Vietnamese retailers make strong showing in Asia retail conviction index. Photo: Nguyen Huong

The index, published by Inside Retail Asia, released in Hanoi on September 29, is based on more than 70,000 consumer interviews across 11 Asian markets, combined with 12 months of continuous data from YouGov BrandIndex through May 31.

The ranking measures the size of a retailer’s customer base and also the extent to which consumers believe in and recommend a brand. This approach highlights the gap between current customers and potential advocates as an indicator of future demand and brand strength.

Vietnamese chains account for seven of the 10 electronics and whitegoods retailers included in the index.

FPT Shop ranks 11^th overall, followed by Dien May Xanh at 12^th and The Gioi Di Dong at 14^th. Other Vietnamese retailers in the top 100 include Viettel Store at 30^th, Nguyen Kim at 53^rd, Cho Lon at 71^st, and MediaMart at 100^th.

The results place three major Vietnamese electronics retailers within the index’s top 15, highlighting the strong position of domestic chains in a highly competitive retail segment.

The index points to a combination of physical retail presence, digital engagement and after-sales services as factors contributing to consumer confidence in the category. For electronics and household appliances, where purchases often involve relatively high spending and extended consideration, relationships with customers can extend well beyond the point of sale.

The findings also indicate that advocacy among surveyed Vietnamese consumers can extend beyond the existing customer base, suggesting potential for retailers to convert consumer familiarity and recommendations into future purchases.

The strong showing of Vietnamese electronics retailers contrasts with the broader structure of the regional ranking, where online marketplaces occupy three of the top four positions. The overall list also includes luxury brands, grocery chains, department stores and specialist retailers.

Vietnam’s GO! hypermarket chain ranks 73^rd in the overall index. The chain has retained the value-oriented positioning associated with the former Big C network while expanding the range of services and activities available at its stores, including dining and entertainment.

Its inclusion in the top 100 reflects the diversity of retail formats represented in the index, with consumer conviction extending beyond specialist and online retailers to large-format supermarkets and hypermarkets.

According to Inside Retail Asia, conventional retail rankings tend to focus on scale, sales or customer numbers, while the Brand Conviction Index seeks to capture a different dimension of consumer behaviour: whether people are sufficiently positive about a retailer to recommend it to others.

“Conviction is a dimension of brand health that’s often overlooked because it lives beyond the transaction,” said Angela Smith, head of Client Growth – Asia-Pacific at YouGov. “Our BrandIndex data lets us track not just who is shopping with a brand today, but who believes in it enough to recommend it to someone else – and that gap is often where the real growth story sits.”

The index is intended to show how consumer perceptions develop over time, rather than providing a snapshot based solely on current purchasing behaviour.

For Vietnam, the results provide an indication of the strength of domestic retail brands across a category that has undergone rapid expansion in both physical and digital channels.

The prominence of Vietnamese electronics retailers also comes as competition in the domestic market intensifies, with retailers competing on pricing, product availability, omnichannel services and customer support. The findings suggest that consumer advocacy has become an increasingly relevant dimension of retail performance, alongside market share and transaction volumes.

As Asian retail markets become more competitive and purchasing decisions increasingly move between physical stores, online platforms and AI-enabled discovery tools, the ability to build consumer trust and generate recommendations could become more important in shaping future demand.

For Vietnamese retailers, the strong representation in the regional index highlights the extent to which several domestic chains have established recognition and consumer confidence beyond their immediate customer base.

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