Vietnam trade ministry to open online shopping channel for local goods

The Vietnam eCommerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will cooperate with major e-commerce platforms in Vietnam to launch an online shopping channel for local goods with the name of “Vietnamese online booth”.

Customers can find goods and products of high quality and reasonable prices from famous local brands on the Vietnamese online booth. Photo: Le Nam.

iDEA’s Director Dang Hoang Hai revealed the news at a conference discussing the opportunities for Vietnamese manufacturers to distribute goods via e-commerce platforms on December 25.

“Customers can find goods and products of high quality and reasonable prices from famous local brands on the Vietnamese online booth,” he noted, adding this will build trust from customers in shopping online.

For local firms, this will be another modern distribution channel to help them expand their market access to different provinces/cities across the country, in turn aiding their recovery process in the post-Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Hai added.

Amid the Covid-19 crisis, online shopping has become more common and proved to be an inevitable trend for the future, he stated, so the Vietnamese online booth could be a viable option for enterprises to access the market via a modern distribution channel.

 As Vietnam continues to integrate into the global economy via new trade agreements, including the EVFTA or RCEP, this process has also posed challenges for local firms to fend off competition from their foreign peers.

“The more Vietnamese enterprises joining the digital transformation process, the lower their operation costs will be, which results in greater competitiveness,” stated Mr. Hai.

For the time being, the Vietnamese online booth is receiving support from Sendo and Tiki, two major online platforms, but others are set to join the scheme soon, he continued.

Vice Director of Hanoi Promotion Agency Nguyen Thi Mai Anh said Hanoi is working with Japan in safe and clean agricultural production, aiming to provide specialties from different provinces/cities to local customers in Hanoi through the participation of 200 suppliers.

Bui Huy Hoang, vice director of IT Center under the iDEA said the Vietnamese online booth could become a virtual super market for Vietnamese customers.

“A close linkage between suppliers and distributors on the Vietnamese online booth could address the issue of fake and low-quality products that have been a rampant in online shopping in Vietnam recently,” Mr. Hoang asserted.