Connecting brands with consumers: Year-end shopping approaches

The year-end shopping season is fast approaching, bringing with it major events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, 11/11, 12/12, and Christmas. In Vietnam, 2023 saw remarkable revenue growth, with a 53.4% increase compared to 2022, particularly during the last two quarters of the year. According to a report by Metric, September 2023 recorded the highest sales of the year, growing by 89.9% to reach VND 21.1 trillion across the five largest online retail platforms: Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, TikTok Shop, and Sendo. This indicates that consumers no longer wait until the end of the year to shop but have begun spending more vigorously starting in August. This period presents a great opportunity for businesses to increase their sales and profits as consumers are ready to spend more on personal, family, and gift shopping.

This article will provide an in-depth analysis of the economic factors influencing shopping behavior, highlight key consumer trends, and offer recommendations for brands to prepare to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the year-end shopping season in 2024.

Economic Context and Consumer Trends

While the Consumer Price Index (CPI) remains under control, inflation continues to affect consumer spending behavior. In an inflationary environment, consumers tend to be more cautious with their spending, prioritizing essential goods and cutting back on non-essential expenses. According to a Deloitte report on the impact of inflation on consumer behavior, over 60% of global consumers have adjusted their shopping habits during periods of high inflation, focusing on purchasing essential items and saving costs.

The EBI 2024 report shows that e-commerce in Vietnam currently accounts for about 10% of total retail sales of goods and consumer services, up from 8.5% in 2022. Projections suggest that Vietnam's e-commerce sector will continue to grow at an average rate of 25% per year until 2025. Data from YouNet ECI indicates a significant shift in consumer shopping behavior, particularly the rise of "shoppertainment" activities, which are expected to account for nearly 50% of Vietnam's e-commerce market by 2025.

Compared to other countries in the region, Vietnam is proving to be a highly promising e-commerce market with rapid growth rates. With the development of digital infrastructure, the rise of the middle class, and supportive policies, Vietnam's e-commerce market is expected to continue its robust growth in the coming years.

In 2024, growth is expected to become more stable and sustainable, with an average monthly increase of 49.33%. Major promotional events like the Super Sale on June 6th and the e-commerce platforms' anniversaries significantly boosted sales, with June 2024 reaching the highest GMV since the beginning of the year, up 48.2% compared to the same period in 2023.

Double Day events like 5/5, 6/6, and platform anniversaries such as Lazada and TikTok have proven to be powerful drivers for the market.

With a stable economy, high consumer confidence, and the growth of e-commerce, the "Mega Sales" year-end shopping season in 2024 is expected to witness even greater expansion. This is when e-commerce platforms and businesses must thoroughly prepare in every aspect, from warehousing and logistics to marketing strategies.

Preparing Strategies for the 2024 Mega Sales Season

To effectively prepare for the 2024 Mega Sales season, it is crucial to understand consumer online shopping habits. By closely analyzing how consumers use platforms to search for products, brands can develop the most effective strategies to meet customer needs and behaviors during this peak shopping period.

Shoppertainment – A Fusion of Shopping and Entertainment

Shoppertainment, especially through livestreaming, is transforming how we shop. Direct interaction with sellers, asking questions, and receiving instant feedback create a more lively and trustworthy shopping experience. According to eMarketer, livestream shopping is projected to reach nearly $35 billion in sales by the end of 2024. Livestreaming is not just a sales channel but also an entertainment platform where consumers spend an average of 15-30 minutes exploring products (MMA Global). This combination of shopping and entertainment creates a captivating cycle: viewers are drawn in by the livestream content, which then leads to purchasing decisions.

This trend is further reinforced by consumers increasingly seeking new shopping experiences. They not only want to buy products but also explore and enjoy the experience. Integrating products naturally into entertainment content has become an effective strategy. According to GlobalWebIndex, 72% of consumers have made a purchase after seeing a product featured in entertainment content. This demonstrates that shoppertainment is not just a trend but the future of shopping, where the user experience takes center stage.

Seamless Shopping Experience

Today's consumers prioritize quick and convenient shopping experiences more than ever. Searching for and purchasing products on the same platform is becoming the new standard. Platforms like TikTok Shop have effectively capitalized on this trend, allowing users to discover exciting products through short videos and make immediate purchases without leaving the app. A recent TikTok report shows that the number of consumers frequently searching for products on video content creation platforms like TikTok has increased 1.9 times compared to traditional search engines. This trend is expected to continue growing in the region over the next 1-2 years as 93% of consumers express a desire to maintain or even enhance their shopping-entertainment experiences on digital content creation platforms.

Moreover, AI technology plays a crucial role in optimizing the shopping experience. Intelligent algorithms analyze user behavior to provide personalized product recommendations. This not only saves consumers time but also increases conversion rates.

E-commerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba have demonstrated the effectiveness of AI, with revenues increasing by up to 30% due to personalized product recommendations (McKinsey, 2024). Clearly, the combination of a seamless user experience and advanced AI technology is reshaping the future of e-commerce.

Community-Based Purchase Decisions

Today's consumers highly value reviews and comments from other users on e-commerce platforms. According to PowerReviews, 97% of consumers say that other users' reviews are a crucial factor in their purchasing decisions. This shows the strong influence of community on awareness and purchasing decisions.

Content creators, especially influencers, play a significant role in shaping consumer purchasing decisions. According to a TikTok survey, 48% of consumers trust recommendations from content creators more than traditional advertisements. This highlights the importance of collaborating with influencers in marketing strategies to build trust and drive sales.

Although the Consumer Price Index (CPI) remains controlled, inflation remains an important factor affecting consumer spending behavior. Consumers tend to be more cautious, prioritizing essential purchases and looking for ways to save money.

The strong growth of e-commerce in Vietnam, coupled with the explosion of shoppertainment formats, has reshaped how consumers approach shopping. With this foundation, brands need to have a clear understanding of consumer trends and behaviors to devise suitable strategies for the year-end shopping season in 2024.

What Should Brands Do to Prepare for the 2024 Year-End Shopping Season?

The year-end shopping season is a golden opportunity for businesses to increase sales, but how can they stand out among thousands of other brands? The answer lies in a comprehensive and effective strategy.

To adequately prepare for the 2024 year-end shopping season, brands need a "right strategy" with three core elements: developing a clear business strategy, building a strong brand and marketing strategy, and executing a comprehensive communication strategy.

1. Developing a Clear Business Strategy

• Set Specific Expectations: In the context of rising inflation and more cautious consumer spending, businesses need to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. For example, "Increase product A sales by 20% compared to the same period last year" is an achievable target for maximizing the end-of-year shopping festivals.
• Seek Growth Opportunities: Brands should explore new customer segments or expand into untapped markets while enhancing products or services with growth potential.

2. Building a Strong Brand and Marketing Strategy

• Clear Brand Positioning: Identify the brand's position in the market to develop appropriate advertising and promotional campaigns.
• Optimize the 4Ps: With the growth of e-commerce and online shopping behavior, optimizing product, price, place, and promotion (4Ps) is more important than ever.
• Develop Brand Ideas: Create creative and compelling brand campaigns that strongly connect with customers, helping the brand stand out in a competitive shopping season.

3. Executing a Comprehensive Communication Strategy

• Develop a Full-Funnel Communication Campaign: Leverage diverse communication channels to engage customers from awareness to purchase stages.
• Continuous Monitoring and Adjustment: During campaign execution, regularly monitor performance and make timely adjustments to ensure the set goals are met.

Each of these elements helps the brand attract target customers and create a market distinction. Setting specific business expectations, optimizing the 4Ps, and developing creative brand campaigns will be pivotal in achieving business goals this shopping season.

Three Phases of Building a Comprehensive Strategy

After defining a clear business strategy, brands must implement an effective execution plan to ensure optimal brand positioning.

Correct positioning helps businesses stand out and attract target customers and creates a competitive advantage, especially during the year-end shopping season. For example, Apple not only has a clear business strategy but also consistently implements it through product design, customer experience, and communication, positioning itself as the leading brand in innovation and high quality.

Here are the three critical phases in building a comprehensive strategy, closely aligned with modern consumer trends.

Phase 1: Pre-Campaign

• Strategy Development: The first step in this process is identifying a balanced strategy between building brand trust and driving sales. The strategy should be based on clear, measurable objectives and avoid focusing excessively on low-impact metrics. Consideration of creativity, promotional programs, and calls to action (CTAs) is essential to attract customers from the start.
• Execution Planning: After developing the strategy, create a detailed execution plan focusing on user experience. The success of the campaign depends on accurately identifying key elements like product, price, distribution location, and promotion (4Ps). This includes preparing necessary sales tools and support applications to ensure a seamless shopping experience for customers.
• Content Strategy: Creating compelling and strong content is crucial to preparing for the campaign. The content should be delivered across various channels, from social media to e-commerce platforms, helping the brand reach and engage target customers from the start

• Promotional Programs: Well-prepared promotional programs not only stimulate shopping but also attract consumers before the campaign officially begins. This is especially important during major shopping occasions like Double Day (11/11, 12/12).

Phase 2: During Campaign

• Time-Limited Campaigns: During this phase, real-time execution optimization is necessary. Short-term promotional programs create a sense of urgency and encourage consumer buying behavior. Special offers from platforms, brands, and shipping partners will be the key to success.

• Continuous Communication Updates: To maintain a positive atmosphere and create constant attention, updating information and communication throughout the campaign is crucial. Continuous interaction with customers through online channels will help the brand maintain interest and prompt immediate action.
• Multi-Channel CTA: Integrate calls to action across various channels to maximize outreach effectiveness. Using multiple channels like online advertising, email marketing, and engagement through shopping platforms will help the brand reach the maximum number of potential customers, thereby increasing conversion rates.
• Data Measurement and Refinement: Use data collected during the campaign to refine the strategy promptly. Real-time data analysis will help businesses adjust ineffective elements, thereby optimizing campaign results. Marketing Mix Modeling is a method of measuring marketing effectiveness based on statistical analysis, especially regression analysis. The mechanism of MMM is to collect and analyze data on marketing variables (such as advertising, pricing, sales activities...) along with sales and profit data to build statistical models.

Phase 3: Post-Campaign

• Post-Campaign Communication: After the campaign ends, maintaining communication with customers through post-campaign communication is essential. Sharing the campaign's success, along with thank-you messages and follow-up offers, will help strengthen customer loyalty.
• Extending Promotional Programs: To attract customers who missed the main campaign period, extending promotional programs will help businesses continue to grow revenue and maintain customer interest.
• Continued Sales Promotion: After the campaign, sales activities should be maintained to leverage growth momentum. Using the data collected from the campaign to analyze, predict demand, and adjust sales strategies for the following phases will help businesses maintain competitiveness and expand their market.

Each phase of the marketing campaign plays a crucial role in ensuring the campaign runs smoothly and achieves its set objectives from the pre-campaign phase, where strategy and planning are meticulously developed, to the campaign execution phase with time-limited promotions and continuous communication, and finally to the post-campaign phase with continued communication and customer loyalty promotion.

More importantly, effective data collection and analysis will help businesses make accurate decisions, adjust strategies in time, and optimize investment returns.

Conclusion

From understanding economic factors, and knowing the customer, to defining objectives, optimizing experiences, and measuring effectiveness, every step needs to be carefully calculated. The final result is not just about increasing sales but also creating an unforgettable impression in the customer's mind, building a loyal customer community, and affirming the brand's position in the market.

With a comprehensive strategy and thorough preparation, brands can capitalize on the growth opportunities during the year-end shopping season and build a solid foundation for future growth. PMAX believes that with the knowledge and suggestions in this article, you will confidently conquer the year-end shopping season and achieve the desired success.

The content of this article is excerpted from the "Marketing Report – Mega Sales 2024." Register to receive the report here .