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Vietnamese consumers indifferent to promotion programmes
Big and noisy sale promotion programmes nowadays seem to be failing to have the desired effect as Vietnamese consumers are indifferent.
Nguyen Thi Minh Anh and Nguyen Thi Hong Thuy were admiring jewellery items displayed at a stall at Parkson Hung Vuong trade centre. However, they finally decided not to buy anything from the stall despite the attractive discounts.
Minh Anh said: “The big discounts raised some doubts and I decided not to buy anything. I have never seen a discount of 50% on gold and diamond items.”
Meanwhile, Thuy said that she is not interested in gifts offered by sellers. This is when consumers still have to pay a lot for products, but can get free, albeit unnecessary, products.
“We decided to buy products from other shops in order to enjoy lower prices, rather than waste money on products we don’t have a demand for,” she added.
After leaving the jewellery stall, Anh and Thuy visited many other stalls, handbags, fashion and footwear, where they noticed other big sales of 40-70% off. However, they purchased only one shirt and one pair of shoes with the discount of 70%.
Hoa, another consumer, who calls herself ‘addicted to shopping’, said that she always rushed to buy a lot of products when Parkson, Diamond, or Mango, Nexx, Eye Wear Hut announced discount programmes.
However, nowadays, she only purchases products if she really needs them or likes the products, and when she finds items that are affordable. There are several tens of sales every year in HCM City; therefore, Vietnamese consumers do not hurry to buy discount products.
Nguyen Phuong Thao, Director of Maximark chain, also sees big changes in the shopping habits of Vietnamese consumers. Thao said that discounts of 5-10% are not attractive anymore. Consumers nowadays need more impressive offers. That explains why on Women’s Day March 8, discounts were very big, 30-40% on average, while clothes and footwear saw discount rates up to 50-70%.
“Previously, just small discounts on shampoo, soap were enough to lure customers to supermarts. Meanwhile, nowadays, consumers are indifferent to sale promotion programmes, as they saw too many during Tet, Valentine’s Day and then Women’s Day,” she said.
Tran Thi Anh, a housewife in Tan Binh district, said that previously, people rushed to buy sale products because they feared the products would go up in price. But they realise that it’s pointless to hoard commodities, because all products, from TV, pans to telephones and shampoos, will decrease in price.
VietNamNet/SGTT
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