AEON Group will focus investment on the Vietnamese market in the 2026-30 period. — Photo courtesy of the group

HCM CITY — The Vietnamese retail market continues to present enormous potential for the shift from traditional to modern commerce, as modern retail channels currently account for only about 15 per cent of market share.

Seizing this opportunity, AEON Group has officially announced its medium-term strategy for the 2026-2030 period, identifying Việt Nam as the top-priority market for focused investment in Southeast Asia, in efforts to triple its current scale.

To realise this accelerated growth objective, AEON will focus on implementing three core, cross-cutting strategies in Việt Nam, including accelerating expansion with multi-format stores; promoting Product & Supply Chain development; and co-creating the "AEON Ecosystem". Through these pillars, the group aims for a robust transition from mere physical scale expansion to establishing new standards for lifestyle and modern retail infrastructure in Việt Nam. 

Tezuka Daisuke - Executive officer, Chief Vietnam Business officer of AEON (Japan), General Director of AEON Vietnam. — Photo courtesy of the group

"Right from the first days of entering Việt Nam, AEON has always believed in the immense potential of this market and positioned it as an extremely important region. We plan to prioritise allocating about 60 per cent of the entire ASEAN region's investment budget to the Vietnamese market," shared Tezuka Daisuke, Executive Officer, Chief Vietnam Business Officer of AEON (Japan), General Director of AEON Vietnam.

To realise the strategic vision for the upcoming period, AEON will accelerate its expansion through a multi-format approach, flexibly developing store models to perfectly adapt to the characteristics of three core zones: metropolitan areas, central core cities, and suburban areas.

In 2026 alone, AEON will ramp up its pace by investing and opening four new shopping centres, kicking off with the AEON Đà Nẵng Thanh Khê project in early July, followed by projects in Hải Dương, Hạ Long and Thanh Hóa. Simultaneously, the AEON MaxValu chain of small and medium-sized supermarkets will accelerate its expansion, not only growing in Hà Nội but also officially launching in the HCM City market.

In addition, the group‘s strategy to promote Product & Supply Chain development will focus on heavily boosting the research and development of Private Brand products manufactured in Việt Nam. This move will simultaneously optimise costs for domestic consumers, support local suppliers and enhance opportunities to export Vietnamese goods into the global AEON network.

AEON's supporting programme has helped alleviate the financial burden on consumers during a time of high inflation.— Photo courtesy of the group

To effectively support the small-format store strategy, AEON Vietnam will also officially inaugurate a processing centre in the South during this phase.

Finally, the creation of the "AEON Ecosystem" will be realised through the expansion of the WAON Point membership program foundation. This will serve as a robust stepping stone for AEON to comprehensively deploy financial services in 2027, running in parallel and generating a powerful cycle of synergy with the business operations of all subsidiary companies within the group.

Representing the group's accelerated strategic direction, Daisuke affirmed that AEON holds a strong commitment to long-term investment. The group will continually accompany and practically contribute to the Government's socio-economic development goals, determined to dedicate its utmost efforts to bringing the best convenience, peace of mind, and quality of life to the Vietnamese people.

Over the 15-year journey since the official establishment of its first company in Việt Nam, AEON Group has built a comprehensive ecosystem of 11 subsidiary companies, recording a total revenue of over 100 billion Yen (equivalent to approximately US$700 million) by the end of 2025, marking a 2.5-fold increase compared to 2020.

To date, AEON's network has expanded to over 300 stores across numerous provinces and cities nationwide with diverse formats, such as large-scale shopping malls, General Merchandise Stores and Supermarkets, compact supermarkets and speciality stores. — VNS