Nghe An: Flower and gift market on March 8 is sluggish
(Baonghean.vn) - Due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, many collective activities for this March 8 holiday have been temporarily suspended, schools are still closed, so the purchasing power of gift market items such as: Flowers, fashion, cosmetics, jewelry... has decreased significantly compared to previous years.
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| To serve the holiday of "the other half", flower shops have launched many new, unique, rich and diverse flower designs with quite reasonable prices, not higher than usual. Photo: Thanh Phuc |
Unlike other years, fresh flowers are the main product that is consumed the most during the week of March 8, but this year, fresh flowers are quite sluggish even though there are many different types of flowers on the market, and flower prices have not increased compared to normal days.
Ms. Vo Thi Thu Huong, owner of a fresh flower shop on Thanh Thai Street (Vinh City) said: “Only roses have increased in price slightly, while other flowers such as lavender, sunflowers, lilies, delphiniums, willows, foxgloves, lilies, chrysanthemums, etc. have quite low prices. Although we have been running the “Gratitude Sales” program since the beginning of the week, accepting orders for flower arrangements, flower baskets, flower bouquets, etc. according to customers’ requests at promotional prices, orders are still scattered. Compared to previous years, this year, the number of customers has decreased by about 40%.”
Although there have been promotions of 30,000 VND discount + free shipping or gifts included with each flower order to stimulate shopping, fresh flower consumption is still very sluggish.
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| The fresh flower market on March 8 this year is very sluggish, with consumption down about 40% compared to previous years. Photo: Thanh Phuc |
In the university and college areas this year, the flower and gift market is also quite quiet even though students have returned to school after a long break. The reason is said to be different from February 14, a holiday mainly for young people, March 8 is a common holiday for many people such as mothers, friends, relatives, and lovers, so students are not the main customers. Therefore, instead of giving flowers to one person, many male students choose to go shopping and cook for the female group in the class, in the group or in the dormitory.
Meanwhile, other products such as cosmetics, jewelry, clothes, shoes, etc. are not doing much better. Understanding the psychology of customers who are still reluctant to go out to shop, fashion and cosmetics shops have promoted online sales, ordering by phone and payment by bank transfer or collection through delivery channels, but consumption is still low.
Women's fashion stores on Nguyen Van Cu, Le Hong Phong, Kim Dong streets... although they put up signs saying "Gratitude Sales Week", "Sending love to women" with many attractive promotions, the number of shoppers still did not increase compared to the previous days.
“Compared to previous years, the number of visitors decreased by 20-30%. The reason is that during the pandemic, most people do not have the need to go out, go out, or travel, so purchasing power has decreased sharply. In addition, due to economic difficulties, many people have tightened their spending and are not as “generous” in shopping as before...”.
Due to the fluctuating price of gold, jewelry for women also fluctuates. To attract buyers, jewelry stores, in addition to launching new, beautiful models, also have a 20% discount policy and a completely free after-sales program (returns, warranties), but the number of customers coming to buy jewelry as gifts is still very small.
Business, trade, and commerce are mostly facing difficulties, so many people cut down on spending, not "spending lavishly" on flowers and luxury gifts, but instead focus on more practical gifts...