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The retail sector in Ho Chi Minh City has achieved success with record sales in 2022. |
More than VND671,000 billion, an increase of 136.5 percent compared to 2021, is the retail sales of goods in Ho Chi Minh City achieved in 2022. The impressive number has shown the outstanding efforts of enterprises that have flexibly adapted to the epidemic while developed production.
Mr. Bui Ta Hoang Vu, Director of city Department of Industry and Trade, said that the above result was achieved due to objective factors in the country, the epidemic situation has been controlled, and trade and tourism activities have been restored. Many programs to connect supply and demand, trade were organized, trade and service activities gradually recovered, and commodity markets and people's lives stabilized. In particular, all retail shops, distribution systems, restaurants, hotels, and food and beverage shops were reopened.
In addition, during the prolonged epidemic, businesses were forced to convert direct sales to online. Therefore, the city's implementation of the policy of adapting to the Covid-19 pandemic has created favorable conditions for business establishments to simultaneously sell both in person and online, contributing to a strong increase in total retail sales.
Up to now, the distribution system in the city has 232 markets and three wholesale markets. In addition, the city has 106 general supermarkets with food businesses and 131 specialized supermarkets. Furthermore, the city has 46 commercial centers and 3,072 convenience stores. All firms and supermarkets have actively stocked, replenished goods, and diversified types to serve city dwellers’ shopping needs.
On the other hand, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Food Business Association said that the domestic retail industry rebounded dramatically because Vietnamese enterprises understood consumers’ tastes well in the market. Domestic enterprises have reinvested in more eye-catching product packaging, launching many new products, especially prepackaged processed products, to meet consumers’ consumption needs of convenience foods. On the other hand, many promotions and deep discounts including Vietnam Product Week in Thailand in 2022, "Taste of Vietnam" at 15 BigC supermarkets in Thailand organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Departments of Industry and Trade in provinces and cities have increased opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises to approach consumers.
Evaluating the purchasing power of the market in the coming time, many businesses believe that retail sales will increase sharply because people focus on shopping during the Lunar New Year.
Being one of the key units of the retail industry, Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc, General Director of Ho Chi Minh City Union of Trade Cooperatives, added that Saigon Co.op currently spends about VND 6,000 billion preparing a large amount of goods during and after Tet holiday ( the Lunar New Year). All Co.opmart supermarkets belonging to Saigon Co.op across the country have completed the plan to increase the percentage of inventory to 30 percent to 50 percent compared to normal business month with a stockpile of essential goods such as processed food, rice, confectionery, cooking oil, fish sauce, confectionery and such.
The early completion of the plan to stock up on supplies both help avoid the risk of scarcity of goods and help the unit have time to review and strictly control the quality and origin of goods.
Regarding stocking up on supplies, Mr. Bui Ta Hoang Vu informed that in order to avoid the risk of scarcity and high commodity prices at the time of the Lunar New Year, the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City has worked with enterprises in the city on market stabilization program in the middle of 2022.
Currently, the program has the participation of 69 distribution systems and enterprises that have committed to strengthened solutions to ensure goods supply and demand and stabilize the market, such as building stockpiling plans, committing to purchasing and supplying, preparing abundant goods, and stable prices. In addition, they promised to strictly control the quality of trading goods and not to sell goods of unknown origin. More importantly, these units have registered their selling prices and have been appraised and approved by the Department of Finance.
To support business participants in the market stabilization program in 2022-2023, the department has worked with commercial banks to support them in lending loans with preferential interest rates lower than normal rates from 1 percent-1.5 percent. Last but not least, the department also focused on supporting solutions to boost consumer demand.
In addition, the department is closely monitoring supply and demand movements, and prices of essential products, and coordinating with businesses to stabilize them to take timely regulatory measures to ensure a balance between supply and demand. The Department of Industry and Trade took heed of the expansion of stable retail stores in addition to organizing mobile sales trips in export processing zones, industrial parks and remote areas as well as coordinating with domestic e-commerce platforms to increase sales capacity.
