Not in all cases, big discount rates can boost sales as expected. Vietnamese consumers now keep indifferent to sales promotion campaigns, because such campaigns have become too popular.

The banderoles and billboards introducing sales promotion campaigns hung over shops’ entrance or on streets now cannot catch the attention of people, simply because they can see such advertisement pieces everywhere.

Many retailers now offer shocking discount rates of up to 50 percent and commit to sell products at cost prices. However, the too big discounts do not help sellers boost sales, because they raise doubts among consumers about the quality of the products with surprisingly low prices.

At a fashion shop on Thai Ha street in Hanoi, one can see a big board which says that the shop is running a sales promotion campaigns with attractive price discounts. Besides, the shop’s owner has decided to stick on the door the word “sale” which is too big that it covers the whole door.

A supermarket, also on Thai Ha street, is hanging a banderole with the words, informing that the supermarket offers the 50 percent discounts for children’s toys.

At first glance, the eye-catching words make people think that the supermarket is running a sales promotion program. However, if looking into the banderole more carefully, one would realize that the program ended on June 1 already when reading the very small words underneath.

With deliberate ambiguity, sellers try to set a snare for consumers. A lot of consumers entered the supermarket after they read the advertisement piece. They only realized the truth after coming in and read the price tags on products.

However, consumers nowadays have become smart: they do not believe in all advertisements. As a result, many attractive sales promotion campaigns cannot catch the attention from consumers. Especially, many consumers have doubts about the honesty of sales promotion programs and the quality of the products sold under the programs.

Nguyen Hoang Lan, a housewife in Thanh Xuan district in Hanoi related that last week she bought a dress at a fashion shop on Cau Giay Road at 300,000 dong. Lan was happy because she thought that she could enjoy the 50 percent discount (the posted real price was 600,000 dong). However, she has been told that the same dress is selling at other shops at 250,000 dong only.

“I will never purchase products under sales promotion programs any more,” she said.

Nguyen Phuong Linh, an office worker, who regularly hunts for sales promotion programs, said that the hunting is like going fishing. If someone is lucky, he can buy good products. If not, he would purchase old fashioned products or the products with low quality.

“One time I came to a shoes shop on Ton Duc Thang street. When choosing products, I realized that many pairs or shoes were torn,” she said. “Selling damaged products at discounts is the method that many shops are using to cheat consumers”. As many consumers have learned from the lessons, they do not spend money on promotional products, fearing that they may buy low quality products.

Also according to Linh, in many cases, the discounted products have the sale prices even higher than the sale prices posted by other shops. The problem is that the retailers set the original prices at sky high levels and then offer big discount rates to attract buyers.

Observers say that not only the products of unknown manufacturers, but the products with strong brands like Nike, Adidas or Louis Vuiton have also been counterfeited. Many people spend huge sums of money on branded goods, while the products, in fact, are smuggle goods.

Hoang, a young man who likes playing sports, related that two days ago, he bought a T-shirt with Nike brand at 2.5 million dong after the shop’s owner affirmed that this was a 100 percent foreign made product.

“However, a friend of mine who has returned from a foreign country, told me that this is a domestically made product,” Hoang said.

According to the Hanoi Market Control Sub-department, in the first six months of the year, 239 cases of intellectual property violations have been found, where more than 1000 clothes, handbags, belts and 700 pairs of counterfeit shoes with Nike and Adidas brands were found.

Lao Dong