Growing demand from e-commerce users is putting pressure on existing supply chains, facilities and warehouses.

Delivery service GHN launched the first automatic goods sorting system with
capacity of 30,000 parcels per hour at its warehouse in Long Bien district,
Hanoi (Photo courtesy of GHN) 

Single’s Day on November 11 saw a surge on local e-commerce sites. E-commerce platform Tiki saw a quadrupling of orders and buyers during its ‘Legendary Sale 11.11’ promotion on the day.

In Vietnam, over 60 percent of the population use the internet, and this offers brands the opportunity to easily approach target customers.

According to Peter Guevarra, a director from the real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Vietnam, warehousing is the major beneficiary of the growth of online shopping as online customers are becoming ever more demanding, with next day and even same day delivery becoming an important part of the online retailer’s offer.

He said the trend created more demand for logistics space in urban areas, where online retailers need to be served by larger logistics real estate companies.

In June, Vietnamese Tiki signed an agreement with logistics firm UniDepot to build a new 10,000 sq.m fulfilment centre in HCM City’s Nha Be district to serve the increasing demand.

A representative of Tiki said the firm had been investing huge amounts in operations and fulfilment centres. It now has 65,000 sq.m of fulfilment space around the country, and plans to expand to 200,000 sq.m by next year.

Established in July 2012, GHN delivers 300,000 orders a day for big e-commerce customers and partners including Lazada, Shopee, Sendo and more than 100,000 small and medium customers nationwide.

In September, GHN launched the first automatic goods sorting system with capacity of 30,000 parcels per hour at its warehouse in Long Bien district, Hanoi in September and the second in HCM City this month. Last month, Scommerce which operates two delivery services of GHN and AhaMove confirmed an investment from Singapore’s Temasek, which will help improve the technology, logistics infrastructure and management capacity to meet increasing demand.

GHN said that in the long-term, it expected to set a budget of 30 million USD to build ten automatic goods sorting centres throughout Vietnam. GHN has just started construction of a 50,000 sq.m warehouse in Hanoi.