South Korea’s Lotte Mart has been ranked among Vietnam’s 50 best workplaces, highlighting the increasingly fierce competition for talent among foreign retailers operating in one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing consumer markets.
The ranking, released by Vietnamese research firm Anphabe, is based on a survey of 73,000 respondents across 18 industries and 650 companies.
For the first time, the survey included university students — a shift that reflects the rising importance of attracting young workers in Vietnam’s rapidly changing labor market. It’s a trend familiar to U.S. retailers expanding overseas, where recruiting and retaining local talent has become a critical challenge.
Lotte Mart, which entered Vietnam in 2008, now operates 15 large-format stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, and other major urban centers.
The chain draws more than 20 million visitors a year, competing in a market where American names such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, and U.S.-linked convenience-store brands continue to scale up aggressively.
For U.S. companies watching Vietnam’s growing middle class and accelerating urbanization, Lotte Mart’s employer-branding success offers a case study in how foreign firms can position themselves in a market where consumer demand is rising — but the talent race is just as intense.
Lotte Mart said it plans to continue investing in workforce development as competition in Vietnam’s retail sector increases.
Vietnam has emerged as a key battleground for global retailers, with both Asian and Western companies pouring in capital as the country’s urban population becomes wealthier and shifts toward modern retail formats.
