Handicraft Makers Seek Ways to Enter US Market

Trade experts are urging Vietnamese producers of handicrafts and home decoration products to manufacture products imbued with both Vietnamese and the US cultural imprints in a bid to establish a firmer foothold in the US market.

 

At present, exports of handicraft and fine arts to the US are still modest and have tended to fall in recent times.

 

According to the Ministry of Trade, almost all domestic handicraft producers fail to respond to consumers’ tastes. Vietnamese handicraft producers tend to focus on making products purely imprinted with Vietnamese cultural images, not realizing that though some characteristics are valuable to Vietnam they may not mean anything to others. In order to penetrate into the US market, the producers should make studies on arts values and characteristics of American culture and customize their handicrafts and interior products to those cultural features. A recent survey revealed that the most important thing that impacts the American interests in handicrafts and fine arts is fashion, which changes frequently. 

 

Becky Boswell Smith, editor-in-chief of Home Accent Today, one of the US's top home- ware industry magazines, said that US consumers often choose handicrafts which are to some extent combined with their culture or traditional values. "We are very interested in the originality of Vietnamese handicrafts but we will be more ready to buy them if they also bear the characteristics and values of our local culture, history or country," said Smith.

 

 

According to the trade official, the country's handicrafts and home decoration products are now facing increasingly stiff competition from China. He warned of domestic producers' failure in this market if they do not make a shift in the focus of their products.

 

Vietnamese makers should not export cheap products, with which the Chinese have done very well in the US market. They should focus on producing high-end and sophisticated items, which are attractive to the American consumers and will compete against Chinese products.

 

Vietnamese handicrafts are abundant in terms of diversity and design, many of which have been produced over multiple generations and imprinted with the nation's history, tradition and culture. Yet, those kinds of handicrafts and home decoration products, given the ongoing international integration process and increasingly stiff competition in the export market, are at risk of being ignored by consumers if the country's producers keep making them without responding to consumers' tastes.

 

In fact, some craft villages can make products embroidered with very sophisticated pictures of dragons or phoenixes and others. But American consumers do not seem to be attracted by those products as they do not match with their cultural tastes.

 

The distribution system is another important factor for Vietnam to enter the US market. Handicrafts and fine arts are mostly exported to the US via wholesale and retail networks. The wholesalers include Macy, Bloomingdales, Bed, and Bath & Beyond while the direct distribution system remains second. However, Vietnamese handicraft makers are advised to pay more attention to the retail distribution system which reflects the American customers’ tastes. Only in this manner will Vietnamese handicrafts and fine arts establish a firm foothold in the US market.