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Vietnam's E-commerce forecast to boom this year:insiders

Xinhua, March 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

With strong development of the Internet, 3G and smart device users, insiders forecast Vietnam's e-commerce would enter a booming period this year with an estimated turnover of 4 billion U.S. dollars, reported local VietNamNet Bridge News on Monday.

Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) revealed that one-third of Vietnamese population (92.5 million as of July 2014) access the internet regularly, 58 percent of websites allow orders online, and 15 percent of websites allow online payments.

According to the latest report of eMarketer, a U.S.-based market survey firm, the smartphone market is booming in Vietnam, with 30 percent of the population using smartphones. Vietnamese users spend one-third of their time online on mobile devices.

If the value of online goods transactions per head increases by 30 U.S. dollars in 2015 in comparison with 2013, the total online goods turnover would be roughly 4 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, said eMarketer.

Meanwhile, Google, which has become a member of the Vietnam E- commerce Association, said that it hopes to earn 30 million U.S. dollars a year from the Vietnamese market.

Alibaba and eBay, two giant online companies, have found official representatives in Vietnam, an important step to develop the market. Meanwhile, Amazon and Rakuten are also seeking suitable partners and looking to purchase shares of Vietnamese online trade firms.

According to analysts from MoIT, numerous Vietnamese e-commerce brands have increased in recent years. Vietnam still does not have "major players" like Alibaba and e-Bay, but Vietnamese brands like Vat Gia (Prices), VC Corp, Cho Dien Tu (Peacesoft) and Mekongcom have become very familiar to local consumers.

Insiders also said that although Vietnam has great potential to develop the e-commerce market, they are still cautious about the long-term development in this country.

Director of a Hanoi-based trade company said that Vietnamese consumers will not give up their habit of "cash and carry" overnight, and many do not want to make online payments for fear of unsafe payment. Endi