Illustrative image (Photo: vnexpress.net)

The shopping festival Black Friday, modelled after the biggest shopping event of the year in the US, was kicked off on November 19 in Ho Chi Minh City with many shopping centres and stores offering discounts of up to 70 percent. It is expected to last until the end of this month.

This year, Black Friday falls on November 26 but due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many retailers, production units and businesses have kick started their discount campaigns early than usual.

Shein, a women's fashion brand offers discounts up to 70 percent for this year's Black Friday season. Especially, with orders from 499,000 VND (22 USD) or more, customers get free shipping and door-to-door delivery. Couple TX - another apparel brand - also kicked off Black Friday on November 19 with discounts up to 50 percent for customers shopping on this occasion.

Surveys conducted at shopping centres, supermarket systems and chain stores in HCM City such as Giga Mall Pham Van Dong, Vincom, SC VivoCity, Aeon Mall, and Takashimaya showed that they have also cooperated with suppliers and partners to launch a variety of promotion programmes.

However, consumers seem to be cautious. They only buy things that they really need.

Thai Nguyen, a resident residing at Binh Thanh District, said many stores had offered discounts since early October when lockdown measures were lifted so the Black Friday promotions are not quite attractive.

Some retailers in HCM city said that even though the "new normal" state has been resumed, there is a tendency to tighten spending because people are aware that they will have to live with the pandemic for a long time. Thus, in order to stimulate consumer demand, it is necessary for production units and businesses to focus on groups of products that meet the tastes of loyal and potential customers. In particular, consumer service quality should be improved to meet consumers' increasing demand./.