Hanoi boosts e-commerce for craft products

Hanoi and Vietnam's e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) have supported artisans to access domestic and international e-commerce platforms to improve product consumption in the future.

Hanoi's Bat Trang pottery village products are favored among local and foreign visitors. Photo: Hoai Nam/ The Hanoi Times

This was reported at the seminar "Enhancing e-commerce skills development for craft enterprises in the digital economy," held to meet the aspirations of the capital's craft villages in the context of changing consumer trends and global integration.

This event was organized by the Hanoi Center for Investment, Trade, and Tourism Promotion and the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s iDEA last week.

As Hanoi currently has 1,350 craft villages, e-commerce platforms are considered a solution to create a new and modern distribution channel to support local producers. However, many production facilities have not paid attention to developing e-commerce.

In addition, payment and transportation infrastructure and services are cumbersome, making consumers reluctant to buy products through e-commerce platforms.

At the seminar, experts from the iDEA and Lazada e-commerce platforms shared with villagers how to connect with partners, manufacturers, and consumers via e-commerce, product promotion and sales on digital platforms, and the application of technology to improve production and business efficiency.

At the same time, the handicraft villages got advice on designing and developing quality and unique handicraft products to meet market needs. They can also create strategic solutions for handicraft products in e-commerce, capture market information, and build a new sales strategy.

Deputy director of the Hanoi Promotion Agency (HPA) Nguyen Thi Mai Anh said the city's craft villages could apply different types of e-commerce, such as setting up websites, intranets, automating transactions and extranets, links between villagers and external entities.

For further effectiveness, in the coming time, regulatory bodies and associations need to boost approaches in e-commerce among businesses and people at the craft villages while working with universities for short-term training, retraining, or recruiting workers in this field.

Improving e-commerce skills for businesses

Hanoi targets to train 2,000 businesses, household business owners, public servants, and students in e-commerce this year. Photo: Vietnam Post

To achieve goals set for its e-commerce development in 2022, Hanoi targets to train 2,000 enterprises and household business owners, public servants, and students on e-commerce this year.

The plan aims to encourage local businesses and people to use e-commerce and support manufacturers in expanding consumption markets for agricultural and consumer goods, handicrafts, and products certified as meeting the One Commune One Product (OCOP) program’s standards through cross-border e-commerce channels.

Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chu Phu My, said they continue to coordinate with relevant authorities and localities to organize training programs on digital trading for farmers and help them create accounts and posts on e-commerce sites. 

My said the department also supports testing and issuing certificates of qualified agricultural products for sale on the e-commerce platform and carries out food safety inspection and supervision. They will soon create parameters for the planting area and production process.

"Putting agricultural products on e-commerce platforms and promoting the development of the digital economy in agriculture is of particular importance in improving production and business efficiency and ensuring the supply of essential goods for Hanoi," My said.