HCM City (VNA) – E-commerce is a market withnumerous opportunities for businesses in Vietnam, recording an annual growthrate of 35 percent – one of the fastest rates in the world.

The country’s e-commerce revenues reached 4billion USD in 2016. At the current growth rate, it is set to hit 10 billionUSD in 2020, accounting for 5 percent of total retail sales in Vietnam,according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Experts said multichannel retail will continueto increase as domestic and foreign retail companies planning to invest big in thisfield.

A study conducted Nielsen, a market research andglobal information company, shows that Vietnam is one of the world’s most dynamiccountries in hi-tech application and use, including online shopping.

Differences between traditional and multichannelshoppers will create opportunities for both producers and retailers. 

Up to 82 percent of traditional shoppers buygoods according to their plans, making it hard for companies to attract newconsumers. Meanwhile, 52 percent of multichannel shoppers compare differentbrands before buying an item.

As Vietnamese often travel by motorbikes, only19 percent of consumers purchase goods in large volume. The figure is 44percent among multichannel shoppers, according to Nielsen.

The vigorous growth of online retail has broughtsuccess to domestic enterprises such as the Mobile World Investment Corporation(MWG) and the Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk).

MWG has invested strongly in online retail eventhough it has more than 1,390 stores in the chains of Thegioididong.com, Dienmay xanh and Bach hoa xanh.

It earned more than 3.37 trillion VND (148million USD) in revenues through online retail in 2016, a year-on-year surge of104 percent. Earlier this year, the firm also opened vuivui.com, an e-commercewebsite with 80 percent of goods provided by itself.

Despite being successful offline, Vinamilk alsoopened Vinamilk eShop, an online retail channel, in late 2016 to sell dairyproducts.

Apart from domestic businesses, foreign firmslike Aeon and Lotte, who have gained successes in the traditional retail model,recently also stepped up online retail.

Chairman of the Vietnam Internet Association VuHoang Lien said in spite of challenges caused by globalisation andtechnological development which facilitate cross-border online shopping,e-commerce in Vietnam is still a promising market for domestic enterprises.

They should make use of cloud computing to runprofitable business on the internet. They also need to build websites suitablefor their business, he said.

It is of utmost importance to ensure consistencein online and offline information to gain consumers’ trust, Vice Chairman ofthe Vietnam E-Commerce Association Nguyen Ngoc Dung said, adding that opaquebusiness activities on the internet will hamper brand development.

He noted that businesses, both domestic andforeign, enjoy equal chances when doing online business. He suggested domesticretailers capitalise on their advantages and explore niche markets to expandactivities.-VNA