ECBER KHONKAEN UNIVERSITY
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR HABITUDES IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM A Report Based on Primary Data Analysis
FEBRUARY 2014
Copyright: E-Saan Centre of Business and Economic Research (ECBER), Khon Kaen University (KKU), Thailand
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CONTENTS OVERVIEW………………………………………………………………………………………………05 1) LEARNING HABITUDES…………………………………………………………………………….06 2) WORKING HABITUDES……………………………………………………………………………..07 3) EATING AND DRINKING HABITUDES……………………………………………………………08 4) GROOMING HABITUDES……………………………………………………………………………09 5) FASHION HABITUDES………………………………………………………………………………10 6) HEALTH AND WELLNESS HABITUDES…………………………………………………………..11 7) SMOKING HABITUDES……………………………………………………………………………...12 8) SHOPPING HABITUDES……………………………………………………………………………..13 9) LEISURE HABITUDES………………………………………………………………………….........15 10) HOME AND DIY GARDEN HABITUDES…………………………………………………………15 11) PET OWNERSHIP HABITUDES……………………………………………………………………18 12) TRAVEL/HOLIDAY HABITUDES………………………………………………………………….18 13) COMMUTING HABITUDES……………..………………………………………………………….19 14) FINANCIAL HABITUDES…………………………………………………………………………..20
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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR HABITUDES IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM
OVERVIEW Vietnam is a beautiful country positioned along the long coast of South China Sea and Gulf of Tonkin and borders with China, Laos and Cambodia. Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam is the second largest city next to Hanoi (Capital) and the other big cities are Can Tho and Hai Phong. Ho Chi Minh City along with other cities had witnessed a rapidly growing economy in the past decade though the economic downturn in the recent 2-3 years has resulted in the slow growth and development. The lack of political will to provide a stable and sustainable economic environment by implementing necessary reforms has diminished the investors’ confidence for the time being. This has contributed to a slow economic growth and the rise in poverty which reduced in last decade when the economy was robust. Ho Chi Minh City was previously known as Saigon which is still popular with the inhabitants of this city. Vietnam has a distinct number of ethnic groups living side by side for many centuries and has their own dialects and culture. Majority of Vietnamese believe in the religion Buddhism. Vietnam is an agriculture based country and the most of the citizens reside in the rural areas of the country though in the last decade after the opening up of the country to foreign investors the industrial, retail and financial sectors have also expanded significantly. The young generation enjoys wearing fashionable outfits and spending their time and cash on leisure activities, though as the economy has slowed down in the last few years Vietnamese are more cautious in spending and are adopting a frugal attitude. Most of the respondents (400) of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where the survey was done are young and 82.8% of the respondents are between the age group of 18-49 Yrs and females outnumbered male respondents. The average monthly income of some of the respondents is quite low with 35.75% of the respondents having income less than 166US$, another 35% of the respondents having income between 167-333US$, some 22.25% of respondents having income between 334833US$ and only 7% have income over 834US$. Vietnam’s currency is not very strong in the foreign exchange market and the Vietnamese Dong (VND)=10Hao (10Hao=100Xu) and 1US$=21,053 VND. The reflections of the survey indicate that the Vietnamese people embrace for higher learning to improve their future prospects and livelihood. They are hard-working and many are educated people and speak good English in urban areas. In this report we try to analyze the consumer behavior in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam covering fourteen habitudes. Page 5 of 21
1) LEARNING HABITUDES
Learning habitudes change over the period of time and in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam the change is also taking place, according to our survey response from 400 respondents around 41.3% of the respondents have Bachelor’s degree, 25% have a High School education and 3.8% have Masters Degree and 9% have a Diploma/Vocational certificate and very few go for higher education with non having earned a doctorate degree. The percentage of the respondents taking up vocational training or education is small though better than the other regional countries but it does gives us the picture that there is a shortage of highly skilled/semi-skilled people in Ho Chi Minh City but the economy has slowed down in the recent years and businesses shut down resulting in many people losing their jobs. The general education level of respondents can be termed as almost literate. In Ho Chi Minh City, the education is accessible mainly through public/government institutes (81.8% of the respondents) and very few people go for private or overseas education because it is very expensive. There are a number of schools and universities in Ho Chi Minh City but after the opening up of the economy to the international community the education sector is also witnessing a substantial growth with the growing demand for skilled and qualified people. The religion Buddhism plays a an important role in the Vietnamese society like in the neighboring and some rural students have their schooling in Buddhist temples similar to the culture in the neighboring countries, majority go to government schools but recently many new international schools are coming up in Ho Chi Minh City and other major cities of Vietnam. The higher middle class income groups and expatriates prefer their children to go to international schools with world class standard of education. Many higher income Vietnamese prefer to send their wards for good education abroad to countries like Singapore, Thailand and other countries. The household income of many Vietnamese is relatively modest and not enough because of this many students have to struggle to go to schools or universities especially from the rural areas of the country. But in the cities like Ho Chi Minh City the teenagers are full of energy to learn and try new things, they like to be trendy and they prefer to do part time jobs to earn money for doing special courses for skill improvement. The Exhibit 1 below gives the idea of the education level of the respondents from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
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Exhibit 1:
Highest Education Level of Respondents in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 3.8%
0.5%
4.3%
16.3%
None Primary school Secondary school
41.3%
High school Vocational certificate / Diploma 25%
Bachelor degree Master degree
9%
2) WORKING HABITUDES In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a majority (31.5%) of the respondents work in private firms, some (17.5% of respondents) are owners of small and very small businesses (selling from small shops, kiosks and carts), some (10%) are freelancers, another (9.5%) are government employees and yet another small number of respondents (.80%) are self employed medium and large scale business owners who are also the privileged class and the remaining section of the inhabitants are students, temporary workers, state enterprise employees, housewives and some are unemployed. The office workers in Ho Chi Minh City especially the men like to hang-out and get with friend and colleagues after work which they call ‘Hyao’. The women workers prefer to go to the Siagon Square for shopping with friends. Like in most countries the Vietnamese people also move away from home in the rural/regional areas to bigger urban cities in search of work to better their livelihood and live in rental or owned apartments/flats there. Around a decade ago with the opening up the market to international investors many young Vietnamese got their first jobs at new businesses and industries which rapidly increased the workforce significantly and created a significant demand for vocational training in all fields when the economy was going
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robust. Like in many Asian countries in Vietnam also some people start working at a very young age by assisting their parents in their family business and gradually take the responsibility of their family business when they grow up. Majority of respondents in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam commute to work by motorcycles (79.25%), some use public transport like buses (2.25% of respondents), some privileged few people prefer to travel to work in cars (2.25%), and a very few (0.25%) inhabitant travel by taxies or cabs but there are some people (5.75%) who choose to walk to their place of work. Motorbikes are the most desired possession for Vietnamese people and are also the most popular and important mode of transport to go around locally and the cars are for family travel and only very few own them. Most of Ho Chi Minh City roads are flooded with motorcycles and leave very little room for bigger vehicles to maneuver through the congested traffic jams.
3) EATING AND DRINKING HABITUDES
Majority of the Vietnamese respondents (87.5%) prefer to cook their own food at home everyday as a part of their tradition or because for many cooking food at home could be economical than to buy cooked food from outside or to eat outside.
In Ho Chi Minh City, according to the
respondent’s responses cooking in the households is mainly done by themselves or family members at homes like parents or spouse. It is observed from the survey that 97.8% of respondents like to cook their local traditional variety of recipes for food at home and only a very tiny percentage of respondents prefer to cook something different like Chinese or Western food at home. Many respondents prefer to cook most of the meals at home except for Breakfast only 29.0% of respondents prefer to cook at home most people (52% of respondents) prefer to have breakfast outside, Lunch (58.3%) and Dinner (89.5%) people prefer to cook at home, and even when the lunch which they have to eat outside while at work, some 9.8% of respondents prefer to bring their food box from home for lunch and another (29.3%) prefer to eat lunch outside. Supper is not very popular but if they do have supper they prefer to cook at home. In Ho Chi Minh City during breakfast time people prefer to have Boiled Rice/Congee (50.25% of the respondents), Simple Dish (45.5%), Tea/Coffee (33.25%), Bread Egg Sandwich Ham/Sausage (31.25%), Bread/Bun/Baguette (19.75%), and Milk (17.25%), and Rice with elaborated different Page 8 of 21
dishes (11.25%). So, in the Vietnamese Breakfast Pho (Vietnamese noodle), Steam Rools, French toast, Sticky rice, Tea and cofee form the main items of their morning diet.
The respondents in
Ho Chi Minh City have fairly moderate drinking habitudes with 13.8% of the respondents drinking alcohol regularly and a majority 55.3% of the respondents having alcohol sometimes and 31% don’t drink at all, and presumably the reason why they consume alcohol can be because of the influence society, the uncertain economy and the stress related to job insecurity and further the reasons stated by respondents for not having alcohol is for some that they don’t like taste or it is not healthy. But there are around 47-60% of the respondents aged between 18 to 60 years old who exhibited some alcohol consumption trends. Majority of females (47.2%) do drink alcohol sometimes and 3.2% of female respondents have alcohol regularly and a little less than half 49.2% do not consume alcohol at all. Night clubs are not a way of life in Ho Chi Minh City with only 6.0% visiting them sometimes and 93.5% have never been to night clubs. Other drinks that the respondents consumed daily are tea (35.3%), fresh brewed coffee (34.5%), milk (33.8 %), instant coffee (17.5%), and vegetable/fruit juice (15.8%). And some of the drinks that they preferred to drink sometimes (once or twice a week) are Vegetable/Fruit Juice, Soya Milk, Milk, Soft drink (with gas), Instant tea, Local beer etc. Though milk is generally consumed more by the juveniles but in Vietnam drinking milk is also popular among adults and beer is also the most enjoyed alcoholic drink. Before buying food the Vietnamese consumer considers three main things taste, price and healthiness. Young professionals in Ho Chi Minh City have started having an interest in eating homemade food and developed an aptitude to cook at home and also to grow vegetable if they have space at home, its fast becoming a new trend. When buying food brand is an important factor they consider and about imported products they have positive perception and believe that buying imported products or famous brands will get them good and trustable quality. BBQ/Hot pot/Suki Yaki is very popular eating outlets at Ho Chi Minh City and MK Suki from Thailand is also now opening their branch in Vietnam.
4) GROOMING HABITUDES Ho Chi Minh City dweller respondents have an ordinary living with majority (90.1%) of the male repondents do not involve in any grooming activities and only 7.1% of the male population uses creams/lotions and another 4.9% consumes vitamins and supplements for better health and Page 9 of 21
handsome looks. In the ladies segment of beauty and personal care activities there is a moderate section of female respondents go for using lotions/creams (58.7% of respondents), make-ups 21.1%), vitamins (15.1%) etc. Though with the changing environment the inhabitants are getting more beauty and personal care conscious and the trend is expanding gradually and a number of beauty clinics are coming up in many big cities like for example the Wuttisak Clinic from Thailand has a branch in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and is very popular with the people because of their trustworthy service and ideal price. Many girls and women now-a-days are going to these clinics for get some beauty course done, and the Spa and Laser clinics are also catching up to become a trend. Plastic surgery for good appearance is also getting acceptable in the Vietnamese society and the ladies who have the financial capacity are going to countries like Korea and Thailand to get their cosmetic surgery done for better appearance and looks. 5) FASHION HABITUDES Vietnamese traditional dress is Ao dai that is made up of silk tunic and is worn over slacks and is most often worn by women. Ao dai can be worn at various occasions it can also be worn at schools, universities, workplace and even parties etc. But with the opening of the markets in the recent decades and exposure to other cultures through media the younger generation has got thriving for latest fashionable trends, especially the urban young women who are increasingly avoiding the traditional dresses and are embracing more modern options and outfits. The men’s fashion is also evolving slowing with a growing taste for western style and the celebrity inspired youth has exhibited latest changing grooming habits, though men still prefer to wear the basic pant and shirt. Though, owing fashion/luxury items such as clothes, shoes, watches, bags, and sunglasses etc. that value more than $1,000 is not very common as only 9.5% of respondents owned 1-2 expensive items and the majority (85.3%) of the respondents did not own any luxury items. And, most of these luxury items are bought from shopping centre/department stores or shops outside the department stores. Some (4.6%) respondents also mentioned that they bought these luxury items form online shopping. The main reason to own fashion/luxury items as cited by the respondents is that they buy these items for mainly good design plus high quality and for few it is a status symbol. Lucky draw is an effective marketing promotional method and sometimes the celebrities and Korean presenters also do the marketing promotional activities. In the Exhibit 2 we can see the ownership percentage of luxury items. Page 10 of 21
Exhibit 2:
Luxury Items Ownership Among Ho Chi Minh City Respondents that Value Over $1000 2.3% 2% 9.50% None Some 1-2 items About 3-5 items More than 5 items 86.30%
6) HEALTH AND WELLNESS HABITUDE According to the response of the survey many Vietnamese respondents (81.3%) are non smokers which a good habitude but many are Vietnamese are moderate drinkers which does not gives a modest picture of the society. In case of minor illness 78.5% of respondents preferred to buy over the counter medicine from nearby pharmacy to fix their sickness and few prefer to see a doctor. But, a very tiny section of the respondents (0.8%) still prefer to visit a traditional doctor or would like to have herbal medicines to get better. When there is a moderate or serious illness most (69.8%) of the respondents preferred to visit a public hospital and some ( 21.5%) prefer to visit a private hospitals but for some (3.3%) higher income and privileged class people preferred to go to hospitals abroad for specialized medical procedures/treatments. Medical insurances are prevalent in the Vietnamese society and this sector is growing with the demand from the opening market. Exhibit 3 & 4 gives further details.
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Exhibit 3:
General Habitude to Fix Minor Illnesses Among Ho Chi Minh City Respondents 0.8% 1.3% Do nothing 5.8% 6.5%
7.3% Buy medicine from nearby pharmacy Seeing doctor at clinic Seeing doctor at hospital Taking herb or seeing traditional doctor 78.5%
Others
Exhibit 4:
General Preference for Medical Treatment for Severe Illnesses Among Ho Chi Minh City Respondents 0.3%0.5% 3.3% 4.8% Modern international hospital
21.5%
Public hospital Private hospital Clinic Seeing traditional doctor 69.8%
Others
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7) SMOKING HABITUDES Interestingly among the overall Vietnamese respondents smoking is not very popular with only 18.8% of them smoke and 81.3% of the respondents do not smoke which is a good sign for healthy lifestyle. The male population smokes more and the females smoke significantly less in Vietnamese society. And, the people who do smoke buy the cigarettes from grocery shops or traditional retailers. Smoking is also banned in public places and is discouraged among the society but for some men it is still a normal activity. Interestingly, the young is more aware of the negative effects of smoking and some refrain from smoking. The Exhibit 5 on the next page shows the smoking habits by age group. Exhibit 5:
Smoking Habits (By Age Group) of Ho Chi Minh City Respondents Yes
More than 60 years 50-60 years 40-49 years 30-39 years 23-29 years 18-22 years
No
100% 20.60% 16.90% 25.60% 17.90% 14.00%
79.40% 83.10% 74.40% 82.10% 86.00%
8) SHOPPING HABITUDES Vietnam has been for long a closed market and since last two decades the thing are changing and shopping is also an activity that people of Ho Chi Minh City like to indulge in, with only small section of the respondents who have never or rarely gone shopping. In Ho Chi Minh City today, Page 13 of 21
there are a variety of modern super markets/hypermarket stores coming up in the recent years and exhibit a good comparable standard with neighboring countries and promotions and advertisements are fast catching up to attract customers in a slowing down economy. People go shopping mostly at places like wet markets, grocery/traditional retailers and the upper income group prefer to buy their daily need items form convenient store, super/hyper markets depending on location and what they want to buy, and Co-op Marts are also visible at many places. In Ho Chi Minh City, according to the respondents’ response the consumer products like detergents, tissue paper are mainly bought from super market/hyper market (62.6% of respondents) and grocery/traditional retailers (24.7%) and the frequency of buying is once or twice in a month (56.5% of respondents), products like soap, shampoo, toothpaste are also purchased from super market/hyper market (65.1%) and grocery/traditional retailers (21.6%) and the frequency of buying is once or twice in a month (57.8% of respondents), skincare products like body/face lotion, deodorants are shopped mainly at super/hyper markets (65.6%) and grocery/traditional retailers (13.4%) and the frequency of buying is once or twice in a month (48.0% of respondents) and another 34.2% of respondents say they buy every three months, makeup products are also mostly bought from super/hyper markets (45.9%), specialty store (18.5%) and shopping centre/department stores (17.1%) and the frequency of buying is a little varied as some 33.0% of respondents say they buy every three months, some 26.3% of respondents say once or twice in a month and another 32.0.% of respondents they buy makeup products in six months or longer. Other products like books/magazines are mainly bought from specialty stores (32.6%), grocery/traditional retailers (35.5%) and some (8.3%) buy them form convenient store and the frequency of buying on an everyday basis is 31.5%, for once or twice very week is 24.1%, and some 22.6% respondents say they buy books and magazines once or twice every month. Youngsters in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam have exhibited many changes in their behavior in going out with friends and colleagues nowadays, they prefer meeting at the shopping malls and coffee shops (fast developing a coffee culture) and also find their jobs there.
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Picture 1 & 2: Markets in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3)A CO-OP Mart
4) A Traditional Market (Shops)
9) LEISURE HABITUDES Leisure habitudes of Ho Chi Minh City respondents are mainly watching television with 97.1% of the respondents watch television regularly or sometimes, they have national channels on telecast over the country and Thai and Korean Channels are received through cable network and the Korean programs/series are the very popular. Some inhabitants like watching movie and listening to music with 52% of respondents saying that they have seen movies regularly and 52.8% said they have listened to music regularly, watching sports doesn’t seem to be a popular activity with almost 52.8%% of the respondents have never or rarely watched sports on television. Reading books is also a not a favorite activity in for Ho Chi Minh City people as only 20.0% of the respondents read regularly and 46.5% sometime which indicates that reading is less popular leisure activity people adhere to in their spare time. Internet and social networking is also a quite widely preferred leisure activity for people with 77.0% respondents in Ho Chi Minh City surf internet either regularly or sometimes. Exercise is also another activity the people like to do in their leisure time with 29.0% of the respondents exercise sometimes and 36.3% regularly. Respondents in Ho Chi Minh City also like to cook at home and doing housework like cleaning during their leisure time at home but have little interest in doing handicraft or art Page 15 of 21
activities. Gardening also is also an activity some people involve in with only 18.3% of the respondents do garden activities sometimes. Partying out is quite prevalent among 62.2% of the respondents but mostly sometimes. The teenagers in Ho Chi Minh City are full of enthusiasm and want to express their energy by doing new things like Karaoke, Flash mob Dancing, Backpack travelling etc. The Korean culture and K-Pop influences Vietnamese teens a lot. Some Vietnamese youngsters do part-time jobs to earn money for special courses or learn skill improvement activities. The television is the most powerful media. Radio is not popular as people don't drive cars very often. Though internet media is not prohibited by the government still people using internet do not form a mass group.
10) HOME AND DIY GARDEN HABITUDES The meaning of home for many Vietnamese people may be the same like most people around the world. In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam according to the respondents’ responses most of the homes in Vietnam are self build (53%), but some live in rental accommodation (20%), and some buy second hand houses or by from developer. Irrespective of income ranges most of the respondents said they would prefer to buy unfurnished house than buying fully furnished house.
Vietnamese
people like to have 1-3 bedrooms in the house, they like to have 1-2 bathrooms in their house and the majority of the consumers like to have traditional type kitchens except the modern generation. The kitchenware widely used by the respondents are gas/electric stoves (98% of the respondents), refridgerator (88.5%), electric kettle (67.2%), microwave (40.7%) and the other kitchenwares are toasters, stainers, ovens, cooker hoods etc.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the most
prevalent building material used for construction seems to be Brick and Cement (77.8%), Semiwooden Semi cement (18%), and complete wood as material is rarely used houses because wood is expensive nowadays. People in Vietnam like privacy and majority of the houses like to have curtains in their house.
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Picture 3 & 4: Wooden Interior of a house in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3) Wooden Furniture Shop
4) Wooden Furniture in a home
Regarding DIY and Gardening habits, 75.8% of the respondents did not have a garden in their present house because many of the respondents live in apartments/flats. Only 8.5% of the people seem to do regular gardening at home and 24.3% doing some gardening activities at home. And that they rarely do any craftwork or handcraft works. Most respondents (65.8%) can do some home maintenance by themselves such as replacing the light bulb, plumbing, fixing chair and do home maintenance regularly. Wooden furniture is expensive but most popular and for senior citizens they prefer using high price wood furniture to show their high status. Feng-Shui is considered and applied when designing their homes; the people also prefer to decorate their homes inspired from celebrities’ homes and or from magazines. Eco-friendly product is becoming more popular but for famous/reliable brand only. In Ho Chi Minh City, according to respondents’ response it seems that people do not prefer hiring any architect, interior designers, or designers to decorate their houses, 73.8% of the respondents said that they did not hire any designer at all to decorate/design their homes. Therefore, hiring designers is not popular in Ho Chi Minh City in most income groups except the higher income groups.
Exhibit 6 & 7 gives
more dtails of Home Maintainances and Gradening preferences.
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Exhibit 6:
Percentage (%) of Ho Chi Minh City Respondents' Preference of Doing Home Maintenances
20.3% 34.3% Regularly Some Never / Rarely 45.5%
Exhibit 7:
Percentage (%) of Ho Chi Minh City Respondents' Preference of Doing Gardening
8.50%
24.30%
Regularly Some Never / Rarely
67.30%
11) PET OWNERSHIP HABITUDES Regarding having pets at home, the most popular pet among the respondents of Ho Chi Minh City are dogs as 23% of the respondents own dogs, and some people own fish and cats and other pets are fairly less popular. Pet shop, pet grooming services are not popular as the majority of the Page 18 of 21
people 88.8% have never been to these shops and veterinary services are rarely available for the pets in general. The Exhibit 8 shows the details of pet ownership.
Exhibit 8:
Pet Ownership Percentage (%) Among Ho Chi Minh City Respondents Others
3.8%
Fish Cat Dog
16.3% 10.5% 23.0%
12) TRAVEL/HOLIDAY HABITUDES The respondents in Ho Chi Minh City like to travel during weekends and holidays and prefer to visit tourist attractions like beaches, mountains, cultural attractions. Most of respondents (60.8%) like to go out for holidays domestically once a year or once in few years. Some (20.0%) of respondents travel domestically every six months and for some (10%) once every three months and in most of the trips they prefer to stay for 2-4 days and mostly travel by rental cars (58.9% of respondents), buses (9.4%) private cars (8.9%) and with only 5.9% traveling by regular airline and another 5.4% travel by low cost airlines which are becoming more popular. Most respondents said that they like to travel with family, relatives and friends for holidays. Traveling overseas is not very frequent with only 6.3% of the respondents travel once in a year and only 2.5% very six months and many of them may not travel overseas in years or never have. The most popular destinations for traveling overseas are South East Asian countries (69.5.1% of respondents), North Asia- China and Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong (18.9% of respondents), and some (7.4%) prefer to travel to European countries and other destinations around the world are less popular. When travelling overseas some 42.1% of the respondents prefer to travel with parents/family/relatives and some (34.7%) prefer to travel with friends and some travel by themselves. The durations for short overseas holidays for some 48.4% of respondents could be 5Page 19 of 21
7 days and some 18.9% of the respondents said that they could stay even more than 10 days for medical, study or work related purposes. The mode of overseas travel in most cases in Vietnam is the regular airlines or budget airlines.
13) COMMUTING HABITUDES Majority of the respondents in Ho Chi Minh (79.2%) prefer to travel/commute to work by motorcycles, some (2.2%) privileged section of the society prefer to travel by car and some (5.7%) people walk to work. After the country opened up in the recent decade, the mid-high income people started to buy cars but not many people own cars and prefer to use them only for long distance travel with family and friends, locally the motorcycles are the only preferred and convenient mode of transport. In Vietnam the rapidly increasing huge number motorcycles are contributing flooding of the roads with motorcycles and frequent traffic jams in the city. The public transport is not in good shape and is not very convenient and reliable so only 2.2% of respondents are using this mode of transport. All these land transportation modes are used by the people of Ho Chi Minh City to go around locally and domestically refer Exhibit 9. Exhibit 9:
How do respondents commute to work in Ho Chi Minh City? Walk 0.50% 0.25% .75%% 2.25% 9%
2.25% 5.75%
Private car Motocycle Bike Bus / public transportation
79.25%
Taxi, cab Vehicle provided by my employer
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14) FINANCIAL HABITUDES Financial habitudes are still very basic in Vietnam and this sector is opening up gradually with the growth in the past decade with international investor’s interest in Vietnam but the recent economic slowdown has affected the growth of the financial sector. Vietnamese respondents (91.3%) prefer of use cash in their day to day transactions, debit cards and credit cards are not very prevalent in the country and people like to keep money at home than deposit less in banks. And regarding investments in stock market 99.3% say no to these type of stock and shares investment as the overall market is still going through its upheaval stage and will take many more years to mature and build investor confidence and growth. Exhibit 10 shows the preferred mode of payments.
Exhibit 10:
Shopping Payment Options used by Ho Chi Minh City Respondents 0.5%
4.8% 3.5%
Cash Cashier check Debit card Credit card 91.3%
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