E-Mart opens 3rd store in Vietnam, spurs K-food marketing

South Korea’s E-Mart Inc. will open its new hypermarket in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec. 7, accelerating sales of its private label No Brand products to expand its market share in Vietnam where competition among Korean retailers is intensifying.

E-Mart, a unit of Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group, will target local consumers in Vietnam who prefer Korean food and products of good quality at reasonable prices. The company sees more locals recognize No Brand and expects the private label’s revenue in Vietnam to double this year from the last year.

The new store is its third hypermarket in Vietnam and has 6,930 square meters of floor area, 17% bigger than the first local store there. The increased area will be used to sell Korean products, including No Brand items.

The third store will provide Korean agricultural products that are growing in popularity in Vietnam, such as shine muscats and chokeberries. The fruits produced in Korea sell at relatively higher prices in Vietnam than locally. 

The new store will also supply strawberries directly transported from Korea, promoting the fruit’s freshness and selling them at high prices.

It will also provide Korean food that the hypermarket giant sells at home. Korean food like kimbap and the company’s private label product E-Mart Pizza are popular among young Vietnamese in their 20s and 30s, the company said.

E-Mart aims to operate seven stores in Vietnam by 2025 by increasing its share in the Southeast Asian market where Korean retailers, such as Lotte, are expanding their presence.

The Shinsegae unit opened the first hypermarket in Vietnam in 2015 and sold a 100% stake in the store operation to local conglomerate Thaco Group in 2021. In a franchise partnership with Thaco, E-Mart is supplying No Brand products to the store and earning royalty fees.

To further boost its sales in Vietnam, E-Mart is planning to expand the delivery area and increase products that can be delivered in the local market. The company is also considering providing other retailers’ products as well as its own via the E-Mart Vietnam app.

E-Mart said it will support Korean companies and farmers by introducing high-quality Korean products to Vietnam. It also seeks expansion in the Southeast Asian region through partnerships with local companies that have strong sales networks, the Shinsegae unit said.

Write to Young Chan Song at 0full@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.