The domestic retail market in recent months has shown many signs of good recovery and strong growth again after being heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The situation of Covid-19 disease is gradually being controlled and has begun to decrease deeply, so that the situation of production, business and consumption activities is gradually stabilizing.
Notably, according to the report of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the total retail sales of goods and service revenue in the past 4 months had an outstanding growth compared to the same period last year, goods were abundant, purchasing power tended to increase.
Specifically, the total retail sales of goods and services in April reached 455.5 trillion VND, up 3.1% over the previous month and 12.1% over the same period last year. In the first 4 months of this year, according to the General Statistics Office, the total retail sales of goods and services reached 1,777.4 trillion VND, up 6.5% over the same period last year.
Retail sales of goods in the first four months of the year increased by 7.6% over the same period last year and food and foodstuffs alone increased by 13.2% due to rising commodity prices.
However, the group of garments and appliances, tools and household equipment in the same period decreased by 3.5% and 4.6% respectively over the same period. The reason, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, is that people’s income is still difficult after a long time of the epidemic.
Commodity market in April did not have unusual fluctuations. The demand for goods in the group of household appliances, clothes, shoes, etc. increases when the weather is gradually turning to summer. Due to the prolonged public holidays (Anniversary of Hung Kings, the holidays of April 30 and May 1), along with many domestic tourism stimulus programs implemented, the demand for tourism and services of the people increased significantly.
The market of essential commodities did not have large fluctuations in supply and demand, however, due to the influence of the price increase in the world market, the prices of some domestic commodities such as fertilizers, animal feeds and raw materials, construction steel increased compared to the previous month.
Prices of fuel and energy commodities such as gasoline continued to be managed in the direction of closely following the movements of world prices but limited the fluctuation range to stabilize the domestic market, gas prices in April were also adjusted up according to world prices.
Large retailers also said that the situation of customers returning to shop has increased markedly in recent months. For example, in the sales chain of AEON Vietnam, business activities also improved when the number of customers visiting shopping centers increased by about 10% compared to the pre-Covid-19 period.
According to Mr. Furusawa Yasuyuki, General Director of AEON Vietnam, Vietnam’s economy has gradually recovered and he expects the market situation to return to normal as before. With a GDP growth rate predicted by the Government at around 6-6.5% this year, AEON Vietnam hopes to regain its pre-Covid-19 growth rate.
However, due to the prolonged social distancing period, people’s psychology and consumption habits have changed. The number of customers has gradually returned but has not yet reached the same threshold as before. On the other hand, the shopping frequency of customers is greatly reduced, but the number of products per purchase increases.
The number of customers who want to shop at locations close to home is also increasing. Consumers are also increasingly favoring online shopping and cashless payments.
With a market of nearly 100 million people, increasing income levels, and stable economic development, analysts consider Vietnam is a potential retail market for goods and attracts many foreign retailers to invest in business.
From 2019 and earlier, Vietnam’s retail market showed a growth rate of over 10%. Even in 2020, despite being affected by Covid-19, Vietnam’s retail sales still increased by more than 11 billion dollars compared to 2019, reaching more than 172 billion dollars. Therefore, according to analysts, in this difficult context, foreign retailers with strong financial potential continue to “lay down” investments, which will create competitive advantages in the future.
And despite the Covid-19 outbreak, many businesses, shops and traditional markets closed to implement prolonged social distancing and many consumers tightened spending, total retail sales of goods in Vietnam at the end of 2021 still grew by 0.2% and set a new record in sales, surpassing the US$173 billion mark.
@ Saigon Times
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Source: Vietnam Insider