Retail and consumer services market, F&B… on the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2023 in Ho Chi Minh City recorded excitement again with purchasing power heating up day by day as many production and business enterprises, shopping malls, supermarket chain retails launched promotions to stimulate shopping demand…

Because the two Tet holidays of 2023 are only about 3 weeks apart, commercial activities serving the shopping needs of the Lunar New Year 2023 in Ho Chi Minh City have been focused on implementation, bringing a vibrant atmosphere, more clearly for this “sleepless” city.

NEW YEAR’S GOODS READY

According to a report by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade, there are 46 shopping malls, 237 supermarkets, and 3,012 convenience stores in the city. The total amount of food and essential food products supplied to the market averaged 1,800 tons/day. Ho Chi Minh City prepared about 34,000 tons of goods for the program to stabilize the market, serving people during Tet.

Specifically, Co.opmart and Co.opXtra systems simultaneously launched 12,000 Tet products with discounts of 10-50%. Many Tet gift baskets for gifts are also made available and displayed in a separate area to meet the shopping needs and as gifts for customers. Co.opmart also increased the proportion of stockpiles to 30-50% compared to the previous months and focused on essential goods such as rice, sugar, cooking oil, fish sauce, meat of all kinds (pork, beef, chicken), seafood, poultry eggs, jam cakes of all kinds…

Forecasting a high shopping demand from the beginning of January 2023 until the Lunar New Year 2023, WinMart also planned to supply goods with a 30% increase in output. In particular, traditional Tet items such as fruit gift baskets, Banh Chung, and salted foods are also prepared by WinMart in large quantities, at good prices, and many items are discounted up to 50%.

Similarly, Saigon Trading Corporation One Member Limited (Satra) also sharply increased reserves of Tet goods. The total amount of goods that the Satra retail system stores for two months (before and after the Lunar New Year in 2023) is estimated at about VND 500 billion, an increase of 10% compared to the Tiger New Year 2022. It is accompanied by discount promotions on more than 3,000 items with discounts up to 72%.

Representatives of MM Mega Market also started displaying goods for the Lunar New Year from December 15th, 2022 to January 21st, 2023 with many promotions: Buy 1 get 1 free, multiply accumulate points 5 times for customers to stimulate demand. Supermarkets, malls, and convenience stores in Ho Chi Minh City have also developed plans to prepare goods for Tet from 1 to 2 months ago with an increase of 2-3 times compared to normal month, equivalent to 15 – 30%.

At the same time, the retail service time for Tet sales is also increased to 23 hours in the days from December 20th to 27th and to 24 hours in the two peak days close to the Lunar New Year to meet the shopping demand of the citizens.

EXCELLENT CONSUMER SERVICES

To supply Tet items to supermarkets, shopping malls, retail stores… many manufacturing enterprises have also planned 1-2 months in advance.

Specifically, Masan MEATLife has increased the capacity of MEATDeli Cool Meat Processing Complexes in Ha Nam and Long An. The total output of MEATDeli branded chilled pork and chicken to the market during the Lunar New Year 2023 is expected to reach nearly 4,000 tons, up 23% over the same period last year.

Tuong An vegetable oil also plans to increase production by 15% over the same period, evenly developing all 3 segments of popular, medium and high-end depending on the characteristics of each region.

Vinh Thanh Dat Food Joint Stock Company is expected to bring about 4 million chicken eggs (2.5 million chicken eggs and 1.5 million duck eggs) to serve the days before Tet. Sales volume in 3 days near Tet is expected to reach 1 million eggs/day. The price did not change, even reduced by 5-10% in the 3 days leading up to Tet.

Vietnam Animal Products Joint Stock Company (Vissan) has prepared a budget of more than 700 billion VND to reserve and produce Tet goods, an increase of 20% compared to the same period in 2021. According to the plan, Vissan prepares 2,000 tons of fresh food (mainly pork, an increase of 30% compared to the level of the Tiger New Year 2022) and 4,200 tons of processed food, an increase of 10%. This business also commits to keeping prices stable as well as implementing many promotions, discounting from 5% to 10% for the company’s products.

In parallel with Tet shopping activities, many other related Tet service industries such as travel, hotel, transportation, F&B… also plan to serve Tet as well as the business development plans in the future.

According to the Asian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry report recently released by Kantar World Panel, after 2 years of being affected by the epidemic, Vietnam’s beverage industry has made a remarkable recovery. The third quarter of 2022 recorded an average growth rate of 5.2%, only 0.4% lower than the average growth rate of the whole Asia.

Specifically, after two difficult years due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Starbucks Vietnam’s financial results had a certain growth in the new normal period thanks to the promotion of online payment activities through e-wallets. In addition to bank cards, Starbucks Rewards membership cards or cash, customers can also use MoMo and ZaloPay e-wallets to make payments at Starbucks Vietnam stores.

By the end of 2022, Starbucks had 87 stores, concentrated in big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hung Yen, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Hoi An (Quang Nam), Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa), Binh Duong; in which, Ho Chi Minh City alone has 50 stores. Starbucks Vietnam’s goal in 2023 is to open its 100th store after 10 years of presence in Vietnam. Starbucks Vietnam’s model will also be lean, looking for more spaces in new urban areas, buildings or local communities to bring the Starbucks experience to more customers.

Highlands Coffee brand has also just announced a new brand orientation after 23 years of establishment and development in Vietnam. This is the fourth time this brand has announced a logo change (the last time the logo changed was in 2013). Also affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, Highlands Coffee is recovering strongly after the pandemic. With more than 500 stores across Vietnam, the Thai billionaire’s brand is expected to continue to maintain its leading position in the Vietnamese coffee retail market in the coming years.

In the field of logistics, in order to serve the freight transportation needs of customers during Tet, J&T Express – an international express delivery brand, also strives to improve its transportation capacity with 1,900 post offices and nearly 850 trucks of all kinds, strengthen staff and collaborators to deliver parcels to customers in the shortest time. Not only that, J&T Express also strengthens its presence on social networks in general and the Tiktok platform in particular; applying technology to most operations to minimize overload or delay, especially during the peak season at the end of the year.

Source: VnEconomy