E-commerce: The door to bring Vietnamese goods to the world

Cross-border e-commerce helps Vietnamese businesses open up many opportunities to participate in the global supply chain. Photo: VNA.

At the Cross-border E-commerce Forum 2024, June 27, Vice Chairman of Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM) Bui Trung Kien said, in the context of globalization and increasing international integration, widely, e-commerce has become an indispensable part of the business strategy of Vietnamese enterprises. Applying modern e-commerce platforms not only helps businesses access international markets quickly and effectively but also helps improve competitiveness and sustainable development.

However, e-commerce not only opens up new opportunities but also poses many challenges. Changing consumer shopping habits, technological developments as well as increasing requirements for product and service quality are factors that businesses need to adapt and innovate.

According to the report "Local sellers, Global consumers: e-commerce export trends in Vietnam 2022" by AccessPartnership, Vietnam's B2C e-commerce export value is expected to reach 296 3 trillion VND by 2027. In addition, Amazon data shows that Vietnamese businesses have expanded their international business scope with the number of products exported and sold on Amazon increasing by 300% in 5 years.

Mr. Gijae Seong, Managing Director of Amazon Global Selling Vietnam, said that Vietnam's cross-border e-commerce is showing great potential. Through events such as: Cross-border E-commerce Forum 2024, contributing to promoting an environment that nurtures innovation, empowering businesses, thereby contributing to enhancing the global position of goods, branding and foreign trade of Vietnam in the international arena.

The commodity import-export strategy until 2030 sets a number of goals such as: commodity export growth rate of 6-7%/year and import growth rate of 5-6%/year. Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that the trade balance is currently in surplus, even with a period of trade deficit, although this is not unusual, the important thing is not to create too large fluctuations.

In terms of markets, the strategy also sets the goal of striving for the European market to reach 17% of export turnover, while Asia reaches 50%, America reaches 32-22%... At the same time, still maintain advantageous export products such as: textiles and garments, leather and shoes, but in those products, value increase must be promoted. For example, textiles and garments do not just stop at sewing but need to invest in branding, design, distribution, retail, while diversifying markets and effectively exploiting free trade agreements. .

Mr. Hai said that expanding the market is not only through traditional means such as attending fairs, exhibitions, and trade connections, but it is possible to develop the market through online platforms, digital platforms, besides, it is developing logistics to support import and export.

“Sustainable trade will be the key word throughout the coming period. In particular, sustainable trade is not only in numbers but is also shown in other indicators, such as uniform and stable growth, bringing value to localities and regions, contributing to narrowing the gap between localities and regions, without sacrificing social value, preserving resources for future generations, focusing on high value-added products," said Mr. Tran Thanh Hai.

In fact, in the context that exports are an important growth driver of the economy, taking advantage of digital technology and cross-border e-commerce to exploit global export potential is being encouraged by the Government and the community. Businesses increasingly appreciate and focus.

Statistics from Amazon Global Selling show that in the period 2022-2025, the growth rate of cross-border e-commerce will grow 2.3 times faster than the growth rate of normal e-commerce. It is forecast that from 2020-2027, the annual growth rate of cross-border e-commerce will reach 28.4%, with Vietnam and the Southeast Asia region alone, in the period 2021-2026, the average annual growth rate is 20%.

Mr. Trinh Khac Toan, Northern Regional Director of Amazon Global Selling, informed that as of August 2023, there were more than 17 million products from Vietnam sold on the Amazon e-commerce platform, with the seller's revenue increasing. Sales in 2023 will grow by over 50%, this shows the efficiency of sellers from Vietnam.

Mr. Hoang Ninh, Head of the Digital Government Department (Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy, Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that the goal of the National E-commerce Development Plan for the period 2026-2030 emphasizes promoting regional linkages, diversifying supply chains, to maximize the strengths of each region. In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has implemented many solutions to support small and medium-sized enterprises through completely free in-person and online training courses, thereby helping businesses have the opportunity to promote the consumption of their products in domestic and international markets.