One tourist trap all shoppers in Hoi An must know is that almost everybody earns commission from referring buying customers to shoes and tailor shops. The standard commission rate paid by tailor shops to every receptionist, door boy, taxi drivers, hotel bus drivers, staff of 5 star resorts or any random stranger is 35%. Some of those "highly recommended" stores can appear popular, crowded and even offer cheap prices, but in reality are only pure shop fronts that leverage on cheap but low quality outsourcing.

Almost every building in the downtown area of Hoi An that isn't a restaurant is a shop selling one of the following: clothes, shoes, souvenirs, bags, or jewellery. These places are pretty much entirely geared to sell to tourists, not Vietnamese. Prices are often inflated compared to the rest of Vietnam because of this, and are quoted in dollars (usually a bad sign), so haggling is advisable. Even so, the sheer range of available styles and the ability to get any clothes custom made for you can make it worthwhile.

Most ATMs in Hoi An have a withdrawal limit of only 2m dong (≈$94) and charge a fee of around 30,000 dong per transaction. Withdrawing higher amounts will require multiple withdrawals and may incur expensive banking fees from domestic banks. An ATM which allow for withdrawals of more than 5 million dong with no fee is located at the northernmost junction of Hai Bà Trưng and Bà Triệu (lat. long. 15.883119, 108.325015). The ATM is Military Bank - MB.