Gift market gets International Women’s Day boost, but shoppers go online amid epidemic fear
Gift market gets International Women’s Day boost, but shoppers go online amid epidemic fear
Stores in HCM City have introduced a wide range of products for International Women’s Day (March 8) and are offering promotions to attract buyers. 
Co-opmart and Co-op Xtra supermarkets are offering discounts of up to 50 per cent on thousands of products, including skincare and hair care products and clothes, until March 11.
They are also offering promotions on household utensils, fruits and vegetables and other products.
Big C is offering big discounts on skincare and hair care products, cosmetics, fashion products, and accessories under its “Big C Beauty Fair” programme from February 27 to March 18.
Other supermarkets such as Lotte Mart and Emart have also cut prices on thousands of products.
Jewellery companies like DOJI and Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ) have introduced new collections and launched promotions.
PNJ has launched a “Heart2Heart” jewellery line besides others such as Suncut, Disney and Aura silver.
Besides promotions of up to 20 per cent, PNJ also offers customers shopping from February 28 to March 8 the chance to win a Swiss watch in a lucky draw.
It will gift customers shopping at its stores from March 6 to 8 a set of three-layer face mask to help prevent viral transmissions.
Fashion and cosmetics shops on Nguyen Trai Street, Hai Ba Trung Street and Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Le Van Sy streets are decked out with promotion banners.
But according to traders, sales of popular gift items such as body care and beauty care products, clothes and underwear are much lower than last year since schools are still closed due to the Covid-19 epidemic outbreak.
An owner of a large cosmetics shop on Hai Ba Trung Street said customers usually buy cosmetics such as shampoo, body wash and make-up items to gift their children’s teachers.
“In past years sales of these products would usually increase significantly around a week before March 8. But this year, with the school closure, sales have fallen by 60 per cent.”
Online shopping up
Nguyen Thanh Dieu, owner of a clothes store on Le Van Sy Street, said, “Due to virus fears, customers have restricted shopping at stores, and so we have promoted our products via phones and social network since last month during Valentine’s Day, with payments being made via bank accounts or on delivery.”
Revenues from online sales are increasing, she said.
Some e-commerce platforms said demand for cosmetic products started inching up at the end of February, with the average value per order being more than VND500,000 (US$21.5).
Skincare, make-up and body care products are among bestselling items, they said.
With more shoppers choosing to shop online amid the threat of the novel coronavirus, e-commerce platforms such as Lazada, Shopee, Sendo, and Tiki have launched a series of promotions to attract buyers ahead of International Women’s Day.
Lazada is offering attractive discounts on millions of items, free delivery for orders of VND99,000 or more in HCM City and Ha Noi and valuable gifts from premium brands.
In addition to shops, retailers and e-commerce platforms and banks are also offering freebies to women customers.
On March 6 and 7, all women customers making deposits at Sacombank transaction offices will get an additional 0.05 percentage points higher interest on deposits of six to 12 months, and 0.1 percentage point for above 12 months.
From March 6 to 8 individual customers who make an interbank transfer of at least VND5 million ($215) on iBanking or mBanking will get a refund of VND83,000.
