In essence, New Retail is customer-centric rather than product-centric. Based on customer insights, retailers deliver goods and services that are tailored to meet consumer needs, thereby creating the most convenient shopping environment. Data and technology are the factors that help businesses achieve their goals.

In the world's most populous retail market, India, local retail giants have also upgraded the New Retail model to a new level, 'New Commerce'. This business model is built on a new commercial platform for 1.5 billion Indians by establishing omnichannel sales systems in both modern trade channels (supermarkets and mini-marts), general trade channels, and e-commerce (JioMart, the e-commerce platform of Reliance Retail, India’s largest retailer).

However, there are not many retailers in Vietnam currently operating according to the new model. Among those that are, WinCommerce (WCM) has been applying the New Commerce model, following its proven success in the Indian retail market.

Recently, WinCommerce announced that the company had achieved positive net profit after tax in July, marking the second consecutive month of profit.

Since last year, WinCommerce has exercised prudence in new store openings, focused on improving existing stores, and innovated stores in line with the WiN model. The marked improvement in store performance has been a major factor in helping the chain towards profitability.

As of the end of the second quarter of this year, WinCommerce was operating nearly 3,700 points of sale, following the opening of 40 new stores. Like-for-like growth accelerated to 9.7 per cent on-year, primarily driven by an increase in traffic, leading to the retailer posting revenue of VND7.84 trillion ($313.78 million) for the period.

WinCommerce has made great strides despite the slump in Vietnam’s retail market since last year as customers tighten their belts. Data reveals that Vietnam's total retail sales of consumer goods and services saw an on-year increase of 8.7 per cent to VND3.6 trillion (143.3 million) and an increase of 5.2 per cent excluding price factors in the first seven months of 2024. These figures are all lower than the increase in 2023 compared to 2022.

Despite the challenging environment, WinCommerce’s positive net profit after tax in June has improved the confidence of Masan Group's board in their solutions for achieving sustainable profitability. According to a Euromonitor report last year, if Vietnam’s modern retail market develops like Indonesia’s, it will more than triple in the next decade, reaching approximately $20 billion.

The Indian retail giant, Reliance Retail, ranks 53^rd in the list of top global retailers and secures a place on the Deloitte list of the fastest growing retailers globally in 2023. Its similarities to WinCommerce are worth noting.

Like WinCommerce, Reliance Retail is operating under a typical New Commerce model with a diverse product portfolio from food to fast-moving consumer goods, fashion, and electronics with superior quality at affordable prices. The retailer has participated in the value chain from production to supply, sales, data ecosystem, and data analysis. Thanks to a large distribution system of nearly 19,000 stores in India, Reliance Retail has a profound understanding of customers and market trends.

In the first quarter of this year, Reliance Retail reported an 8.1 per cent on-year growth in revenue and 10.5 per cent growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation. This growth is attributed to the company’s customer-centric approach, bringing better experience through improving products, processes, and technology platforms.

According to industry observers, many competitors are vying for market share, so retailers cannot compete only on price, promotions, and advertising campaigns, which are easy to copy. Businesses can only succeed if they achieve economy of scale and optimise operations by combining production platforms, distribution, and internal logistics capabilities. Although the Vietnamese market is smaller in scale than India, the similarity between WinCommerce and Reliance Retail opens up a clear future for the Vietnamese retailer to consolidate its leading position in the Vietnamese retail industry.