Major retailers gear up for year-end gift basket campaigns

Central Food Hall/Tops

CENTRAL FOOD Hall and Tops will this year inject Bt110 million to launch the “Let’s Celebrate 2016” New Year gift basket campaign, under the concept of “The Passage to Perfection”.
Tops is offering discounts of up to 35 per cent with The1Card, plus a six-month zero-interest instalment plan from its financial-institution partners. The offers are valid from now until January 19.
The company expects its end-of-the-year gift-basket sales will rise by more than 20 per cent, exceeding Bt700 million.
Phattaraporn Phenpraphat, senior vice president for marketing and public relations of Central Food Retail, said consumers typically spent more during the year-end shopping season
 This year, the company is offering customers more than 180 gift-basket varieties.
The company’s New Year gift baskets range in price from Bt295-Bt19,700.

The Mall Group
The Mall Group’s Gourmet Market and Home Fresh Mart will hold a “Blissful Hampers 2016” campaign from tomorrow to January 15, providing up savings of up to 39 per cent.
Supawut Chaiprasitkul, group general manager for the supermarket procurement group at The Mall Group, said customers had higher purchasing power and were more excited than usual during the year-end period when they have to shop for gifts.
The company will spend more than Bt20 million on its New Year hamper campaign.
The Blissful Hampers 2016 campaign has been designed to fit various customer lifestyles. The general-market baskets range in price from Bt400 to Bt4,000, premium baskets from Bt4,000 to Bt10,000, and luxury baskets Bt10,000 and up, available at Home Fresh Mart and Gourmet Market.
Chairat Petchdakul, general manager of the company’s fresh-market procurement group, said: “To differentiate from other hampers during the competitive year-end season, the company created premium hampers ranging from Bt15,000 to Bt34,000 baht, which received positive feedback among Scarlet Platinum and M Platinum members who are high spenders.”
Last year, The Mall Group sold 115,000 hampers, generating Bt220 million in sales.
It projects this year’s sales of gift baskets to reach Bt250 million, mostly from general hampers. The sales of premium hampers are increasing every year, and make up 20 per cent of the total.
The Mall Group’s supermarkets’ sales are expected to generate more than Bt10 billion in total sales by the end of 2015.

Tesco Lotus
Salinla Seehaphan, corporate affairs director of Tesco Lotus, said its gift baskets this year had adopted a more contemporary theme, as it found that customers want trendier-looking baskets that they can keep for a long time and utilise as part of their office or home decor.
The baskets come in five collections, “nature”, “celebration”, “classic”, “modern” and “luxury”, each reflected in the materials of the baskets as well as the products they contain.
“With a growing trend in health and fitness, for the first time, we are pleased to offer our health-conscious customers a ‘healthy’ range of baskets, some containing Otop products,” Salinla said, referring to the One Tambon, One Product programme.
She said that this year, Tesco Lotus was making it easier and more convenient for its customers to shop for gift baskets through a variety of channels.
“Our gift baskets are available in all store formats as well as through online channels, including shoponline.tescolotus.com and Lazada, for the first time ever, with special discounts and promotions for online channels.
“Our baskets come in a variety of prices, ranging from Bt288 to Bt3,488, as the number 8 is considered an auspicious number in Chinese culture. As a special promotion, customers can get up to 33 per cent cash back and up to 10 months of zero-per-cent interest when purchasing with a Tesco Lotus Visa card,” Salinla said.
As for consumer trends, the main recipients of gift baskets are families, colleagues, customers and business partners. Bird’s nest, chicken essence, organic products, coffee and fresh fruits are still highly popular across all age groups, while for friends, spa products and chocolates are also popular.
“A majority of our customers favour baskets priced between Bt1,000 and Bt1,500, while more luxurious baskets costing Bt2,500–Bt3,000 are showing an upward trend.
“This year, we expect to see double-digit growth in our sales of New Year gift baskets, thanks to the variety of product and price ranges we offer our customers.
“Key decision factors for individual customers are promotions and prices, variety of assortments and design. Corporate customers also consider promotions and discounts similar to individual customers. However, they are also look for delivery services and Otop product offerings,” she said.

Big C Supercenter
Warunee Kitjaroenpoonsin, director of corporate affairs at Big C Supercenter, outlined the company’s New Year hamper promotion.
“To welcome the festive season of the year, Big C presents a New Year hamper promotion from November 13 to January 4, with 44 selections of hampers as well as more than 1,000 celebrative items at Big C stores nationwide.”
Prices range from Bt299 to Bt5,399.
“We want to highlight the multi-purpose use of this year’s hampers, such as the hamper ribbon that can be reused as a colourful shopping bag or a hamper that works as a bicycle basket,” Warunee said.
“To lure consumers, Big C offers higher incentives than last year when shopping with a Citibank-Big C credit card. Shoppers will also receive Big C gift vouchers with values up to 31 per cent of the spending outlay.
“Meanwhile, zero-interest instalment programmes and free delivery services are also offered to meet the different shopping lifestyles of consumers.
“We believe that the economy and consumers’ spending will recover in this last quarter of the year and expect that Big C hamper sales will grow by 20 per cent compared with last year.
“Each New Year hamper helps consumers save up to 30-35 per cent compared with individual purchases for a self-prepared hamper,” Warunee said.