Renewing a Japanese-goods retail chain: empowering store managers on range, and designing a convenience-store model

Context

The company is a domestic retail chain for Japanese goods with nearly 15 years of history and three important assets: a Japanese brand customers trust, stable supply, and a deep understanding of shopper behavior. The short-term goal was to renew the model and find growth drivers; the medium-term goal was to prepare an M&A strategy to attract investors and scale.

Weraki and the leadership set three pillar hypotheses: renew the current Japanese general-store model, open a chain of Japanese-style convenience stores, and develop online as an independent growth driver. Instead of one big plan, each pillar is tested through a small project with clear scope and metrics.

Project 1: giving store managers a say in the range

The range is the chain’s core success factor, but it was decided top-down. Customer personas were too broad, so the range lacked focus. Store managers knew customers best but had almost no say on merchandise, and testing new products lacked a feedback loop: keep-or-drop decisions relied mainly on profit and loss data.

Weraki proposed a hybrid model: the company still sets the range with data, but adds customer personas by need, store personas by location, and store managers’ observations on the floor.

Three customer personas (hypotheses)

Women 25–35 needing quick solutions for young families; women 35–45 prioritizing quality, low-risk self-care; women 45–55 putting reassurance and transparency first and staying loyal once they trust. These are hypotheses to test with a questionnaire, not conclusions.

Three store personas

Family stores in residential areas, with repeat daily needs; mixed residential and office stores, where the customer mix shifts by time of day; high-traffic stores, where passers-by and young people buy quickly, buy gifts and buy on impulse.

Layer 1. Core rangeAbout 50–65% of the range, required in every store

• Key lines and best sellers that hold the chain’s positioning
• Chosen by the company on revenue, turnover and margin
• Stores cannot remove them

Layer 2. By store personaAbout 30–40% of the range, flexible

• The company builds a product pool for each store type
• Store managers pick and drop within the pool and adjust by season
• Every change is based on observation and sales data

Layer 3. Local experimentsUp to 5% of the range

• Products customers keep asking for, or trending items
• Revenue, sell-through and feedback tracked for 30–60 days
• Winners move to layer 2; the rest stop immediately

Beyond the range, store managers can fine-tune displays within the common layout (by weather, peak hours and local specifics) and get a small budget to upsell, build combos and propose mini promotions. Every right comes with responsibility for tracking added revenue, turnover, margin and customer feedback.

Don Quijote How it worksStore managers own the P&L and decide most of the range, prices and displays, with their own buying budget to test products; head office only sets guardrails on margin, inventory and brand standards. Empowerment used toDifferentiate: each store has its own character and a sense of discovery on every visit.

7-Eleven Japan How it worksAbout 70% of the range is a core set chosen by head office and about 30% is chosen by each store for its area; stores order on item-level sales data and adjust in 1–2-day cycles. Empowerment used toOptimize: chain-wide discipline, a consistent experience, better turnover and margin.

The chain’s three-layer framework sits closer to the 7-Eleven approach: empowerment to optimize within a disciplined framework, which suits a positioning built on trust and consistency.

To measure the real effect, Weraki designed an A/B test: one group of stores fully empowered (choosing 30–40% of the range, with a test budget and display freedom), and one group run to company standard as a control. Leadership accepted that the test group might not be profitable at first, treating it as the cost of learning, and simplified procedures so small batches could be bought to test demand.

Project 2: a Japanese-style convenience-store model

This pillar ties directly to the fundraising goal: if the chain can lead a Japanese convenience-store model, it can support a higher valuation multiple and move from traditional retail to a model that scales more easily. The project focused on the first two components of the business model: target customers and the value proposition.

Weraki surveyed 106 convenience-store users in Hanoi, combined with interviews and observation at many stores of existing chains, plus social-media data. The findings:

A habit on the way, not a destination

Location decides whether people come in at all; but with several options nearby, 61% choose by product versus 46% by location. Switching costs are almost zero without real differences.

Living between meals

81% come in for snacks or light meals. Breakfast and late night are two moments not yet well served.

Small baskets because of products, not budgets

Most orders are under VND 100,000, but customers over 25 will spend more when it feels worth it.

Serving both takeaway and staying

58% take away and 42% eat or drink on site; optimizing for one is not enough.

Cleanliness is the top complaint

Followed by cramped spaces, prices above the market without a better experience, slow service and poor hot food.

This gave each customer group a clear role. Settled workers aged 25–35 are the core: 86% come at least weekly, driving frequency and profit. Students drive traffic and stay longer. New workers are numerous but haven’t formed the habit. Parents with children have a clear need but don’t yet trust the hot food. Older people are not a focus group. More importantly, convenience stores run by moments of the day more than by segment: quick takeaway in the morning, queues at lunch, snacks in the afternoon, staying in the evening.

Customers don’t buy a “Japanese vibe”.
They buy food that is tastier, cleaner and newer; Japan is a credible promise of that.

46% of respondents already knew or had used convenience stores in Japan, and their intent to try was fairly high, but with conditions: a fair price, on the way, and a great signature item. Japanese convenience chains already in Vietnam also show the opposite risk: without display and cleanliness standards, “Japanese style” loses its meaning.

1. Cleanliness is the minimumNot an extra; it was the most consistent complaint across both the survey and observation.
2. Food quality is the main weaponImprove hot food, breakfast variety and signature items; ready-to-eat food is the fast-growing category that lifts basket value.
3. Counter drinks for the morningOffice workers buy them most often, and margins are good.
4. Two clear zonesA quick-buy area near the counter and a comfortable seating area, without becoming a place to stay for hours.
5. Prices level with or slightly below competitorsCharge a premium only for signature products; grow baskets with combos rather than higher single prices.

On location, with most prime central spots already taken, Weraki recommended prioritizing middle-tier areas: secondary streets and mixed residential and office areas with moderate competition, placing stores exactly where commuting, school and home-bound flows meet. The range is split into three roles (traffic drivers, margin drivers, differentiators) and three life cycles (stable core, seasonal for 1–3 months, experiments for 2–6 weeks).

Next steps run in parallel: finding sites against the criteria, completing the initial range, setting purchase prices and the price structure, then building a financial model before opening the first store.

What to take away

A company preparing to raise capital is tempted to tell a big story right away. The safer path is to break the big story into small hypotheses and test each one with controlled experiments and real customer data. In convenience retail, a “Japanese” advantage only counts when it is proven through the basics: clean, tasty, fast and fairly priced.

Compiled from Weraki discussion documents, December 2025 and March 2026. The company, domestic chains and survey locations are anonymized; the Don Quijote and 7-Eleven Japan models come from public sources. The online project has not been published.