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Home appliance market heating as foreign retailers appearing
Foreign home appliance retailers have turned up. Domestic retailers have been trying to set up new shops. The home appliance market is heating up.
Foreign retailers appear
If not counting the home appliance booths located within Metro and Big C supermarts, Best Carings is the first foreign retail chain in Vietnam. In January and April 2008, under a franchise contract between Japan’s Best Denki and Vietnam’s Ben Thanh Trade Marketing Corporation, two home appliance supermarts named ‘Carings’ in Can Tho and Hanoi cities with the total space of nearly 5,000 sq m got a new name: ‘Best Carings’.
Sources say that the chain is planning to open the third Best Carings in District 7 in HCM City in December 2008 with the expected area of 1,000 sq m.
In its plan to develop its retail chain in Vietnam, starting with the supermart in district 7, HCM City, South Korean retail chain Lotte will use one floor of the supermart to trade home appliances, where it will prioritise the sale of made-in-South Korea products.
It is expected that Best Carings will set up some 10 more home appliance supermarts in big cities like Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho, which will help fulfill its ambitious plan of accounting for 50% of total retail turnover of home appliances by 2012.
Domestic retailers intensively expanding networks
The appearance of foreign retailers on the domestic market has prompted domestic retailers to make hasty preparations.
Lien An Thach, Business Director of Cho Lon Home Appliance system, said that the system is now trying to learn modern management technologies.
Hoang Ngoc Vy, Director of Vien Thong A Company, said that the company now also focuses on distributing laptops, cameras, MP3 players, not only mobile phones as previously.
Dinh Anh Huan, Business Director of The Gioi Di Dong, admitted that domestic retailers are inferior to foreign retailers in terms of capital, sales, input prices and retail experience. However, Huan said that foreign retailers would face difficulties getting business premises and licences from management agencies.
No big changes expected in immediate time
However, according to Nguyen Van Dao, Deputy General Director of Samsung Vina, the opening of the Vietnamese retail market in early 2009 will not cause big impacts on the market immediately, especially the market of electric, consumer electronic products, because this segment is not what foreign retail groups are eyeing.
Representatives of HP, Canon Singapore and Asus also say that in the immediate time, they will focus on importing and distributing imports through established networks. Leroy Liu, Director of Asus Vietnam, also said that instead of retailing, Asus will concentrate on maintenance and customer care services.
Analysts say that the upcoming news from the domestic retail market will be filled with the establishment of distribution networks, new companies and the improvement of supply chains and transport system coordination.
Sai gon tiep thi
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