Hanoi (VNA) - Lan Anh, an accountant living in District 3, HCMCity, is over-worked as the Lunar Year draws to a close.

She has plenty of reports to finish and very little time to spare for shopping,even for the most traditional, must-have food items for Tet (Lunar New Year), the mostimportant festival celebrated in the country.

For professionals like her, online shopping is a boon. Ordering and paying havebecome easy and convenient, although problems of quality and authenticity havealso surfaced.  

Many consumers have said that the hectic year-end schedule keeps them so busythat they can’t go shopping, but the development of e-commerce and e-payment ishelping them avoid going to stores or supermarkets by themselves. Now, withoutleaving their office or home, they can place orders online and wait for goodsto be delivered at home.

“To prepare for the New Year, I have ordered some traditional dishes from thecentral region, like pickled scallion, salted figs and papaya shrimp sauce,”Lan Anh said.

With Vietnam boasting a large Internet community and a young, digital-savvypopulation, the domestic e-commerce market is buzzing with activity ahead ofthe upcoming festival.

Xuan Hoa, a resident in HCM City’s Binh Thanh district, said he had purchasedsome products via Facebook after seeing many sellers advertise their goods onthe social network.

“I bought green grapefruit and banh chung cake forthe upcoming holiday. Thanks to Facebook, I can shop and complete my work atthe same time as all the transactions are conducted online. I just wait for thebills and goods brought to my house,” Hoa said.

As the nation pushes its way to modernisation and deeper internationalintegration, online shopping is set to become a habit for many. This isfacilitated by several factors including diversified services and products,fast transaction speeds, quick payment and attractive promotions.

Many large e-supermarkets and social networking sites have announced that theyhave carefully prepared to ship a large quantity of goods to serve a huge,growing demand, apart from launching various promotions to attract more buyers.

Hotdeal.vn, one of Vietnam’slargest e-commerce sites, has launched special shopping programmes for theholiday, providing customers with a wide range of selection of tasty anddelicious Tet dishes from common foods to specialities like natural drieddates, pasteurised pennywort powder and hand-made meat pies.

At e-commerce site adayroi.vn,customers can choose diverse food products, from confectionery, snacks, driedfood, beverage and soft drinks to vegetables, fruits as well as provisions likerice, sugar and groceries.

A representative of an e-commerce business said that with much lower overheadsthan traditional shopping channels, online shopping centres are able to offermultiple promotions and discounts.
Some popular sites like sendo.vn, lazada.vn, chodientu.vn, hotdeal.vn, tiki.vn and zalora.vn are offering discounts up to 50 percent on alltypes of products, especially those related to fashion and beauty, like shoes,handbags, watches and eyeglasses.

With foodstuff is most in demand for this holiday, these items are advertisedwidely on the Internet with many discount programmes. Although the percentagediscounts are not high compared to other consumer goods, people can still buysome items like confectionary, soft drinks and noodles for discounts of up to39 percent.

Meanwhile, big supermarket chains in the country, are only accepting deliveryorders by phone, while a prominent wholesaler allows only registered businessowners to make online purchases.

While online buying has grown significantly, consumers aren’t completelyconvinced of the benefits because the platform presents a number of risks andproblems for users. Many e-commerce businesses have exploited legal loopholesin e-commerce transactions to swindle customers.

Thanh Ha, a resident of HCM City’s Tan Phu district, said a very attractivespicy dried chicken has appeared on the e-market this year. After researchingsocial networks, she chose a seller who seemed trustworthy and ordered a smallamount to taste the product first.

After checking and liking the dish, she ordered a larger amount to present toher relatives as Tet gifts. However, the second order turned out to be of badquality. Ha still had to pay for the goods as it was the very last days of theyear and the return process required many complicated steps, she said.

Several websites are selling what they claim Nike and Adidas brand sports shoesfor around 350,000 VND, much lower than the official prices listed on thebrands’ original websites. A pair of Converse brand shoes is being advertisedonline for just 100,000- 200,000 VND, while the price of a pair on the officialwebsite is between 1 and 2 million VND.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Vien, Chairman of the IntellectualProperty Association of HCM City, said punishing violations relatingto counterfeit goods would be easier if the affected brand belongs toVietnamese firms as they can confirm whether the goods are authentic or not.

It is difficult to get confirmation of pirated products from overseas brandowners, Vien said, adding that the Government and relevant agencies have totighten management of online goods. The unprofessional and disreputablebehaviour of some e-commerce businesses have badly affected the reputation ofauthentic companies, he said.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam E-commerceAssociation (VECOM), also said that as the country’s e-commerce sectordeveloped rapidly, legal issues were posing a big challenge.

He said Vietnam still did not have specific guidelines on the operation of thee-commerce market, thus there is no basis to determine the operational modeland management direction for this potential growing market.-VNA