Stable IT infrastructure - A challenge that never gets old, yet always defines the game in Retail

Vietnam's retail market is entering a high-velocity growth phase, with an estimated market size of exceeding USD 298 billion in 2024 and projected to reach USD 1 trillion by 2033. E-commerce now accounts for approximately 20% of total retail revenue, and the pressure on retailers intensifies against the backdrop of this rapid market expansion. The convenience store segment in Vietnam is forecast to grow at over 13% annually between 2023-2028.

In the age of omnichannel retail, every second of downtime comes at a cost --- canceled orders, lost customers, and eroding market share. 2024 research indicates that just one minute of system downtime can cost an average of over USD 14,000 --- and for enterprise-scale operations, that figure can climb to nearly USD 24,000 per minute. With more than 73% of shoppers being omnichannel customers, expectations are high for near real-time synchronization of inventory, pricing, promotions, and loyalty points across stores, apps, and e-commerce platforms. This compels retailers to invest in IT platforms that are robust, flexible, and intelligent enough to operate omnichannel in real time - otherwise, they risk falling behind.

As the customer experience becomes increasingly inseparable from every layer of technology, expectations for seamless convenience continue to rise. This places retail businesses squarely in front of four core IT challenges:

Infrastrucuture lacks the stability and scalability required, making it difficult to maintain continuous operationsand avoid bottlenecks or downtime during peak seasons
Lack of real-time cross-channel data synchronization, leading to inconsistent customer experiences and undermining the effectiveness of the omnichannel model.
Fragmented and disconnected data, preventing internal teams from translating raw data into value and responding promptly to customer demand.
Infrastructure expansion drives up both costs and operational complexity, while still requiring tight resource control and demonstrable ROI.

Three core IT challenges in 7-Eleven Vietnam's expansion journey

As one of the world's leading convenience store brands, 7-Eleven entered Vietnam in 2017 and, after nine years, has expanded to more than 150 offline stores and nearly 1,500 online stores, serving millions of customers each month. With a strong focus on 24/7 convenience, 7-Eleven Vietnam views technology development as a competitive advantage, continuously upgrading the infrastructure and capabilities to meet complex operational demands and deliver the best possible customer experience.

Throughout this expansion journey, the IT team's role extended far beyond technology deployment, it encompassed ensuring seamless shopping experiences across every channel, controlling operational costs, and continuously improving internal efficiency. From this mandate emerged three defining IT priorities for 7-Eleven Vietnam.

Infrastructure must keep pace with growth. Systems need to be not only stable enough to ensure continuous operations, but also agile enough to scale rapidly, manage complexity, and integrate seamlessly as the store expands. With 24/7 operations as a baseline requirement, any disruption directly translates into revenue risk and degraded customer experience.

Data must move at the speed of experience. Real-time synchronization across stores, warehouses, back-office systems, and e-commerce channels must be near-absolute. Data needs to be fast, accurate, and secure, because any discrepancy directly impacts the customer experience and erodes trust.

Growth must come with operational efficiency. In a thin-margin environment, technology ROI is a non-negotiable criterion. Businesses must optimize infrastructure costs without compromising system performance, while maintaining long-term scalability.

A local Cloud platform as the answer to growth challenges

The partnership between 7-Eleven Vietnam and GreenNode traces back to 2020 (formerly VNG Cloud), when the business required a cloud infrastructure that could meet demanding requirements around stability, scalability, and real-time synchronization. 7-Eleven Vietnam selected GreenNode's solutions --- including vServer, vStorage, and Backup - to address these three core challenges head-on.

Running on GreenNode's infrastructure enables 7-Eleven Vietnam to proactively scale resources as the store count grows or new e-commerce channels are integrated. Internal applications, supply chain systems, POS (Point of Sales), and order management are deployed on infrastructure with a 99.9% SLA, helping maintain a consistent customer experience both in-store and online.

At the data layer, real-time synchronization across channels ensures that information on orders, loyalty points, and promotions is continuously updated, maintaining accuracy and consistency across the system. This enables seamless loyalty accumulation, promotion redemption, and personalized experiences. With synchronized data, operations also become more proactive. Customer feedback is captured and routed to relevant teams for timely resolution. At the same time, data on orders, reviews, and behavior is continuously aggregated, providing operations and management teams with a stronger basis for timely and data-driven decision-making.

The impact is especially pronounced in e-commerce. Real-time updates to product inventory, pricing, and promotions have positioned 7-Eleven Vietnam as the top performer on GrabMart by average basket value, while maintaining an order cancellation rate below 4.5%. The entire e-commerce operation is run by a lean team of just two people - a stark contrast to the headcount required at comparable organizations. The PAYG (Pay-as-you-go) model further optimizes resource utilization and infrastructure cost control, enabling 7-Eleven Vietnam to efficiently operate nearly 1,500 online storefronts at an IT cost of approximately VND 550,000 per store per month.

A new step forward in preparing for the AI race

Most recently, 7-Eleven and GreenNode formalized a strategic MOU (Memorandum of Understanding), taking their partnership to the next level. Under this agreement, GreenNode becomes the strategic IT infrastructure partner for the entire 7-Eleven network across Vietnam, while also laying the foundation for a tailored AI adoption roadmap for retail in the next phase.

According to Mr. Luong Tat Trung, Director of Technology at 7-Eleven Vietnam: "Two key factors drive our trust in GreenNode: their consistent commitment to enhancing product quality to solve real operational challenges, and their genuine readiness to be a long-term partner. GreenNode has proven that over the past six years, and that's exactly why we continue to expand this partnership."

Both are aligned on jointly researching and developing an AI roadmap anchored to the real-world operational needs of 7-Eleven - spanning supply chain optimization, omnichannel data synchronization, and personalized customer experiences. The stable infrastructure foundation in place today is viewed as the essential prerequisite for 7-Eleven to be AI-ready for the next phase of growth.

IT challenges in retail are becoming increasingly complex as AI is more deeply embedded into operations and customer experience. New challenges are emerging - from deploying and scaling AI on large datasets to limitations of infrastructure not yet optimized for AI workloads. This requires businesses to establish a clear AI roadmap while continuously experimenting and measuring effectiveness.

GreenNode is there to partner with retailers to put AI to work effectively, through AI & Cloud solutions that are high-performance, production-ready, measurably impactful, and built to scale sustainably with business growth.

Explore GreenNode's solutions and services for the retail industry here.