Shopping Centers Boom after Receiving Recognition

Foreigners are shopping in Zen Plaza (Photo:VH)
Foreigners are shopping in Zen Plaza (Photo:VH)

Known as the leading shopping centers in HCM City , Zen Plaza , Diamond Plaza and the Tax Trading Center have earned good reputations among their customers in and out of the country with three different styles of serving their “gods”.

This is the second time those centers have received the recognition. The first time was in late 2004.

Each shows its own advantage

While Zen Plaza sets the target to become the fashion center where Vietnamese designers are encouraged to show their talents, the Tax Trading Center tries to catch the eyes of international tourists thank to its convenient place in the city’s center. Coming into life later than the above two, Diamond Plaza strives to enlarge its customer base with its variety of products.

The Tax Trading Center is most advantageous in catching the eyes of both Vietnamese and foreign consumers thanks to its location in downtown Ho Chi Minh city .

Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, 34, owner of Xuan Lan D6 Shop in Tax Trading Center says, “Most of my customers are foreigners”. Hoa, who can speak English and Japanese fluently, says that both international tourists and Vietnamese consumers go shopping at the center.

Sue Howarth from Australia says she came to Tax Trading Center as she found the information about quality recognition for the center from a tourism website.

Sue was confirmed by the website that it is safe to buy goods at places with the symbol of a crane which is granted by the city’s department of tourism to those shops meeting the demands of their standards.

Meanwhile, being regarded as Saigon's premier department store, Diamond Plaza attracted 20,000-25,000 visitors each weekday and from 25,000 to 30,000 visitors at the weekend in 2005.

The store’s managing board says customers including about 20 per cent of international buyers not only purchase popular products of all kinds but also those of such well known and high standard brands as Cartier, MontBlanc, Gucci, Bvlgari, S.T Dupont, Dunhill, Bally, Furla which are on sale on the first floor.

Diamond Department Store

Diamond Plaza also accepts payment by various cards such as American Express, ICB, Visa, Master and ATM.

Different from what Diamond Plaza and Tax Trading Center are doing, Zen Plaza attracts its customers mostly through fashion clothes and regularly-held fashion shows.

After changing its name from Nhat Nam Plaza to Zen Plaza in 2003, Zen Plaza was considered to be one of the biggest fashion centers in Viet Nam with its own team of 20 designers including such famous Vietnamese ones as Minh Hanh, Nguyen Sa, Viet Lien, Huong Giang and others and a number of international fashion designers. 

Coming to Zen Plaza , buyers from all walks of life can find their favorite and unique clothes. Vietnamese fashion shops are attracting the attention of not only domestic buyers but also foreign visitors
Thanh Quyen from Ha Noi says whenever she visits HCM City, she comes to Zen Plaza to pick up her favorite fashion items or at least just to satisfy her eyes with all kinds of beautiful clothes on display for sale there. Quyen says she loves Minh Hanh’s fashion designs very much and she can find them in the plaza.

Besides reserving space for the showrooms of the above-mentioned designers, Zen Plaza is also a place where products from other fashion competitors such as Vietnam Collection Grand Prix or Vietnam Fashion Week are on display.

Most importantly, Zen regularly organizes a fashion show per three months for designers to introduce their new collections inside or outside the plaza and another once a month in the plaza.    
“We are planning to cooperate with foreign partners to export Vietnamese fashion costume to Asian markets, especially Japan 's,” said Huynh Thi Ngoc Hien from Zen Plaza .

Together with these three shopping centers, twenty five others have also received the city tourism service’s recognition for quality, making HCM City a destination for quality shopping.

 

Other news