(HSV VIETNAM GROUP) – Vietnamese handicraft products, agricultural products... are full of export opportunities through e-commerce platforms.
Vietnamese goods exported through cross-border e-commerce platforms
Starting from a shop selling handicraft products (handicrafts) to tourists, after a retail business, realizing that international customers love Vietnamese products, especially traditional products, Indochina Creative Development and Investment Joint Stock Company decided to establish an Import-Export Sales Department at the end of 2015. In August 2015, the company successfully registered a Gold Supplier account for handicraft items on cross-border e-commerce platform Alibaba.com. Just over a month later, the first order was received.
Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh Tam, Director of Indochina Creative Development and Investment Joint Stock Company, shared that from that first order, in 2017, Indochina registered another account on Alibaba.com, focusing on promoting unique artistic products. In February 2022, Indochina upgraded to the Verified Suppier service package (verified supplier). Since then, Indochina's online store on the e-commerce platform Alibaba.com always has up to 60 products on display shelves instead of 10 - 20 like normal accounts. After Indochina became a verified supplier, interactions increased by more than 50%, the number of orders increased by 3, and the number of successfully closed orders increased by more than 30%... compared to before. From a small initial store, after nearly 9 years, Indochina has had more than 3,000 orders from the US, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Korea...
Also one of the small businesses trading in organic agricultural products, Organic Viet Food Company (OVF) has decided to put cashew products on the e-commerce platform to seek export opportunities. Determined to be standard from the beginning, Binh Phuoc cashew products have been built by OVF under the Newbam brand with standard packaging, design, packaging... for export.
At the same time, OVF registered its business on the Amazon e-commerce platform, and persistently learned and met the criteria instructed by Amazon. Thanks to that, Newbam cashew products were quickly placed on Amazon shelves. In November 2022, Newbam cashew nuts exported their first batch to the US. To date, Newbam cashew nuts have been exported quite regularly to the US and Canada.
The success story of Indochina and OVF is not a rare story for Vietnamese products on the cross-border export journey through e-commerce. Mr. Ta Hoang Linh, Director of the European and American Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that cross-border e-commerce is increasingly booming, growing rapidly, and becoming one of the top priorities, a core factor of the global economy and an inevitable trend that no country can stand aside from.
In the context of Vietnam's increasingly deep integration with the world economy, along with opportunities from new generation free trade agreements, participating in the online export and import system and cross-border e-commerce channels is an effective solution, opening up many opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to expand customer files, increase market reach, improve business capacity and value the quality of goods originating from Vietnam, bringing Vietnamese brands to the hands of customers. consumers in many markets around the world.
The 2023 E-Commerce Report by the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy shows that retail e-commerce revenue in Vietnam in 2023 will increase by 25% compared to 2022, reaching 20.5 billion USD, putting Vietnam in the group of 10 countries with the world's leading e-commerce growth rate. The global e-commerce market is forecast to have strong growth with expected revenue reaching 7.4 trillion USD by 2025.
According to statistics from Amazon Global Selling, the number of products sold by Vietnamese businesses on Amazon has increased by more than 300% in the past 5 years. Thousands of Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises are now exporting through Amazon, with the number of businesses achieving annual revenue of over 1 million USD skyrocketing nearly tenfold. Through Amazon's platform, Vietnamese goods have the opportunity to reach more than 2 billion people online each year in markets in North America, Europe and many other countries such as Australia, Japan, Singapore, India...
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Uyen, Marketing Director of Alibaba.com Vietnam Co., Ltd., the advantage is that Vietnamese goods are increasingly competitive and highly appreciated by the international market not only because of price but also design, model and quality. This is a very important factor for Vietnamese goods to take advantage of the opportunity to reach out to the world.
"Vietnamese goods are also enjoying the benefits of free trade agreements that we signed with countries such as the UK, Europe, the US or Southeast Asia. Thanks to that, goods have the advantage of low import and export taxes or reaching zero for countries such as the UK and EU. This is a superior competitive advantage compared to suppliers and businesses in other countries such as China, Thailand, Singapore. These are advantages that Vietnamese businesses should hold and develop. development", Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Uyen said.
Untie the knot
Although there have been certain successes, cross-border export still faces many difficulties. Accordingly, Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh Tam shared, first is trust with customers. Because in cross-border transactions and through e-commerce, customers do not directly meet the business, so being able to build trust with customers is especially important. The second difficulty is about payment and information security. The third difficulty is about logistics and supply chain.
According to experts, the difficulty also lies in the limited level of participation in exporting via e-commerce by Vietnamese enterprises. Most businesses are small-scale and do not have enough capacity to build brands; Poor resistance to sudden and continuous fluctuations from the market.
Not to mention, human resources for cross-border e-commerce have not yet met the requirements; lack of information about trends in relevant regulations of foreign markets; Skills and knowledge on building business strategies, building brands and protecting brands in cross-border e-commerce are still limited...
Therefore, to sell successfully on international e-commerce platforms, businesses need to understand the consumer behavior of shoppers through the brand of choice, level of reliability, convenience and appropriate service, as well as build a prominent brand in the online environment. Accordingly, products posted for sale on the market need to be beautifully packaged, improve product quality, and use environmentally friendly and sustainable materials. In particular, the product must not violate the trademark.
To support businesses, currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is making efforts to develop and perfect the digital trade promotion ecosystem, perfecting the corresponding digital platforms for direct trade promotion activities to be able to promptly support businesses, cooperatives and business households to support effective business in the digital environment.
In addition, diversify coordination with domestic and foreign e-commerce platforms to provide timely support to businesses intending to do business on e-commerce platforms. In addition, gradually build common booths and Vietnamese national booths at major e-commerce platforms in the world to support Vietnamese businesses in promoting the image of their products to international customers.
Ha Diem HSV