Revenues jump by up to 37 percent
In recent days, many supermarkets have seen lots of footfalls. At certain times of the day, customers have to wait in line for their turn to pay. Ms. Nguyen Minh Ha, a customer of Co.opmart Nguyen Dinh Chieu in District 3, shared that this year her family decided not to travel but to stay in the city to celebrate the Tet holidays. So, when she had free time, she visited supermarkets to buy decorative products for her house and food to make many delicious dishes for her family.
Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc, CEO of Saigon Co-op, said that in the first week of January this year, the purchasing power of the whole network surged by 37 percent compared to the previous week. Revenues surged robustly in a wide range of essential commodities, from fresh and processed foods, cosmetics, kitchen appliances to garments. The purchasing power at supermarkets in other provinces and cities has also increased well, especially at newly-opened supermarkets, such as Thap Muoi Co.opmart. Its revenue in the past days was beyond the expectation of Saigon Co.op. According to Mr. Duc, this year, the purchasing power during the month before the Lunar New Year is likely to exceed 12 percent as expected earlier by Saigon Co.op. Meanwhile, the company has prepared goods supply with an increase of 40 percent over the same period. No matter how much the purchasing power increases, this distributor will still be capable of supplying goods at stable prices.
Similarly, Mr. Dinh Quang Khoi, Head of the Department of Marketing and Customer Care of MM Mega Market Vietnam Co., Ltd., said that people bought Tet products early, causing revenue to grow earlier than in previous years, so it did not have enough time to prepare goods. According to his calculation, the revenue of the retail segment alone has risen by more than 10 percent over the same period. If including the wholesale segment, the increased level will range from 5-6 percent. The company is in the process of designing and expanding the checkout counters at supermarkets to best serve the shopping demand of customers.
Shopping centers, such as Vincom Central Dong Khoi, Takashimaya, and Aeon Celadon Tan Phu, are also overloaded by the high number of customers flocking there at weekends.
From the perspective of manufacturers, an enterprise specializing in supplying fresh and processed food analyzed that because the price of live hogs increased sharply, the output of the fresh meat group decreased slightly. Meanwhile, that of the processed food group still rose moderately. Currently, the purchasing power in the market is increasing from now until the Lunar New Year, so the purchasing power of processed foods is expected to go up by more than 20 percent year-on-year. Poultry meat and egg suppliers, such as San Ha, Ba Huan, and Vinh Thanh Dat, are also delighted because the purchasing power shows signs of increase. People tend to use poultry meat and eggs instead of pork more and more. Especially, at the end of the year, because the demand for poultry meat and eggs in processing will continue to surge, enterprises have been taking many measures to ensure supply and stabilize selling prices.
Reasonable prices lure consumers
According to experts, the selling prices of many items have never been stable as this year. The pandemic caused the purchasing power to shrink during the previous year. Many products could not be exported, so enterprises switched to focus on the domestic market. To keep and maintain the purchasing power, enterprises have to improve product quality and keep competitive prices.
As for retailers, this is also the year they launch several best-price policies, with the most benefit for consumers. Not only continuously running promotions and discounts of up to 50 percent for thousands of essential products, such as household appliances, garments, and cosmetics, but some enterprises also upgrade products and services, launch new products, and constantly open integrated point of sale to lure customers to experience new types of business.
Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc said that more people would stay in HCMC to celebrate the Tet holidays this year than in previous years. Hence, since the third quarter of last year, Saigon Co-op has carried out several business strategies, focusing on prioritizing the diversification of high-quality, organic, and imported high-class food products, while ensuring the proportion of Vietnamese products in the structure of each product group. In the segment of Tet gift baskets, Saigon Co.op boldly offers free shipping for Tet gift baskets nationwide. To do this, the company accepts to increase its costs to maximize convenience for consumers.
Other retail networks have also accelerated the search for new products, which are specialties of regions or imported products, to create more choices for customers. The strategy of MM Mega Market is to maintain constant availability for groups of fish, pork, fresh fruits, and fresh vegetables. As for confectionery products, there are 2,000 types of sweetmeats at MM Mega Market. Of which, 56 products are OCOP, 40 are imported from Thailand, and there are up to 130 new products compared to the previous year. At supermarkets of MM, there are also stalls selling agricultural products, such as floral tea, sugar-coated dried fruits, nuts, by weight, with promotions of up to 50 percent.
