When traveling to any region in the world, you must encounter some difficulties in purchasing something in a foreign country and bargaining is one of the most basic skills you need to know to avoid being overcharged. Vietnam, with no exception, is a multi-ethnic country with millions of visits by overseas travelers per year. Therefore, the international tourism has been developing a lot with the interference of buyers who always try to sell things for tourists at the highest price. During my travel to different places, I discovered some useful tips to bargain effectively when traveling to Vietnam. Right now, I’m going to share with you to save your trip expense as much as possible.
Tip #1 Go around to gain an insight into the local market
The most important thing is that you must equip yourself with an overview or basic understanding of the market. This means that you need to shop around the market and ask for the price of the things you want to buy. As a matter of fact, there are a plenty of stalls selling the same things. Therefore, by asking price in different shops will let you know what the best price you should pay. Don’t be too quick to decide on the price. Be careful and conscious before paying.
This tip worked really effectively as I applied it on my travel to Ben Thanh market last year. I wandered around to buy some batik stamps. But the first place charged me a really high price, and then when I visited others, I received lower prices for the same thing. Thanks to studying the market, I could be aware of how much they would overcharge me and know to pay at a reasonable price.
Tip #2 Ask a local for help
Don’t be shy as Vietnamese people are extremely friendly and willing to help foreign tourists. If you find your haggling uncomfortable, you can ask a local people who can let you know how much you should pay for that product.
Tip #3 Try to practice bargaining language
It’s not so much difficult to learn some useful haggling phrases of that language. By learning a few words such as ‘how much’, ‘too expensive’ or ‘that’s not the real one’ and so on, you can make your negotiation much easier. In Vietnamese language, it’s easy to remember those words, so don’t be afraid to learn them.
Tip #4 Be friendly and respectable towards buyers
You should bear in mind that smile all the time will help you satisfy the buyers. Moreover, the key thing to make buyers feel comfortable with price you suggest is to show them your friendliness as well as respect. As I previously mentioned: Bargaining in Vietnam is an art so you need to be tactful and friendly all the time to tackle with your negotiation. Especially, the most important thing to gain a successful haggle is to keep a win-win situation in which both you and buyers are satisfied with the price, instead of a win-lose situation.
Tip #5 Frequently practice and have fun with it
Even local people have to try hard to bargain for the best price, let alone foreign visitors. This is to say you should practice and have fun with it. Instead of being uncomfortable towards the buyers, you should try to practice from bargaining a few small things. After that, if you’re quite familiar with bargaining culture, you will definitely find it much easier.
Thanks to bargaining, I can also have a deeper understanding of Vietnamese lifestyle and thus love this beautiful S-shaped land than ever.
Hope that you can find these tips useful for your Vietnam tours.
