Vietnamese businesses can succeed through cross-border e-commerce

E-commerce is the leading development trend amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and those who know how to take advantage of it, including small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME), will achieve more success than through traditional channels.

The potential of Vietnam’s e-commerce is not limited to the domestic market if they only step through the technology door, with cross-border e-commerce sites like Amazon helping many startups to succeed and grow rapidly.

Currently, Amazon lists thousands of Vietnamese sellers who participate in the online market around the world. Many Vietnamese businesspeople with big dreams have already achieved significant successes as they dared to stand on the shoulders of e-commerce giants.

After graduating from college with a degree in pharmacy, Thu Trang’s biggest dream was to bring her paper petals to the world. Through her active marketing on social networking sites, Trang’s Camellia Bees brand attracted prospective customers globally, enticed by the artful image of her paper folding techniques that created her products with passion and enthusiasm.

Two years ago, Trang hit one of her biggest milestones so far when she began selling her products on Amazon. Trang said that thanks to Amazon Global Selling, her business boomed with steady monthly sales growth, reaching remarkable revenue increases of 100-200 per cent throughout the peak season.

Vietnamese businesses can succeed through cross-border e-commerce

“Amazon Global Selling is truly supporting SMEs like Camellia Bees with their customer service, the review and customer care options, as well as the well-designed order system. I learnt more about how to run my business professionally through feedback from my customers. As their numbers grew steadily, my brand reputation and sales increased, and I was able to sell my products to people around the world,” Trang recalls.

Ngan Le, founder and CEO of Paper Color – another Vietnamese business selling on Amazon – said that global sales helped her company reach a large number of customers, as well as save on costs for distribution and marketing. With only two original members in the company, Paper Color is now exported to more than 30 countries.

Ngan Le shared that her secret for success, besides her creativity and ambition to spread love through her products, is good management and effective data analysis. “Amazon has helped me and my partner to better understand our performance and come up with more practical long-term plans that fit our target market,” Ngan Le explained.

Mary Nguyen, the founder of Mary Craft, an enterprise specialising in providing garments and fine arts jewellery from horns and wood, initially faced difficulties in bringing her locally-made products to the world. However, Amazon became the answer to that problem.

“The biggest benefit is the Fulfillment by Amazon toolkit, which enabled us to deliver within 1-2 days. The toolkit is extremely effective for small businesses like ours, especially when struggling with operations like logistics,” said Mary.

Since Mary Craft started selling on Amazon in 2015, the company’s sales went up more than 150 per cent from previous years. As a result, Mary Craft has grown rapidly from just one workshop to three, thereby creating jobs for about 100 employees.

The company founder excitedly explained that she is only waiting for Mary Craft to be strong enough before bringing her brand to many other large markets such as the UK, Canada, or Australia.

Meanwhile, after a quarter of a century of development, Trung Nguyen Legend has become one of the leading brands in the domestic coffee industry with important contributions to the growth of Vietnamese brands in the international market.

Trung Nguyen Legend’s coffee has been exported to more than 80 countries and territories and has been selected as ‘diplomatic ambassadors’ on many occasions.

Trung Nguyen’s success in conquering international markets comes from its export strategy through official distributors in different markets. This year, the group has officially launched a new form of distribution by opening “brand booths” on international e-commerce floors, such as on Amazon.

“Amazon is one of the leading technology companies, so Trung Nguyen’s strategic cooperation with the e-commerce platform is more than suitable. Collaborating with e-commerce services like Amazon will continue to help Trung Nguyen’s products to reach farther, faster,” a Trung Nguyen representative concluded.

Between 2019 and 2020, Amazon invested more than $30 billion in logistics, tools, services, programmes, and human resources to drive the growth of its sales partners globally. At the same time, in 2020 alone, the company released more than 135 free tools and services intending to help sellers on Amazon increase sales.

Through these and similar efforts, Amazon has not only been serving large corporations but also become a bridge between Vietnamese SMEs and the world, helping them to grow their businesses easily and access more than 300 million globally, including more than 150 million Prime customers and millions of institutional buyers from the US, Europe, and Japan.