Flower and gift shops and supermarkets in HCM City have launched promotions and exciting events on the occasion of International Women’s Day (March 8).

Traditionally, fresh flowers are among the top gifts on the occasion.

Shops at the Ho Thi Ky Flower Market in District 10 are selling a wide range of locally grown orchids, lilies, roses, sunflowers, carnations, and other flowers and imports from Ecuador, the Netherlands, South Africa, and elsewhere such as roses, hippeastrums and allium globemasters to offer customers more choices.

Chi Dien, a shop owner there, said customers could choose bouquets at prices ranging from a few thousand to millions of dong.

Others said sales had increased sharply in recent days as had prices, and would increase further on Wednesday.

Flower shops in Districts 3, 5 and 10 are also selling bouquets besides fruits such as strawberries and cherries that cost from VND600,000 (US$25.4) to over VND2 million ($84.8).

Fashion and cosmetics shops on Nguyen Trai, Hai Ba Trung and Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Le Van Sy streets are decked out in promotion banners.

Tailor shops have been offering discounts of up to 50 per cent on clothes and stitching a traditional long dress.

Supermarkets have introduced a wide range of products for International Women’s Day and are offering promotions to attract buyers.

Saigon Co.op is offering discounts of up to 40 per cent on more than 830 beauty products such as lipstick, skin care cream, body lotion, shampoo, and clothes at its Co.opmart, Co.opXtra, Co.op Food, Co.op Smile, Cheers, Finelife, and Co.oponline.

Women members shopping at Co.opmart and Co.opXtra on March 8 will get up to 300 reward points depending on bill value.

Besides the system-wide programme, each of Saigon Co.op’s retail brands have their own.

Another supermarket chain, WinMart, is also offering attractive promotions on many cosmetic and personal care products under its "Nhan sac thang hang - Ron rang san sale" promotion week.

E-commerce platforms, commercial banks, travel companies, restaurants, and others have also rolled out promotion programmes for women customers.

Sacombank has launched a promotional programme worth VND6 billion ($253,040) for women with thousands of gifts in cash and vouchers for dining, fashion and beauty services, and other privileges between March 1 and 8.

Women applying for a Visa credit card will get the issuance, cash withdrawal and annual fees waived. Transactions of VND1 million in the first month using the card will get them a refund of VND500,000.

At Viet Capital Bank, women customers making a savings deposit of VND10 million or more for six to 15 months will get an extra 0.38 percentage point.

Those opening a current account from March 6 to 10 can get their preferred account number for free. — VNS