As part of its business strategy in Vietnam, Aeon Mall aims to personalize customer experiences. The AeonMall Vietnam application plays a central role in its "one to one" marketing strategy. The app sends personalized notifications and offers to individual users, encouraging them to return more frequently.

Concurrently, the Waon Point loyalty program is integrated across all Aeon group businesses, allowing customers to accumulate and redeem points for all their shopping activities. This feature serves as a customer appreciation tool and helps Aeon Mall build a unified database to analyze consumer behavior, enabling the design of promotions and events that closely align with actual needs.

These initiatives have received positive feedback, helping to shape Aeon Mall's image as a friendly, dynamic shopping center that prioritizes individual customer experiences while staying attuned to market trends.

Customers earn points and receive offers when paying at Aeon Mall. *Photo: Aeon Mall*

Maintaining appeal through a 'self-renewal' strategy

A prominent aspect of Aeon Mall's operating model is its clearly defined and periodic 'self-renewal' cycle. Each year, the company plans to rotate a portion of its leased brands, introducing trendy and popular labels.

Given the hundreds of stores in each shopping center, this renewal reflects a proactive management approach, ensuring Aeon Mall shopping centers maintain a natural pace of innovation without sacrificing stability.

Additionally, Aeon Mall implements a comprehensive 'makeover' cycle once every three years, applied across all its shopping centers nationwide. During this phase, the company invests in synchronized upgrades to interiors and exteriors, replacing deteriorating elements to ensure a modern, clean, and inviting appearance.

"We want customers to find Aeon Mall newer each year they return compared to the previous year. These adjustments are not passive replacements but proactive, selective redevelopments. Every change, no matter how small, aims to create comfort, pleasantness, and new experiences for customers", shared a representative from AeonMall Vietnam.

Aeon Mall shopping center. *Photo: Aeon Mall*

Long-term value from periodic innovations

According to Aeon Mall, periodic innovations are not merely cosmetic but an integral part of its business philosophy. These activities are planned, measured, and maintained using specific metrics such as brand change rates, upgrade cycles, and customer satisfaction levels after each phase of change. Through this, the company builds and sustains long-term appeal with substantive experiences rather than chasing short-term trends.

This strategy also creates a ripple effect, fostering a sense of attachment among customers to a space that is "always new yet familiar". From another perspective, tenant brands gain confidence for long-term investment in a creative environment. "Aeon Mall thus maintains a strong competitive position without needing extensive advertising", analyzed a company representative.

Aeon Mall in Ha Dong. *Photo: Aeon Mall*

According to Dr. Nguyen Trung Kien, Director of the Institute for Technology and Innovation Strategy, this is a sustainable direction in the context of intense retail market competition. "As consumers have more choices, continuous renewal becomes an essential requirement. From an external perspective, annual brand changes or triennial upgrades might appear to be routine property management activities, but for Aeon Mall, it is an investment in the 'customer experience lifecycle'. A shopping center cannot remain attractive indefinitely without recreating emotions", he commented.

The expert also noted that Aeon Mall's 'self-renewal' strategy demonstrates how an international brand can adapt sustainably to the Vietnamese market. Innovation does not necessarily require a revolution; sometimes it is simply a series of small, consistent, and continuous actions. This natural rhythm of innovation helps Aeon Mall maintain its vitality, retain its position, and become a "model lesson" during a period of strong transformation in the retail industry.

Thai Anh