HO CHI MINH CITY -- Vietnam's biggest conglomerate, Vingroup, has recently launched a mobile app for mom and pop retail stores, helping to digitize a traditional business that has been upended by modern convenience stores such as 7-Eleven.
Vingroup announced Monday that its VinShop app is used by 20,000 small shops in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Those stores, called tap hoa, are typically family run and sell sundries. Shopkeepers use the app to order hundreds of items from suppliers, eliminating the need to contact them individually. They also use it to connect to another Vingroup app, VinID, used by 10 million retail shoppers to make payments.
