Timber businesses overcome difficulties during the pandemic season

Timber businesses seek "aisle" between Covid-19

The 3D showroom of Huong Nga Company on the Hope platform. Screenshots

"Live well" in the middle of the pandemic season

According to the Department of Agro-Processing and Market Development, in the first seven months of 2020, Vietnam's export value of wood and wood products reached US$6.09 billion, up 6.2% over the same period year 2019 - an impressive increase amid the complicated movements of the Covid-19 pandemic, both domestic and in many main export markets of Vietnamese furniture. This shows a great deal of efforts of businesses to maintain export orders.

For example, Hiep Long Furniture Company had quite good orders during the outbreak in Vietnam and many countries around the world. Huynh Quang Thanh, General Director of Hiep Long Company shared, this is the result of a long process. Through 30 years of operation, Hiep Long Company has learned from the experience that it is not advisable to "put eggs in a basket", but to expand into many markets or diversify customers instead of focusing on just a few good markets and a few big customers. Up to now, the company has customers that have been "acquaintances" for more than 20 years.

Thanh said from the beginning of this year, due to the impact of the pandemic, the company had to change its marketing strategy, increase investment in the company's website and online advertising channels such as Google Ads. Thanks to that, since the beginning of this year, Hiep Long has attracted three to four new customers who moved orders from Japan.

Similarly, Sao Nam Flooring Company has not reduced or lost orders due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Do Thi Kim Loan, General Director of Sao Nam, the close connections with customers have helped Sao Nam get good market information and promptly adapt to changes. When the disease has declined, Sao Nam has welcomed more customers in the Australian market.

Making use of technology key

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all commercial promotion activities of Huong Nga Fine Arts Company have been suspended, affecting its revenue. To cope with this situation, Huong Nga's sales team had to work three times more than normal to find orders by calling and sending emails to maintain regular communication. But many customers have not yet finalised the order, because they are still waiting for the end of the pandemic to come and see the goods before deciding.

Facing this situation, Huong Nga used the online exhibition tool. After one month of sending the company's 3D showroom link on the Hope platform to customers, the company immediately signed two export orders to the UK and Germany. The customers in the UK were completely new customers who have never purchased from Huong Nga.

Dinh Thi Huong Nga said that Hope had more improvements in image and information, so it pushed these two customers to quickly decide to sign purchase contracts. With these two orders, the company can maintain business operations and jobs for employees until the end of this year.

Hope is an online exhibition platform developed by the Ho Chi Minh City Handicraft and Wood Industry Association (Hawa), to connect Vietnamese wood and furniture businesses with international buyers. Hawa has successfully developed the Hope platform only four months since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic to meet the marketing and product introduction needs of businesses in the context of exhibition activities, traditional fairs are postponed due to pandemic. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Vice Chairman of Hawa, said timber enterprises have initially recognised export orders since July, mainly thanks to online promotion activities. Some products suitable for online platforms have recorded much higher growth compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Phong, the record from a number of large enterprises and fast digitisation shows that sales have not decreased.

Wood companies also assessed the development of the Hope platform in particular as well as online exhibition platforms in general as not only the solution during the pandemic but also the beginning of the digital transformation trend of businesses in future.

Nguyen Hoai Bao, Deputy Director of Scansia Pacific Company, said the company currently mainly exports to Europe and the US and both these markets have grown quite well compared to 2019, expected annual growth 2020 can reach 15-20%. Explaining this growth, Bao said Scansia Pacific's products are disassembled products, suitable for e-commerce. This is a popular and effective selling method during the pandemic as people limit going out to shop and switch to online shopping and home delivery.