Promotions keep year-end consumer market busy

The offering of promotions with attractive discounts, even 100%, at the national scale by producers and distributors is expected to help boost the circulation of goods and encourage people to shop more. According to the General Statistics Office, in November, the demand for food, food stuffs, cultural items, education, and accommodation, catering and travel services across the country increased significantly, contributing to bringing the total retail sales of goods and services to 552.7 trillion VND (22.7 billion USD), up 1.4% month-on-month and 10.1% year-on-year. In the first 11 months of this year, the total retail sales of goods and services revenue rose by 9.6% over the same period last year. Commenting on the domestic purchasing power, the Department of Domestic Market under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the above results partly came from promotion programmes to stimulate consumption, especially in the commodity groups of food and food stuffs, and garment and textiles. The purchasing power is forecast to increase rapidly, especially during the New Year and Lunar New Year holidays. Therefore, to contribute to stimulating consumption demand and promoting goods distribution, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has coordinated with localities, businesses, manufacturers, and associations to organise many supply-demand connectivity activities, promote regional product brands, and diversify sales channels, including the organisation of the national concentrated promotion programme which is taking place from December 4, 2023 to January 10, 2024. In response to the programme, since the beginning of the fourth quarter, retailers across the country have spent large budgets to prepare goods with quantities increasing by 20% - 30% over normal months, and at the same time closely connected with suppliers to keep prices stable until the end of 2023. Kantar Vietnam Market Research Company forecasts that the peak shopping season will fall about five weeks before the Lunar New Year, from January 7 to Feb ruary 10, 2024./. Source: Vietnam News Agency