SMEs could enhance e-commerce sales thanks to Alibaba and Fado

Alibaba.com, Fado, and local garment firm Hanhsilk officially signed the MoU on October 18

At the workshop titled “Enhancing SMEs’ export performance through e-commerce” held on October 18, Alibaba.com, Fado, and local garment firm Hanhsilk officially signed an MoU to support local firms in raising their exportability.

Speaking at the event, Dang Hoang Hai, director of the Vietnam e-Commerce and Information Technology Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that Vietnam’s e-commerce sector had a big jump in development with the growth rate of 30 per cent in 2018 and the market’s scale reached $8-9 billion, doubling over the $4 billion in 2015. Despite the great potential, opportunities for local small- and medium-sized enterprises to improve their performance on these platforms are still rare.

“As dealing on e-commerce platforms is an inevitable trend that is accompanying the development of technology, figuring out solutions for firms to boost their sales on these platforms is necessary,” said Hai.

Under the guidance of Alibaba and support from cross-border platform Fado, local companies could approach more than 260 million businesses in 190 markets worldwide.

According to Alibaba’s senior lecturer Savanah Zheng, Vietnam’s biggest export markets are the US, China, South Korea, Japan, and Germany, and the main export categories are garments, footwear, wood products, and agricultural products. Therefore, with Alibaba’s platform, local firms could access international markets more effectively.

Zheng also pointed out that besides posting their goods on e-commerce sites, businesses should take advantage of social networks like Facebook and Tik Tok to boost their sales. Illustrating her points with case-based evidence, she said in the Chinese market, a large number of orders are placed while shopkeepers are promoting their goods by directly streaming on Tik Tok.