Footwear producers fail to target domestic consumers

28 Nov '09

2 min read

Footwear industry of Vietnam aims to capture 80 percent of country's domestic market by 2015, which is quite difficult in a market of 86 million, who choose foreign and illegally imported shoes.

Though footwear exporters in the country enjoy leading position in international markets, they failed to get a foothold in domestic market. A number of domestic consumers in Vietnam prefer branded products, but still the domestic companies are not serious about developing their own brands.

Domestic shoe companies need to import their already exported products to attract consumers in domestic markets, as the consumers prefer products having imported labels and foreign tags, said one of the industry entrepreneurs.

The local footwear manufacturers have raised their prices time and again, and in the process have sullied the reputation of local brands. However, according to the consumers, local footwear is not that attractive as an imported one, as well as is expensive than illegally-imported shoes.

The footwear industry needs to take effective measures such as changing business strategies by improving product designs, cutting costs and enhancing marketing policies, in a bid to compete with imported shoes and to achieve its 2015 target.

In terms of quality the Vietnamese footwear products are not worse than that of other countries, but domestic consumers choose imported shoes due to cheap rates and range of better designs.

Final price of shoes in Vietnam is higher than the others, as around 80 percent of the inputs used in shoe production are imported.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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