Enterprises change to “attack” the domestic market

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

Many businesses have taken advantage of trade promotion support programs to find development opportunities.

Quickly change direction

As an enterprise with a large amount of goods for domestic supply, Mr. Vu Thanh Hai, director of the supermarket channel, Sunhouse Group Joint Stock Company said that in April 2020, due to social distancing, Sunhouse's revenue decreased by 60 percent compared to the plan, because 70 percent of the goods are distributed through retail agents and supermarkets. Therefore, in April, in order to overcome the declining sales, the company set a plan to train and improve online sales, bringing the percentage of sales through online channels from 5 percent to 20 percent of the goods. When the social distancing measures were relaxed, Sunhouse immediately implemented promotions, promoted communication and created good coverage in information, so it helped the enterprise recover 90-95 percent.

According to Mr. Vu Thanh Hai, although Sunhouse has focused on export activities in the past two years, the domestic market has been identified as a key segment. Therefore, the company has built a distribution system nationwide, with 3,000 selling points in shops and supermarkets. Especially, due to the difficulties in imported goods, the company is taking this opportunity to boost production and dominate the market. The company has tried to develop products, increase the localization rate, bringing products of equivalent quality to imported goods but at a reasonable price for the majority of Vietnamese consumers. In addition, the company also introduces new products to the business, such as gifts combined items with the hope to help regain the best business momentum after the pandemic.

Also, taking advantage of the opportunity to promote the domestic market, Ms. Cao Hong Van, Director of AnPhu Investment and Development Joint Stock Company, said that at the beginning of the year, the company had many difficulties in operations. Due to the trade promotion activities being stopped, QuangNinh's specialty products are difficult to sell. As soon as the pandemicis under control, the company relied on the trade promotion support activities of the authorities to promote the products indomestic distribution channels. As a result, the product has now been supplied to a large supermarket chain nationwide and introduced to a number of clean food chains.

Link to expand sales channels

According to many enterprises, the promotion of domestic trade received support from the authorities and the distribution channels to help businesses improve domestic consumption.

According to Ms. Cao Hong Van, products of enterprises when being put on sale at supermarkets will receive preferential programs of each supermarket such as display support andattached promotions.

Regarding this issue, Ms. Nguyen Thuy Duong, Deputy General Director of BRG Retail Co., Ltd. (the unit that manages and operates supermarket chains of BRG Group), said that she understood the difficulties of businesses when going back to operation after the pandemic period, BRG's supermarket system has launched many programs to support businesses displaying and introducing products, and even having many free programs compared to before. However, according to Ms. Nguyen Thuy Duong, suppliers must commit to products of quality.

Along with these support activities, according to enterprises, the cooperation between domestic enterprises will also help increase domestic consumption. A representative of May 10 Joint Stock Company said that businesses need to create a closed value chain, improve the value and reduce the cost of products.

Typically, textile companies can associate with leather and footwear companies to ensure full package orders. In addition, textile companies can strategically associate with other multidisciplinary companies to jointly research and develop new sources of raw materials and new product lines with specific characteristics, serving different customer segments to increase the added value of each product and service and the competitiveness of the industry.

Obviously, when returning to the domestic market, support from authorities and partners is necessary, but businesses must also act to match those supports. In particular, the most important thing is to ensure quality for consumers. Therefore, with the strategy "Vietnamese people prioritize using Vietnamese goods", boosting domestic consumption of businesses will have certain successes, not only helping businesses recover, but it also helps Vietnamese enterprises affirm their position and continue to receive the support of domestic consumers.