Online Black Friday runs lackluster campaign in Vietnam
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Online Black Friday retailers failed to enthuse customers with usual discounts, while brick and mortar stores saw heavy traffic. E-commerce giant Lazada combined its Black Friday and Cyber Monday into a four-day promotional event, offering discounts of up to 70 percent, mostly on cosmetics and fashion items.
New items were discounted by 15 percent, and the strongest price reductions were offered on low-value items of unpopular brands.
Other e-commerce services claimed to offer bigger discounts, of up to 91 percent on Tiki and 99 percent on Shopee, but these were restricted to a particular time frame after which the discounts passed on to other items.
However, such “flash sales” are familiar to online shoppers as daily offerings made by most e-commerce services.
Thus, retailers failed to enthuse customers with the discounts.
Minh Tien, an office worker in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1, said that he regularly checks flash sale items on these websites. “It’s the same method this time, and I’m in no rush as the event will last three to seven days.”
Market observers said another reason that Black Friday online sales in Vietnam failed to catch fire was the Chinese Singles’ Day promotional event held earlier this month and the upcoming Online Friday hosted by the Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA), under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, on December 7.
But in contrast to the online market, the shopping atmosphere was vibrant at brick-and-mortar stores. People started to queue up at large shopping centers in Hanoi and HCMC early Friday.
A large fashion store on Ba Trieu street in Hanoi offered a discount on all items for five hours, attracting a large number of customers.
In other stores, customers had to wait for up to two hours to buy household items. Office workers joined the shopping frenzy at lunch time, only to find out they were late because shops stopped letting new customers after 11 a.m.
As of 10 p.m. Friday night, customers were still queuing up at major shopping malls in Hanoi.
Questions & Answers
Q.Why were customers not enthusiastic about the online Black Friday discounts this year?
Why were customers not enthusiastic about the online Black Friday discounts this year?
Retailers offered common flash sale tactics and significant discounts were mostly on low-value items or unpopular brands. Customers also had recently experienced Chinese Singles' Day, with another major online event approaching.
Q.Which specific types of products received the highest discounts during Lazada's promotional event?
Which specific types of products received the highest discounts during Lazada's promotional event?
Lazada offered discounts of up to 70 percent, primarily on cosmetics and fashion items. Newly added items typically saw a 15 percent reduction, while the largest price cuts applied to low-value goods from less popular brands.
Q.What evidence is there that brick-and-mortar stores performed better than online retailers during Black Friday?
What evidence is there that brick-and-mortar stores performed better than online retailers during Black Friday?
Physical stores saw heavy customer traffic, with people queuing early at shopping centres. Some stores had long waits for household items, and customers were still queuing at major malls late on Friday night.
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