A representative of Amazon gives advice on trading via e-commerce to businesses. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Hanoi – Businesses are making use of e-commerce to cut down selling expenses, expand the markets, and improve their competitiveness to boost the sale of Vietnamese goods amid global economic integration

Highly potential field

Each month, the Hanoi-based company of Hoang Trung supplies tens of tonnes of farm produce from nationwide for the market. Instead of using traditional channels, it has stepped up sale via social media like Facebook, Zalo or some e-marketplaces, and harvested encouraging results.

He said that during more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2019 - 2021), his firm faced numerous difficulties because of anti-pandemic measures like social distancing.

Therefore, to boost sale and save expenses, it has increased selling produce online and been able to access buyers even in faraway places.

Thanks to e-commerce, his company’s revenue has risen two- or three-fold while the money previously spent on renting shops or hiring employees is now used to improve service quality, Trung added.

Le Van Tong, head on the online marketing division of the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Trading Cooperatives (Saigon Co.op), said the number of online buyers of his business’s products is 2.4 per cent higher than those directly purchasing at outlets or supermarkets. This is a demonstration of e-commerce’s attractiveness to consumers.

About 70 per cent of the Vietnamese population have accessed the internet and the majority are young people, which is great potential for e-commerce development, he emphasised.

Tran Dinh Toan, Deputy General Director of the OSB Investment and Technology JSC – an authorised dealer of the Alibaba group in Vietnam, held that the changes of the digital economy and shopping behaviours during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the country’s participation in international trade agreements, have given a boost to e-commerce in Vietnam.

Only the internet can create trading platforms for millions of businesses, billions of products, and a huge volume of customers. A number of companies have seen revenue surges of 70 - 80 per cent thanks to their engagement in international e-marketplaces, he added.

Competitiveness promoted

The e-commerce market is expanding with the presence of more stakeholders and more modern supply chains, driven by digitalisation and information technology.

In particular, this market has become even more vibrant amid the pandemic. Applying digital technology to create new distribution channels has proved useful for Vietnamese businesses to surmount headwinds and seize opportunities from changed shopping behaviours of consumers.

According to a recent report on Southeast Asian economies, the internet economy of Vietnam posted the fastest growth in the region, from 18 billion USD in 2021 to 23 billion USD in 2022, including 14 billion USD from e-commerce. The country’s internet economy is forecast to reach 49 billion USD by 2025, including 32 billion USD from e-commerce.

Nguyen Thi Minh Huyen, Deputy Director of the Vietnam E-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that in the post-pandemic period, e-commerce is establishing itself as one of the leading areas of the digital economy, creating momentum of economic development, and encouraging digital transformation in businesses.

Paying great attention to e-commerce, ministries, sectors, and localities have carried out a number of programmes and measures to bolster the sale and export of Vietnamese goods via the internet. As a result, many strong products of Vietnam like processed food, handicrafts, and consumer goods have reached consumers in many countries around the world.

However, to further develop e-commerce, economists recommended companies thoroughly learn about markets, consumption trends, and business feasibility to select suitable and potential niche markets to focus on, ensure product quality, and comply with standards and legal regulations of target markets.