The scene of pushing and fighting to buy on Black Friday in stores is no longer there, instead many people watch livestreams to hunt for sales.
Arriving at the shopping center on Ba Trieu Street at noon on November 28 – the “main” day of Black Friday – Thu Ha (28 years old, employee of a media company in Hanoi) said she came to buy a “satisfying” shirt in advance. Today is the only day this fashion brand offers up to 40% off, and only sold in stores.
“They didn’t offer a discount on this product on the online channel, so I had to come and buy it directly. I sold other products via livestream,” Ha said.
Similarly, Ms. Minh Hang (An Hoi Dong ward, Ho Chi Minh City) said that the genuine products she previously chose to buy at the store are now mostly ordered through e-commerce platforms.
“Watch for times when shops offer good deals, prices are sometimes 10-20% lower than buying directly at the store, and even free shipping. Buying online is convenient, and you don’t have to hustle and bustle these days,” she shared.
The trend of hunting for discounted goods via livestream is increasingly popular. Image: Ngoc Diem
In recent years, online sales hunting on Black Friday has been chosen by consumers. Having taken time off from work to line up to buy discounted items on Black Friday last year, Ha Thuy said this year she has completely switched to hunting for online sales. Since the beginning of the week until now, the female office worker has closed about 10 orders from clothes, handbags to cosmetics with a value of nearly 8 million VND.
“I add everything I want to buy to the cart. When brands or KOLs livestream at bargain prices, I will close the order right during the session,” Thuy said, sharing that this way of shopping has many advantages over lining up to hunt for traditional sales. The reason is that buying online is convenient, good deals are constantly offered by sellers along with a quick return policy. According to her, after applying the discount codes, many items are priced lower than the advertised “floor sale” price at the store.
For brands, in order to increase sales outside of direct sales (offline), they promote “launching” deep discount deals on online channels during year-end shopping. At a men’s fashion store on Chua Boc Street (Hanoi), next to rows of goods with up to 70% discount signs, employees set aside a space to livestream on online channels (Facebook, Shopee, TikTok…), increasing the coverage of deep discounts on Black Friday.
Thu Trang, an employee here, said that since early November, this system has planned to increase the production of live sessions on Black Friday. Accordingly, from November 27 to November 30, they continuously broadcast live at 12-13:00, with discount codes of up to 70% to attract customers.
“Every day we offer a deep discount deal for a specific product, the number of interactions increases by 30-40% day by day,” Trang revealed, adding that this year’s Black Friday, the number of orders “closed” on the online channel is superior to selling directly at the store.
Customers choose to buy fashion products at a brand store on Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi on Black Friday, November 28. Image: Hoang Giang
The third quarter online retail market report of e-commerce data platform Metric shows that transaction sales (GMV) in the first 9 months of the year on Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada, Tiki reached 305,900 billion VND, an increase of 34.35% over the same period in 2024. On average, each month, GMV reached nearly 34,000 billion VND, equivalent to 1.3 billion USD.
In the last quarter of the year, Metric forecasts market sales to reach 105,000 billion VND, growing 15% over the same period. The motivation comes from shopping demand during the year-end peak. Super sale campaigns such as Black Friday, which coincides with Christmas and New Year, are expected to boost purchasing power across the market.
Changing shopping habits have caused many stores and fashion shops on many central streets to post “sales” signs that have “fallen to the floor” at 70-80%, but purchasing power is not outstanding. In Hanoi, a representative of a women’s fashion store on Cau Giay Street (Hanoi) said that despite discounts of up to 70% on fall-winter products, purchasing power has not increased significantly because consumers increasingly prioritize online shopping. A similar situation also occurs in many stores on fashion streets such as Chua Boc, Pham Ngoc Thach, Pho Hue…
A handbag store employee in Takashimaya (HCMC) also shared that the number of customers entering and exiting the shop increased compared to the average of the month but did not create a breakthrough. “Previously Black Friday sales had to increase 5 times more than normal days, this year it’s only about 30%,” he said.
According to economic expert Dinh Trong Thinh (Academy of Finance), in addition to changing consumer habits, direct shopping on Black Friday has cooled down because most brands have continuously launched discount programs “spread evenly” at many times during the year. Not to mention, discount deals are no longer of the same quality as in the previous period, so it is even more difficult to attract customers in a difficult economic context. Consumers are tightening their spending and choosing their purchases more carefully than before.
To increase sales and stimulate year-end shopping, many businesses have adjusted their approach to Black Friday. Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Hai Yen, Marketing Director of fashion brand Gumac, said the company’s incentives such as “buy 3 get 4 free” apply to most products, including new products.
They also expanded the production of product lines suitable for the festive season, with high applicability to meet the tastes and needs of consumers. The company expects the number of customers to increase by 10-15% compared to October, but there will be a slight adjustment over the same period due to some stores in the Central region having to temporarily close for nearly a week because of storms and floods.
Meanwhile, the strategy of Coolmate – a sports fashion company – is to expand the production of products for women. Ms. Nguyen Hoai Xuan Lan, co-founder of Coolmate, said they still offer discount codes, but no longer as deep as 70% like in previous years. Instead, discounted items mainly serve as “leads”, encouraging buyers to add other products. Along with that, the brand added more amenities such as vouchers, refunds, gifts… to help consumers avoid “the feeling that the product is too cheap”.