Purchasing power rises at the year’s beginning

In the month of Tet, domestic commercial activities occurred animatedly, because of the rise of shopping demands. In the province, enterprises, major dealers and supermarkets had planned to reserve and launch a large quantity of goods and sales promotions, causing an large increase in consumption of goods in January.

 Growing demands

According to Department of Industry and Trade, in Jan 2016, total retail sales of goods and services in the province reached 11,910 billion VND, up 23.6% year-on-year; including 11,526 billion VND of domestic sector, up 23.1%, and 384 billion VND of FDI sector, up 40.9% year-on-year. To achieve this consumption level, Binh Duong province implemented a goods stockpile plan and market stabilization program in 2016 with a total goods value of 1,445 billion VND. Particularly, on Tet holidays, the province required enterprises to stockpile goods worth totally over 539 billion VND, including 30 billion VND of supported loans.

Supermarkets, shopping centers in the province are putting more effort into better serving customer’s needs. Photo: Customers selected products at Binh Duong Big C supermarket

According to Department of Industry and Trade, to stabilize the supply, in the last month, enterprises sold price-stabilized goods at 12 locations in the province to serve the shopping needs of workers at industrial areas and people in rural districts. At the same time, the province organized 2 market-days to bring Vietnamese goods to rural areas in Tan Uyen town and Ben Cat town with the participation of 34 enterprises, 105 booths; total sales reached 773 million VND. With the support from localities, businesses as well as market demands and power supply of businesses, demands in the first months of 2016 increased sharply.

According to General Statistics Office, consumer price index (CPI) in Jan 2016 of the country increased 1.72% over the previous month. Besides shopping demand increases on Tet occasion, there were some factors curbing CPI of Jan, like: gas prices fell 1.56% compared to Dec 2015, gasoline price decrease led to a decrease of 6.44% of fuel price index… In Binh Duong province, CPI of Jan fell 0.09% compared to the previous month, because the province boosted price stabilization, enhanced inspection and control to ensure price stability…

Supermarkets, commercial centers serve well customers

In order to realize the plan of increasing total retail sales of services and goods (up 20%) in 2016, right from the beginning of this year, enterprises, retailers have promptly implemented the plan. Ho Quoc Nguyen, Public Relation Director of Big C supermarket, said that in 2015, the customer number of Big C grew well. After Tet, the customer number has still increased; purchasing power also rose, because of the first Full-moon Festival. To attract customers right in the first months of New Year, the supermarket is launching a promotion named “Presents of the Spring” with more than 500 products of dried food, cosmetics, home appliances, clothing, children's toys with a discount of up to 49% from now until the end of Feb 2016.

Meanwhile, other supermarkets, shopping centers in the province, like: Lotte Mart, Co.opMart, CitiMart..., also started their own business strategy. Yasuo Nishitohge, General Director of Binh Duong Aeon Mall Canary (Thuan An town), said in 2015, purchasing power of their center increased 120% compared to 2014. He also said, the center was targeting people group with above average incomes. “We will focus on products with Japanese quality but low prices favored by Binh Duong people in order to achieve a higher goal of satisfying local people’s needs”, said Yasuo Nishitohge.

Reported by Truc Huynh – Translated by Ngoc Huynh