Entering 2023, the biggest trend of retailers is to expand sales channels, put products on many different trade platforms, and take advantage of the power of online sales channels. Omnichannel will continue to show dominance. Shoppers will become “digital consumers”, continuing to maintain or even increase their use of e-commerce platforms and online shopping in the next 12 months…

These forecasts have just been made by Sapo omnichannel sales and management platform on January 4th, 2023 based on the results of a survey of more than 15,000 sellers nationwide about the business situation in 2022.

MULTI-CHANNEL RETAIL IS EXPANDING GRADUALLY

The retail business situation in 2022 has many flourishes in terms of revenue, business scale as well as sales, shipping and payment channels. The survey results recorded a recovery in revenue in 2022. The percentage of sellers with revenue growth accounted for 37.72%, higher than in 2021 (23.88%) and 2020 (30.7%). The number of sellers with a growth of over 30% in revenue accounted for 6.36%.

The majority of retailers with revenue growth in 2022 are in the fashion-accessories, cosmetics, grocery-mini-marts and toys sectors. Retailers recorded a decrease in revenue of over 30%, mainly doing business in the household and daily life industries; mother and baby clothes; drugs and functional foods.

Analyzing the reasons for this revenue growth, Ms. Dung Le, Growth Director, CGO of Sapo Technology Joint Stock Company, said that sellers used the method of stimulating purchasing power, pushing inventory and taking advantage of better business. In which, 65.58% of sellers create promotion programs to reduce prices, give gifts, give more products; 22.64% of sellers apply the program to accumulate points when buying and exchanging gifts for loyal customers. Only 1.09% of sellers do not have a specific plan to boost sales.

Sellers are not willing to spend too much on marketing activities, most of the marketing budget accounts for less than 10% of revenue (58.3%), the percentage of sellers who spend their budget on marketing accounts for 10-20% of revenue is 32.4%…

The three most popular and cost-effective marketing channels are: advertising on social networks, in-store marketing, advertising on e-commerce platforms, informed Sapo representatives.

The trend of expanding multi-channel sales is also evident with 57.65% of sellers doing business on at least two channels (in-store and some online channels). The proportion of business people who only sell offline at the store accounts for 23.71% and those who only sell online account for 17.35%.

On the other hand, omnichannel sellers show a revenue advantage over sellers who only sell directly in stores or only sell online. Omnichannel sellers recorded revenue growth of 68.01%, while this rate for online sellers was 16.9% and in-store sales was 15.07%.

Among online sales channels, e-commerce platforms are the most popular with 49.69% of sellers, followed by social networks Facebook (39.13%) and websites (9.94%). TikTok Shop, a new sales channel appearing in 2022, currently accounts for only 1.24% of the share, but it is a trend of exploiting and shifting sellers.

However, when evaluating the overall effectiveness of the channels, the in-store channel is still the most popular (reaching 7.2/10 points). Followed by social media channels with 6.9 points, e-commerce platforms with 6.67 points, websites with 5.76 points.

CASH PAYING BACK TO NUMBER 1

The process of economic recovery after the epidemic and social distancing has impacted and created many changes in the field of payment and transportation.

Notably, cash returned to the No. 1 position in the group of payment methods most used by shoppers and accepted by merchants (accounting for 29.46% of the proportion). In 2021, the form of cashless payment- Transfer for the first time surpassed Cash and reached the top 1 position.

However, in 2022, bank transfer has dropped to second, accounting for 27.95% of the proportion. The explosion of banking QR code scanning in 2022 has brought this method to the Top 3 most accepted payment methods (accounting for 16.69% of the share), surpassing E-wallets (13.29%).

It can be said that the digital banking movement – comprehensive digital transformation in the banking industry in 2022 also has a direct impact on the Retail industry.

The new form of buying first and paying later (Fundinn, Shopee Pay Later) has just been launched and integrated on the e-commerce platform in 2022, so it has not been used much and only reached 2.6 points of convenience. New payment methods need more time to conquer the retail market.

3 HUGE RETAIL TRENDS IN 2023

By the end of 2022, about 74.5% of sellers expect the market in 2023 to continue to recover and grow. In which, 12.18% of sellers believe that the retail industry will definitely grow strongly.

In 2023, 36.18% of sellers plan to expand their business scale; 29.03% of sellers intend to diversify their business; Only 2.85% of sellers plan to maintain and optimize costs.

Entering 2023, predicting that the biggest trend of retailers is to expand sales channels, put products on many different business platforms, and take advantage of the power of online sales channels.

According to Ms. Dung, multi-channel selling will continue to show its advantage. E-commerce will continue to be the driving force in the growth of Vietnam’s digital economy. Retail shoppers will become digital consumers, continuing to maintain or even increase their use of e-commerce and online shopping platforms over the next 12 months.

Entertainment shopping, digital content creation along with product marketing (Shoppertainment) will continue to be the mainstream trends in the coming years. Average sales related to entertainment, streaming and content creator-related products will increase sharply.

The third trend is to improve operations and corporate governance in the retail industry. After a period of fighting the epidemic, retailers entered a period of recovery and revenue growth, initially focusing on maintaining and developing their business from within.

That is the internal resource from human resources, store operation and retail business administration. Applying technology and sales management software will help store owners expand their business and operate effectively, support offline store operation, promote online sales channels and multi-channel growth.

However, 25.43% of sellers were pessimistic about the business situation in 2023, predicting that the geopolitical situation in the world will continue to fluctuate, the economy will be in recession, the inflation rate will increase, etc. will directly affect the business in the retail industry.

Source: VnEconomy