Retailers are competing head-on to spur a shopping spree in the final two months of the year, with heavy marketing budgets pledged.
Central Department Store Co is spending 40 million baht for a "Single's Day" campaign from Nov 9-11, aiming to lure shoppers with up to 50% discounts and a buy-one, get-one-free approach.
Central Pattana, the operator of Central shopping complexes, plans to allocate 400 million baht for New Year marketing campaigns to draw shoppers during this festive season.
The Mall Group also pledged to splurge 200 million baht for New Year marketing campaigns, 100 million baht higher than last year.
Voralak Tulaphorn, the company's chief marketing officer, said the company plans to arrange "Bangkok Shopping Festival 2018" at The Mall Group, The Emporium and The Emquartier this year.
On Nov 11 only, all customers will be offered a 30% discount when shopping with SCB M Visa, SCB, Citi and Kasikornbank cards. Another 72% discount will be offered to customers from Nov 16-18, depending on conditions.
The Mall Group will offer a 50% discount for shoppers during Nov 23-25 for the "Black Weekend campaign" at The Emporium on Nov 23, followed by Paragon Department Store on Nov 24, and at all The Mall stores except the Ramkhamhaeng branch on Nov 25.
The Mall Group expects sales of 3.6 billion baht from 22 days of events.
The company projects sales this year to reach 58 billion baht, up from 56 billion last year.
In a separate development, Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana, executive vice-president of marketing for Central Pattana, said the company is joining partners to invest 400 million baht in marketing campaigns offering customers many prize choices, including a Northern Lights Hunting Trip in Finland, the Smiley Collection, a Huawei Mate 20 smartphone, and a round-trip domestic flight from Bangkok Airways.
The event lasts from Nov 16 until January 2019 at all Central complexes across the country.
"Retailers' overall sales will remain flat in November," said Mrs Voralak.
"Local consumer spending remains weak, while the number of foreign tourist arrivals is expected to decline to 37 million, below an earlier projection of 39 million thanks largely to a sharp fall in Chinese tourists."
She said The Mall Group has not been affected much by the decline in Chinese tourists because its customers tend to be free independent travellers, not Chinese tour groups.
Chinese tourists at Siam Paragon, The Emporium and The Emquartier account for 38% of total customers. Some 30% are from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, with 15% Taiwanese and Japanese.
"Based on tax refund statistics, the spending power of Cambodian tourists is about three times higher than Chinese tourists," said Mrs Voralak.
As of September, the average spending per Chinese tourist bill was about 3,000 baht, a 13% increase from the same period last year.
She believes Thai consumers still have strong spending power, but they opt to save money to spend on overseas trips.