As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, lantern stalls along Luong Nhu Hoc Street in Cho Lon Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, are once again bustling with visitors browsing and shopping.

Among this year’s popular items are miniature traditional cellophane lanterns, which are selling well thanks to their low prices and compact size. Combining traditional designs with modern LED lights, they are also proving particularly appealing to children.

Low-cost lanterns draw shoppers

Hien, a vendor who has been in business in the area for more than a decade, said the market has attracted large crowds since early September, particularly young visitors who come to buy lanterns, look around and take photos.

The influx of younger customers has helped drive sales of small cellophane lanterns, which now account for more than 60% of her store’s lantern revenue.

“Priced at around $0.60-$1.15 each, mini cellophane lanterns fitted with seven-color LED lights are being bought in large numbers by parents and young people as keepsakes, photo props or classroom decorations,” Hien said. “They are also one of the products driving demand this Mid-Autumn season.”

According to Hien, demand for Mid-Autumn lanterns has fallen by more than 50% compared with the period before the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a result, vendors in the area have had to constantly update their product ranges and stock more affordable items to stimulate demand.

“Every Mid-Autumn Festival, even though I’m over 45, I still have to go on social media platforms such as TikTok to keep up with trends and constantly bring in the lantern designs that are popular with younger customers,” Hien said.

Another vendor, Cam, who also sells lanterns on Luong Nhu Hoc Street, was busy preparing hundreds of 3D unicorn lanterns ordered by a school in Ho Chi Minh City.

She said the design, alongside traditional cellophane lanterns, has been one of this year’s popular products because of its compact size, cute appearance and prices ranging from around $0.60 to $5.80 each, depending on the model.

Lanterns priced at about $1.70-$2.30 account for the majority of sales at her store.

Across Ho Chi Minh City, many stalls and bookstores are stepping up sales of miniature traditional lanterns in shapes associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival, including carp, butterflies, rabbits, stars and roosters.

Notably, these affordable lanterns now use LED lights instead of candles for greater safety, while also appealing to children and young shoppers.

Plastic Mid-Autumn lanterns featuring 3D designs and LED lights, priced at around $0.60-$1.35 each, are also being chosen by many parents as gifts for their children.

Traditional lanterns generate strong sales online

According to vendors, cellophane lanterns are not only attracting shoppers at physical stores but are also generating significant sales on e-commerce platforms.

Data from e-commerce analytics platform Metric showed that between August 20 and September 18, sellers on Shopee, Tiki, Lazada and TikTok Shop generated about $84,600 in sales from traditional Mid-Autumn lanterns.

The data covered searches for cellophane lanterns, star lanterns, carp lanterns and traditional Mid-Autumn lanterns.

More than 42,900 items were sold by over 270 sellers.

The $1.15-$1.90 price segment generated the most revenue, at nearly $21,200.

It was followed by the mid-range segment of about $1.90-$2.90 per item, which generated approximately $18,500. Products priced at around $2.90-$3.85 brought in roughly $10,500, while lower-priced products in the $0.40-$1.15 range generated about $7,850.

The remaining approximately $26,500 in revenue came from other price segments. Lanterns priced between about $38 and $58 also recorded some sales, although volumes were small.

Metric data showed that during the same period, traditional Mid-Autumn lanterns covered by the specified search terms generated total sales of about $84,600.

Across the entire Mid-Autumn lantern category, however, sales on the four platforms reached approximately $427,000, down 6.72% from the same period last year, measured from the eighth day of the seventh lunar month to the eighth day of the eighth lunar month.

About 231,300 items were sold by 1,300 sellers.

Sellers with warehouses in Ho Chi Minh City accounted for 45.8% of total revenue, the highest share among the localities covered by the data, followed by Hanoi at 39.2%.

The most popular price range broadly mirrored the traditional lantern segment, with products priced at around $1.15-$1.90 accounting for the largest share of revenue.

The figures show that affordable products are making a significant contribution to Vietnam’s online lantern market during this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival season.

Thu Ha