Enterprises redirect to "penetrate" domestic market

	Businesses looking to domestic market amid pandemic
	Distributing giants are also "tired" because of Covid-19

Many businesses have taken advantages of trade promotion support programmes to find development opportunities. Photo: H. Diu

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As a company with a large amount of domestic supply, Vu Thanh Hai, director of the supermarket channel - Sunhouse Group Joint Stock Company, said implementing social distancing to prevent the pandemic, Sunhouse's revenue decreased by 60% compared to the goal, because 70% of the goods were distributed through retail agents and supermarkets. Therefore, in April, to overcome declining sales, the company set up a plan to train and improve online sales, increasing online sales rate from 5% to 20%. After ending the social distancing, Sunhouse immediately implemented promotions, strengthened communication and created good coverage in information, helping its business operations recover to 90-95% as before.

According to Hai, although Sunhouse has focused on exports for two years, the domestic market has been identified as key. Therefore, the company has built a distribution system nationwide with 3,000 selling points at shops and supermarkets. When imported goods become more difficult to get, the company is taking this opportunity to boost production and dominate the market. It has tried to develop products, increase the localisation rate, and produce products of the same quality as imported goods but at reasonable prices for the majority of Vietnamese consumers. Additionally, the company introduces new products, such as gift combination ones, to regain momentum after the pandemic.

Similarly, Cao Hong Van, Director of An Phu Investment and Development Joint Stock Company, said her company had encountered many difficulties in trade promotion at the beginning of the year because tourism activities stopped, affecting the consumption of the company’s Quang Ninh speciality products. As soon as the pandemic was under control, the company relied on trade promotion support activities to bring the products to domestic distribution channels. As a result, the products are available at a large supermarket chain nationwide, and several clean food chains.

Link to expand sales channels

According to enterprises, the promotion of domestic trade receives support not only from authorities but also from distribution channels to help businesses improve domestic consumption.

According to Cao Hong Van, when putting products on sale at supermarkets, enterprises received preferential programmes of each supermarket such as supporting display activities, or applying attached promotions.

Regarding this issue, Nguyen Thuy Duong, Deputy General Director of BRG Retail Co., Ltd. (the unit that manages and operates supermarket chains of BRG Group), said understanding the difficulties of businesses when returning to operation after the pandemic, the BRG supermarket system launched many programmes to support businesses displaying and introducing products with more free business programmes than before. However, according to Duong, suppliers must ensure that their products meet the prescribed quality standards with the appropriate labels.

Along with this support, according to enterprises, cooperation between domestic enterprises will also increase domestic consumption. A representative of May 10 Joint Stock Company said businesses needed to create a closed value chain, improve value and lower the cost of products. For example, textile firms can associate with leather and footwear companies to provide full-package orders. In addition, textile enterprises can strategically associate with other multidisciplinary firms to jointly research and develop new sources of raw materials, new product lines with specific characteristics, serving specific customer segments to increase added value of each product and service as well as the competitiveness of the industry.

Obviously, when returning to the domestic market, the support from authorities and partners is necessary, but businesses must also act to match that support. The most important thing is to ensure quality for consumers. Therefore, with the "Vietnamese people prioritise using Vietnamese goods" strategy, boosting domestic consumption will achieve certain successes, not only helping businesses recover supply revenue, but in the long run, it will also help Vietnamese businesses affirm their position and receive the support of domestic consumers.