel strategic and digital retailing concept, experts said.

Mall developers, department store operators, retailers, and brands are investing in infrastructure and technologies, creating enormous opportunities for suppliers, vendors and services vendors such as digital signage, digital retailing solutions, big data, and customer analytics.

However, it is not enough to jump on the latest technology bandwagon and retailers must also know what their consumer wants before they know what to deliver with everyone thinking of new ways to make more meaningful connections with customers, they said.

Vietnam’s stable economic growth rate and population of more than 90 million provide an attractive backdrop for the development of the retail industry.-VNS