Vietnamese e-commerce stands to benefit from greater competition

April 11, 2018 | 11:37

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Raising competition between e-commerce enterprises remains a great opportunity to boost the development of the Vietnamese e-commerce market.

vietnamese e commerce stands to benefit from greater competition

Representatives of domestic e-commerce businesses attending the seminar

This statement was shared by Vu Duc Thinh, director of Lazada Express, at the seminar on April 10 titled “Logistics and E-commerce: Companion to development,” held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)’s Department of Import and Export and Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy.

“The number of Vietnamese people using e-commerce platforms for shopping is relatively small (33 per cent of the population) compared to traditional channels due to a limited trust in e-commerce. Therefore, consumer trust currently remains the biggest theatre of war between e-commerce enterprises. Once a lot more businesses enter the Vietnamese e-commerce market, consumer access to e-commerce will improve, leading to more trust as well as boosting the development of e-commerce,” Thinh told VIR.

According to Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), the growth rate of Vietnamese e-commerce in 2017 reached over 25 per cent, and this rate will be maintained in 2018-2020.

Some of the world’s biggest names in e-commerce, including Chinese Alibaba, JD, and Tencent, are investing in Vietnamese e-commerce platforms, including Lazada, Tiki, and Shopee.

Accordingly, Alibaba has poured $4 billion of investment capital into Lazada to focus on expanding in Southeast Asia.

Economists also predict that the value of the Vietnamese e-commerce market will increase from 2016’s $1.6 billion to $3.7 billion in 2020.

According to experts, the potential to develop e-commerce in Vietnam remains huge, with high rates of young population with easier access to new technology and stable GDP growth.

Specifically, the number of Vietnamese internet users is over 50 million, accounting for 53 per cent of the total population, with 46 million using social networks (48 per cent of the population).

By Van Anh

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