Ho Chi Minh City offers 3-month promotion to stimulate demand

In particular, businesses organize many promotional activities with attractive discounts, which can be up to 100% of the value of goods.

Discounts from travel to luxury goods

Instead of only lasting 1 month as usual in previous years, now the Ho Chi Minh City's concentrated promotion program "Shopping Season 2023" will last up to 3 months. According to Mr. Nguyen Khac Hieu, in charge of the Import-Export Department (Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade), due to the difficult production and business situation of enterprises, the extension of the promotion program aims to promote consumption, increase purchasing power to support enterprises in consuming goods and increasing production. Unlike previous years, the 2023 concentrated promotion program will be divided into 2 phases.

Ho Chi Minh City organizes a 3-month promotion for the first time to stimulate purchasing power.

Due to the long duration, the program will have highlights for promotional activities to become more practical, gradually building a shopping brand for Ho Chi Minh City. Specifically, the program will be divided into 3 phases. From June 15 to July 15, in coordination with Tuoi Tre Newspaper, we will implement a month of cashless payments. In which, the Department of Industry and Trade will work with payment enterprises and banks to create programs to support consumers when making cashless payments. Then, from July 15 to August 15, the Department of Industry and Trade will coordinate with the Department of Tourism to implement a tourism stimulus program and a river tourism festival.

In particular, tours will be built with the participation of travel agencies, hotels, restaurants, distribution systems and even cashless payment units with the goal of sharing benefits and risks. For example, travel agencies can build a travel program for students in the summer with their parents. In the program, there will be a shopping tour at a certain shopping center, and parents will be given additional discount vouchers. If parents pay cashlessly when shopping, they will receive a larger discount than paying in cash...

The General Statistics Office announced that the total retail sales of goods and consumer services nationwide in the first 5 months of this year increased by 12.6% compared to the same period last year. This is a fairly good increase, but due to the deflation index increasing by 3.9%, the growth rate at comparable prices only reached 8.3%, equal to the increase in 2018. According to trade expert Vu Vinh Phu, the increase was mainly in tourism services, not concentrated in retail. Because the number of international visitors to Vietnam in the first 5 months of 2023 was 12.6 times higher than the same period last year; the number of domestic tourists also increased by 3.9% compared to the same period in 2022...

Finally, from August 15 to September 15, the city will have a super promotion program applied to branded products such as fashion , cosmetics, jewelry, etc. Extending the promotion period to 3 months means "covering" the entire tourism stimulus program that is usually organized by Ho Chi Minh City in early September through the international tourism fair. Instead of the Department of Industry and Trade organizing the promotion for 1 month, the Department of Tourism will organize it separately...

"In addition to extending the promotion period to 3 consecutive months, this is the first time the city has stimulated demand for branded and high-end goods to stimulate purchasing power in the high-income domestic customer segment while attracting tourists. At that time, the tourism industry can also continue to build tours and routes so that visitors from the North and Central regions can also come to the city to shop. Trade and tourism are two important industries of the city, so they need to go together to create a higher effect. We are actively promoting and mobilizing businesses to participate through departments, branches, associations, and professional associations," Mr. Nguyen Khac Hieu added.

Direct discounts will actually attract customers.

As a unit that has accompanied Ho Chi Minh City's concentrated promotion program for many years, the supermarket system Co.opmart and Co.opXtra under Saigon Co.op also announced the program "Summer Festival - Great deals, beautiful gifts". Specifically, thousands of products at these supermarkets will have discounts of up to 60%. From fresh food to technology products, household appliances and clothing are all discounted. At the same time, Saigon Co.op cooperates with e-wallet VN Pay, VP bank and Visa to launch many activities to hunt for promotional codes from 10,000 VND to 50,000 VND for orders from 100,000 VND to 1 million VND, touch payment to get instant refund...

A representative of Saigon Co.op said that in the context of a difficult situation and declining consumption, direct discounts for customers are still considered an effective solution to stimulate purchasing power. Not only essential products but also household and fashion items when discounted up to 40 - 50% also boost purchasing power compared to normal days. According to the general estimate of this system, after a number of recent promotions, purchasing power can increase by 20 - 30% compared to normal. The most important thing is to have real promotions, the number of discounted goods must be rich and diverse. Depending on the characteristics of the product group, there will be appropriate promotional programs, but direct discounts are still the most popular with customers.

According to the representative of the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City, the most difficult thing at present is organizing promotions, otherwise it will greatly affect the effectiveness as well as the trust of consumers. Therefore, in addition to inspection, control and propaganda, this unit will have solutions to ensure that this activity goes into reality through coordination with departments, branches and calculations with the sharing and unanimous participation of all subjects in a common chain.

Trade expert Vu Vinh Phu said that the stimulus program should be encouraged and should be expanded nationwide to create a stronger stimulus spread. To stimulate consumption, goods must be truly discounted, with prices publicly listed before and after the discount. The quality of the promoted goods must be guaranteed, and close-to-expiry or expired goods must not be mixed in, causing consumers to lose confidence. Or the type of store that hangs a sign offering discounts of up to 70%, but customers only come in and buy 2-3 out-of-size items that are discounted, while the other products remain the same. In essence, this is not a promotion but just for show, symbolically. That will make customers frustrated, not come back and also not believe in the city's concentrated promotion program. In addition, in the context of economic difficulties, the income of many families has decreased sharply due to businesses and factories cutting staff and reducing working hours, so it is necessary to encourage discounts on many essential goods serving people's daily lives.

"The country has more than 1,000 supermarkets, 200 shopping malls and over 4,000 convenience stores and mini supermarkets, so we should encourage mass discounts to create appeal and attract businesses and customers to participate. In the current period, if discounts are implemented with real quality, they will also contribute to promoting consumption. Clothing and footwear groups also hope to sell more, although they do not expect to have a strong increase like before. For example, thanks to promotional discounts, food groups can increase by 10-15%, while fashion, cosmetics, furniture, etc. can also increase by 2-3% instead of going down. If you promote like promotions for your relatives, customers will trust and spend money to shop," said expert Vu Vinh Phu.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/tphcm-khuyen-mai-keo-dai-3-thang-de-kich-cau-185230616204156996.htm