QSR sector in Vietnam sees further decline in visits: study
Consumers prefer to buy at canteens, convenience stores and full-service restaurants.
QSR outlets in Vietnam experienced 21% decline in footfall, seeing 109 million visits in the third quarter compared to 114 million visits during the same period last year according to latest findings by Decision Lab.
In terms of category, juice and smoothie chains experienced a 30% decline in traffic, followed by cafes (29%), bakery shops (22%), fast food restaurants (17%) and local QSRs (10%).
In addition, Vietnamese concepts occupy 32% of the QSR market share. The coffee and tea segment, despite the fall, is at 25%.
In terms of gender, decreased traffic growth for both male and female consumers were at 22% and 20% respectively. City-wise, Da Nang City’s footfall 45% while Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh saw a 20% and 18% decrease.
The study argues that Vietnamese consumers are looking for other channels to buy food and drinks. Canteens saw the highest year-over-year traffic growth at 90% in terms of coffee and 117% in terms of juices and smoothies.
Full-service restaurants, meanwhile are soaring at an 11% growth in the same period, with the sector is now at 142 million visits. This is said to have been made possible by its growing traffic, mostly driven by those aged at 35 years old and above.
Another factor to the decline of QSRs is the entry of convenience store chains such as Circle K, Family Mart and Mini Stop.
“As a result, Vietnamese consumers now have lots more options to choose from when it comes to daily food and beverage items such as coffee, tea, juice, baked goods. Meanwhile, FSR is less affected to some extent due to their clearer differentiation in offerings and quality,” Linh Nghiem Vu Huong, head of foodservice at Decision Lab, told QSR Media.
“Whether this fall of QSR is to prolong in the future would depend very much on how well and how fast the key players in this segment adapt and improve their offerings and differentiate themselves against CVS in the range of products, quality, value for money and convenience. We have indeed started to see sign of improvement as traffic to QSR finally picked up last quarter.”
