Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - E-commerce is developing rapidly in Vietnam but itneeds a new push to reach rural areas and help small- and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs) reach customers, experts have said.

Vietnamhas a lot of agricultural products and local specialities in high demand butmost of them are still distributed through intermediary sellers andtraditional markets.

Everyyear in Vietnam, farmers struggle to sell their products and in some provinces,they suffer losses when the prices of their agricultural products fall due toexcessive supply. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is seen as a new avenue forthem to seek new customers and even expand globally.

Lastmonth, nearly 50 businesses that make coconut products in Ben Tre participatedin a workshop on e-commerce organised by the Vietnam E-Commerce Association(VECOM), Lazada Vietnam and Ben Tre Department of Industry and Trade.

Many farmersand young businesses in Ben Tre now sell coconut products online throughe-commerce platform Lazada.

“E-commerceis an effective tool for SMEs in rural areas because they don’t need to investin brick and mortar stores, distribution systems, etc,” Vu Quoc Tuan, head ofGovernment Relations, Lazada Vietnam, told Vietnam News.

However,Tuan said e-commerce in Vietnam was still in its early stages, therefore thelogistics system and infrastructure were not capable of handling freshagricultural products for farmers. For this reason, Lazada was still focusing onprocessed products and items with long expiration dates.

Vietnam’se-commerce grew more than 30 percent in 2018 with market value reaching 7.8billion USD, according to VECOM’s statistics. However, about 70 percent ofonline transactions were performed in Hanoi and HCM City while 20 percentwere executed in Hai Phong, Da Nang and Can Tho cities.

E-commercehas a lot of potential to develop in rural areas, with 70 percent of Vietnam’spopulation living in these places, but it also needs to tackle many challenges.

“With thebooming of e-commerce, people can easily start their own business online, evenwith a smartphone, but to sell their products effectively, they need lots ofskills, not only e-commerce skills, but other skills in marketing and communicationand enhancing customer experience,” Tuan said.

Tran VanTrong, chief of VECOM’s Office, said provincial authorities should promotecommunications on e-commerce outside these five big citiesto narrow the gap of e-commerce development between the cities andother localities and between urban and rural areas.

Inaddition, e-commerce firms should boost online business in rural and remoteareas.

In China,e-commerce companies have also begun to recognise the rural sector ashaving potential for prosperity.

Lastyear, in its latest push to access the country’s vast rural market, China'slargest e-commerce company Alibaba decided to invest 4.5 billion yuan (716million USD) in an e-commerce firm that focuses on rural areas.

Tofacilitate online purchases for people living in villages, DJ.Com receivedapproval from China’s Civil Aviation Administration to test a drone deliverynetwork in the northwest province of Shaanxi. It aims to build more than 10,000drone ports in the future.

In Vietnam,after the first Ben Tre Online Coconut Village campaign, Lazada plans to runanother Day of Village Campaign in August.

“Wereceived the request to carry out similar campaigns from industry and trade departmentsof other provinces of Dong Thap, An Giang and Long An.  However, we willcarry out this project step by step, taking into account the conditions andspecialities of each province,” Tuan said, adding that the company is workingwith provinces to train SMEs/farmers on e-commerce skills.

Arepresentative of e-commerce platform Shopee said it also often organisedprogrammes to train and support sellers from countryside areas. In May, ittrained e-commerce skills for almost 300 sellers in cities and provinces suchas Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh.

“Theprogramme aims to build capacity for SMEs to integrate e-commerce into theirbusiness,” he said.

However,e-commerce companies also hope to receive support from provincial authoritiesto be able to approach farmers and SMEs in the provinces and introducee-commerce to them.-VNS/VNA