TL;DR
KiotViet is broad and battle-tested across retail and F&B; LOOP is purpose-built for multi-outlet F&B with native AI for forecasting and recipe-level inventory. Pick KiotViet if you also run retail SKUs; pick LOOP if F&B margin and central-kitchen control are the priority.
LOOP vs KiotViet — Which POS for Vietnamese F&B Chains?
Last updated:
PEKO ecosystem
LOOP runs the venue. PEKO brings the customer back. Two products, one company.
PEKO — the AI customer-retention platform (heypeko.com) from the same company as LOOP. PEKO handles retention; LOOP handles operations.
| LOOP — operations | PEKO — retention |
|---|---|
| Inventory & recipes | Churn prediction |
| Shift & staff management | Automated win-back |
| Table layout | Member portal |
| Kitchen display (KDS) | Loyalty tiers |
| E-invoice (TT78) | Receipt OCR enrolment |
| Aggregator queue (GrabFood / ShopeeFood / Be) |
LOOP and PEKO each work on their own. Run both and the data syncs into one single AI brain, so nothing is entered twice. PEKO is not a POS and does not replace one — it also runs alongside any other POS.
Choose LOOP if
- ✓You run 2+ outlets and want one operator who can speak commands instead of clicking.
- ✓You want AI demand forecasting per daypart (target MAPE 14–22%), not gut-feel.
- ✓You're on SEA payment rails (VietQR, PromptPay, QRIS, DuitNow, PayNow, QR Ph).
- ✓You're already on PEKO loyalty (or planning to) — 50% lifetime LOOP discount.
Choose KiotViet if
- →You run both retail SKUs and F&B under one brand and want a single POS covering both.
- →You need the widest hardware and 3rd-party integration ecosystem in Vietnam (thousands of resellers).
- →You are a single-outlet operator on a tight budget, not (yet) chasing central-kitchen or aggregator consolidation.
- →Local phone-based support in every province is more important than AI forecasting.
| Feature | LOOP | KiotViet |
|---|---|---|
| Bundled AI customer-retention platform (PEKO) | Yes — POS + PEKO share one diner identity; 34% second-visit retention vs 19% industry baseline (PEKO 2026 dataset) | Not offered — KiotViet has no AI customer-retention layer like PEKO |
| AI voice & text commands (Vietnamese) | Ask LOOP in Vietnamese: pull reports, change prices, draft promos from a phone call | Not available |
| Built specifically for F&B | Yes — multi-outlet F&B core | General retail + F&B module |
| Recipe-level inventory deduction | Built-in | Add-on, manual setup |
| AI demand forecasting | Native, per-outlet & per-daypart | Not available |
| Delivery aggregator integration (GrabFood, ShopeeFood, Be) | Unified queue in POS | Partial, via 3rd-party |
| Offline mode | Full POS + KDS offline | Order entry only |
Bottom line
If your business is mixed retail + F&B, KiotViet is the safer bet. If F&B is the whole story and you run multiple outlets, LOOP's recipe-level inventory and AI forecasting will pay back faster.
Why teams pick LOOP
- Lower food cost variance (±2% vs ±5–8%) thanks to recipe-level deduction.
- Single dashboard across all delivery aggregators.
- Forecast-driven prep lists generated overnight.
Where each platform comes from (and why it matters)
KiotViet was built as a retail POS first. Cosmetics, mini-marts, fashion, electronics and pharmacies are the verticals it grew up serving — SKU-based stock, barcode scanning, supplier purchase orders and per-unit margin. The F&B module was added later and reuses that retail core, which is why menu items, modifiers, sub-recipes and central-kitchen transfers feel grafted on rather than native.
LOOP was designed for multi-outlet F&B from day one. The order screen is built around tables and tickets, not carts. Inventory is recipe-first: a single sale of a 'phở bò tái' deducts beef, noodles, broth components and herbs in one transaction, all the way down to sub-recipes. Multi-outlet sync, central-kitchen transfers and per-daypart forecasting are part of the base product, not paid add-ons.
This origin difference shows up at outlet #2. KiotViet operators typically maintain a per-outlet menu copy and reconcile inventory weekly. LOOP operators publish a master menu once and watch a single dashboard that updates in real time across outlets.
AI: marketing claim vs. daily operator workflow
KiotViet markets AI features in copy, but in daily operator use the system surfaces reports the operator must still interpret and act on manually. There is no native voice or text command, no per-outlet × per-daypart demand forecast feeding the prep list, and no anomaly detection that paged the operator at 14:00 when one outlet's void rate spiked.
LOOP's AI is structured as four concrete operator workflows. (1) Voice/text command in Vietnamese — 'LOOP, đổi giá cà phê sữa lên 5K từ ngày mai cho tất cả chi nhánh' completes in 12 seconds. (2) Overnight forecast that becomes the morning prep list by outlet × daypart with 8–12% MAPE after 90 days of training. (3) Anomaly digest each morning naming what changed yesterday (voids ↑23%, food cost ↑1.4pt at outlet #3). (4) Pricing recommender that flags items where elasticity supports a 5–10% increase.
The honest read: an owner who is happy reading reports on Sunday morning won't miss AI. An owner running 3+ outlets who wants the system to surface what to do next will feel the gap inside a month.
Inventory: SKU stock vs. recipe-level deduction
This is the single biggest operational difference. KiotViet's F&B module deducts inventory at SKU level — a 'cà phê sữa' sale decrements one cup of cà phê sữa. To track underlying ingredients (beans, milk, sugar) you build a parallel recipe layer and reconcile manually, usually weekly or monthly. Result: food-cost variance lives at ±5–8% and shrinkage hides until a quarter-end audit.
LOOP deducts at recipe level natively. The same 'cà phê sữa' sale decrements 18g beans, 35ml milk, 12g condensed milk and the per-unit cost of the cup itself, in one transaction. Sub-recipes (an in-house pho broth that uses bones, ginger and aromatics) flow up to every dish that consumes them. Mature deployments hold food-cost variance at ±2%.
Concretely: a 5-outlet quán with ₫3B/month revenue and 32% food cost has roughly ₫960M/month in COGS. Closing variance from ±8% to ±2% recovers ₫57M/month — about 13× the LOOP Growth subscription per outlet.
Aggregator coverage and queue unification
Both platforms accept aggregator orders, but the unification depth differs. KiotViet integrates aggregators per-channel — each delivery service posts orders into a separate KiotViet queue, the cashier acknowledges each in its own tab, and stockouts must be propagated manually to prevent overselling.
LOOP unifies GrabFood, ShopeeFood, Be and foodpanda into one kitchen queue with cross-channel stockout sync. Mark a dish 86 once and it disappears from all four merchant apps within seconds. Per-channel net-of-commission margin reports let the owner see whether ShopeeFood is profitable after the 27% commission and the promo voucher they ran last Tuesday.
If aggregators are >20% of revenue, LOOP's unified queue saves about 30–45 minutes/outlet/day in cashier and kitchen attention, plus prevents the typical 2–4% revenue loss from cross-channel oversell during peak.
When KiotViet is the right answer
Choose KiotViet — and we mean this — when your business is meaningfully mixed retail and F&B (a café that also sells bags of beans and merchandise, a bakery with a packaged-goods counter, a pharmacy with a juice bar). KiotViet's retail core handles barcoded SKUs, supplier orders and per-unit margin natively in a way LOOP doesn't.
Also choose KiotViet if your team is already trained on it, your turnover is stable, and you don't want to introduce change for change's sake. There is no urgency in switching a profitable single-outlet operation.
Pricing comparison
List prices as of May 2026 from each vendor's public pages, normalised per outlet per month, billed annually. Hardware extra. KiotViet F&B requires the F&B module on top of the base plan.
| Plan | LOOP | KiotViet |
|---|---|---|
| Free / single outlet | ₫0 — LOOP Free covers core POS, KDS, basic inventory | ₫0 trial only — paid from month 2 |
| Growth / 2–5 outlets, per outlet/mo | ₫499K — unlimited devices, AI, recipe inventory, unified aggregator queue | ₫450K base + ₫120K F&B module + per-device fees |
| Business / 6+ outlets, per outlet/mo | ₫999K — adds central kitchen, custom roles, SLA support | Custom — typically ₫1.2–1.8M/outlet bundled |
| AI / forecasting / voice commands | Included in Growth+ | Not available as a per-outlet AI workflow |
| Bundled AI customer-retention platform | PEKO included | Not offered |
Dated 2026 benchmarks
As of
| Metric | LOOP | KiotViet | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food-cost variance after 90 days | ±2% (recipe-level deduction) | ±5–8% (SKU-level deduction) | LOOP internal 2026 cohort, n=128 outlets |
| AI forecast MAPE (mature deploy) | 8–12% per outlet × daypart | Not measured — no native forecast | LOOP AI Hours Saved 2026 report |
| Diner second-visit retention | 34% (POS + PEKO closed loop) | 19% (industry baseline, no AI retention layer like PEKO) | PEKO 2026 anonymised cohort |
| Operator hours saved/outlet/week | 9.5 hours (modelled, AI workflows) | Baseline | AI Hours Saved 2026 — methodology public |
| Aggregator over-sell loss (peak) | <0.5% revenue (unified queue + stockout sync) | 2–4% revenue (per-channel queues) | LOOP onboarding audits, n=42 outlets |
Migration playbook
Standard KiotViet → LOOP cutover happens over one weekend with the LOOP onboarding team running both systems in parallel for 7 days. Below is the actual playbook used in 2026.
- 01
Pre-cutover audit (week -2)
LOOP imports KiotViet menu, modifiers, ingredients, supplier list, customer database and 12 months of sales history via CSV/API. We reconcile your KiotViet inventory snapshot against a physical count and flag every SKU where book vs. physical differs by >5%. You sign off the recipe master before cutover.
- 02
Hardware compatibility check (week -1)
LOOP runs on the Android tablets, Windows touchscreens and ESC/POS printers KiotViet typically deploys. We test your existing receipt printers, kitchen printers, cash drawers and barcode scanners; only items that fail get replaced. VietQR, MoMo and ZaloPay credentials are migrated from your existing merchant accounts — no new contracts required.
- 03
Cutover weekend (Saturday close → Monday open)
Saturday after close: KiotViet stays read-only for refunds, LOOP comes live for new orders. Cashiers run LOOP from Sunday morning with a LOOP engineer on-site at each outlet. By Monday open the legacy KiotViet device is removed from the counter; reporting stays accessible for 90 days for back-reconciliation.
- 04
Aggregator + e-invoice re-wiring (week +1)
GrabFood, ShopeeFood, Be and foodpanda are re-pointed to LOOP's unified queue via each platform's merchant portal. HĐĐT (Viettel, FPT or VNPT) is re-issued through LOOP's e-invoice connector. Existing customer credits and loyalty balances migrate via LOOP's import API with zero loss.
- 05
Stabilisation + training (weeks +2 to +4)
Daily on-site support tapers to remote-only after week 2. Cashier and shift-manager training is delivered in Vietnamese, with LOOP voice-command practice on real prior-week data. By week 4 the operator has hit the first AI digest, the first recipe-deduction variance report and the first per-channel aggregator margin report.
Typical operator downtime during cutover: 0 hours. KiotViet stays read-only; LOOP runs live in parallel. No outlet has ever lost a sale during a LOOP onboarding cutover in 2025–2026.
Which one is right for you?
Single café / quán, no chain plans
Stay on KiotViet (or use LOOP Free)
Switching cost outweighs the AI/recipe gains at one outlet with stable volume. If you also sell barcoded retail items, KiotViet is the better fit.
2–5 outlets, F&B only
Switch to LOOP
Recipe deduction alone typically recovers 10–13× the monthly subscription. Unified aggregator queue prevents 2–4% peak revenue loss. AI workflows save ~9.5 hours/outlet/week.
Mixed retail + F&B (café + bean retail, bakery + packaged goods)
KiotViet for retail SKUs, LOOP if F&B is >70% of revenue
KiotViet's retail core wins for barcoded SKU operations. Once F&B dominates, the operating-margin gain from LOOP's recipe-level inventory and AI outweighs the retail-SKU loss.
6+ outlets with central kitchen
LOOP Business
Central-kitchen transfer logic and per-outlet × per-daypart forecasting are native in LOOP and bolted-on / manual in KiotViet. The operational difference compounds at every outlet you add.
Frequently asked
- Can I migrate my KiotViet data to LOOP?
- Yes. LOOP's onboarding team imports your menu, ingredients, customers and 12 months of sales history during the standard setup.
- Does LOOP include loyalty?
- LOOP handles operations. For AI-driven customer retention, PEKO is the sibling product from the same company — it runs alongside LOOP or alongside any other POS. Together they cover operations and retention.
- Can PEKO handle inventory and staff scheduling?
- No — PEKO is the retention layer. LOOP covers inventory, recipes, shifts, table management and kitchen display in the same ecosystem.