• The non-profit program aims to join hands with the Government to support 2,000 stores to overcome difficulties by granting free services to both ensure macroeconomic stability and employment for workers.
• This program will provide a (zero fee) solution that allows stores to create short-term cash flows during the social distancing period because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, May 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Meete mobile application – Nguyen Group Joint Stock Company officially announced on April 22, 2020 that the company will start the program to support 2,000 small and medium-sized merchants in the food / drink / fashion / beauty / tourism industries in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh under two forms: (1) free service grants with a total value of VND 3 billion and (2) – zero fee gift voucher sales targeted at VND 7.2 billion for merchants on Meete website.

Meete launched a program to support small and medium shops in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh

Based on studies from National Economics University in Vietnam, so far on April 1^st, 2020, 34,7% of businesses in Vietnam have been closed. Most of them, which are of low to medium scale, have not been able to access affordable bank’s interest rate policy due to lacking financial reports and other terms, as a result many merchants have to exit or shut down their business entirely. Hence, this program was initialized with the proactive attitude of the Vietnamese startup community to share the responsibilities of the government in balancing macroeconomic situations. This program is expected to help sustain merchant’s business in tough times by providing short term cash flow via gift vouchers sales and ensure jobs availability to decrease the Government support expenditure.

The program includes 2 methods, in detail:

The first one encourages merchants by granting free services to reduce operation costs at the re-opening period. These packages are the result of a corporation between service providing units such as wifi marketing, delivery, reservation, advertisement, product marketing, CRM, … , which is 10 – 30 million VND of value each one. Merchants can actively search for detailed information on Meete website. Currently, there are more than 30 partners supporting for the program, such as Địa Điểm Ăn Uống, Movad, VNwifi, Ahamove, … up to total of 1 billion VND out of expected goal of 3 billion VND. 

Merchant responds positively with these services due to its practicality and assurance of no extra fee. “Losing 30-50% total revenue compared to months before the quarantine period is the current situation of Otoké Chicken and Chewy Junior bakery. Our prior solution would be cutting off labor and reducing 40% salary, pushing delivery, setting up a discount program. The problem of every project is the limited budget, hence, this support service package will minimize the cost of delivery, advertisement, … especially, we aim to launch a cash gift voucher program, so that if we earn customer’s support, revenue in the short-term would increase without exceeding the budget and more employees would be cut off for the next 3 months.” said Mai Trường Giang – CEO TG FOOD.

Second method involves providing short-term operating cash flow solutions during the temporary quarantine period so that merchants could spend more on employment, rentals, …etc through customers purchasing in advance gift vouchers on Meete that could be used after the quarantine. These gift vouchers are to be purchased at a discount and can be used as e-gifts. Moreover, customers will receive cash back sponsored by Meete’s payment partner Zalo Pay up to 1 million VND depending on the purchase value. It is targeted that the total revenue will be up to 7.2 billion VND for merchants participating (zero fee on participating merchants). Currently, there are more than 100 merchants registered for gift voucher sales, and more than 30 organizations and communities join in and spread the program’s message.

“More and more Facebook & Zalo groups created by CEOs and manager stores to transfer and pass their businesses and even to express their fear of bankruptcy. ZaloPay decides to support Meete since they understand this program’s practicality, and is willing to shoulder the pressure of low-to-medium merchants. We believe that by standing together, we can come through this tough quarantine time.” said Ms Trang – Zalo Pay Marketing representative.

Let’s say a low-to-medium merchant owns 25 staffs, 2,000 merchants supported will result in saving 50,000 jobs. This will make a huge impact on the government’s public expenditure, while a lot of macroeconomy support projects remain in the planning stage.

Within the purpose of supporting the society through the severe effects of COVID-19, consumers and merchants can donate to the Ministry of Health’s Fighting COVID-19 fund via Meete website. Meete expects to raise 60 million VND funding for the next 2 months. 

Mr. Nguyễn Cảnh Dương – Nguyen Group CEO sharing “Individual and companies have been fighting with difficulties never happened with precedents. The business community in Vietnam is mostly of low-to-medium scale, which easily being affected by external threats, and Meete has stepped up with this zero-fee program to support and encourage merchants with managing cashflow solutions in short-term. By that, we hope to strengthen the relationship between Customer and Business, Business and Business, all together we will go through tough times and activate the spirit of Viet Nam startup, and associate with the government to settle the current situation.”

Meete Introduction:

Meete is a Marketing & Sales solution for local merchants, developed on both mobile application and website platforms, and has presence in HCM city and Hanoi. Meete supports merchants in broadening and maximizing touchpoints with the customer niches by means of advanced technical tools such as distributing discount vouchers to customers, managing reservations, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), food delivery and many more media services. Meete end-users will be the customers of merchants. By using Meete, they have access to exclusive deals from Meete merchants.

Photo – https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200504/2793349-1?lang=0