The epidemic outbreak from the beginning of 2020 and spread globally has had a huge impact on the economy of the world in general and Vietnam in particular. Up to now, when the New Year 2021 are approaching, epidemics are still affecting the economy.
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Despite the fact that the Lunar New Year is the season with the highest level of buying demand, the shrinking of the economy has had consequences on the changing buying patterns of Vietnamese shoppers. Our article below will evaluate further detail on this year’s New Year trends on Vietnam e-commerce.
Lunar New Year 2021
In Vietnam, Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival, is the biggest holiday event of the year and often celebrated for a whole week. This year Lunar New Year 2021 starts from 10/2/2021 till 16/02/2021. In the celebration of the Year of the Dog, there is a golden opportunity for brands to engage with a 1.4 billion community both online and offline.
The Impact on e-commerce and dropshipping
Throughout the period of one-week holiday of Lunar New Year, The local courier and logistics services start to slow down and stop receiving orders about 5 day in advance to the holiday, then off-work for the whole holiday. Only after the week following the holiday, will all local logistic and fulfilment service return to normal working pace.
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Notwithstanding the difficulty for dropshipping companies at the beginning of the year due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, heading to the New Year 2021, the concern seems to be lessened and back to the normal pace thanks to the strict control of the Vietnamese government. Furthermore, given the sheer amount of travel together with the ban on international flights during New Year 2021, the national delivery, dropshipping, and courier services can function normally without any worry for disruption.
Blur the edge Between Online and Offline e-commerce
According to ComScore’s Hierarchy of Needs, the changing perspective of customers has been clearer, not just mobile or desktop-oriented shopping. Customers are demanding a new change in buying online, increasing interest in a seamless shopping experience across all touchpoint. To bridge the gap between online and offline, marketers can leverage technologies like geofence to deliver more personal and meaningful journeys, targeting users with highly relevant offers, discounts, and messages.
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Google’s data also noted that approximately 40% of online shoppers start to seek previously purchased in-store products on e-commerce marketplaces and websites instead of buying directly in stores. Therefore, as opposed to rushing to malls and supermarkets, housewives and shoppers prefer to make orders on online platforms.
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Google’s Search for Tomorrow 2020 report shows that about 45% of rural consumers use search engines to collect information about products then make shopping decisions.
To leverage the full potential of the Chinese New Year and other remarkable holidays, brands need to rethink how they can enhance experiences leveraging marketing technologies to deliver hyper engaging shopping moments. Whilst, the more expectation from customers in the online segment, the higher degree of evolving in digital marketing strategies do brands need to step up to stay on top of their game.
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The emerge of new trend: Online market fair
New Year 2021 coming is also the right time for the online fairs, thematic programs of Spring Fair to take place. Additionally, there is also an emerging number of seasonal websites for Lunar New Year 2021 that are responsive to new customer trends and habits.
Variety of products, attractive promotional events, coordinated red-yellow theme, eye-catching yet user-friendly interface all together has lifted up and enhanced the festival atmosphere of the Spring Fair market online that are appealing to many customers. Since the rapid advancement of technology along with the rising trend of e-commerce, the yearly Spring Fair has gradually become a tradition in recent years. This fair is considered to be a connecting bridge between business owners, brands and customers, whereby businesses can increase sales and consumers also have the opportunity to own various cheap products.
Further stated by Deputy Director of E-Commerce Development Center – Department of E-Commerce and IT, Ministry of Industry and Trade, the enterprises are quick on responding and approaching customer’s needs especially shopping demand at office in busy working conditions like today.
According to statistics of some websites providing goods to serve the needs of buying on the occasion of Tet, there is a huge strike in the website traffic. Although not yet the peak period, during the day, various brands receive dozens of orders. This clearly declares a positive of e-commerce in terms of increasing recognition of a significant change in the buying habits of consumers.
The impact of the economic downturn is one of the reasons why businesses expand online sales channels. But up to this point, when the economy started to show signs of recovery, online sales programs continued to play their roles, creating a new trend in the way of product supply and demand, especially during the year-end shopping peak season.
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Cut back on spending and maximize savings on shopping during Lunar New Year 2021
With the current economic situation as the after effect of the global epidemic Covid-19, the Vietnamese consumers are becoming more sensitive to the factor of financial spending and shopping during the Lunar New Year 2021. The tendency of cutting back on spending has been increasing among Vietnamese, yet still want to maintain the bustling spirit of Lunar New Year.
Essential goods and supplements will take the lead during the Tet holiday
During Tet, Vietnamese consumers clearly showed a higher demand for essential goods. According to the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, by the end of 2020 and the Lunar New Year 2021, we will witness the activeness of e-commerce businesses, shopping demand will increase by 3-20% for each commodity group. In addition, data from Capgemini also shows that up to 52% of consumers surveyed said they tend to buy more essentials than high-end items. At the same time, products with health benefits will also dominate customers’ shopping options after a long time affected by epidemics.
Besides the common categories and confectionery products, many rustic, idyllic, traditional Tet specialties are also popular choices by many consumers
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