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Online shopping trend swells
More and more “online supermarkets” have emerged, allowing consumers to purchase goods online to save time and money. Shoppers find the items they need, locate product information and place an order with just a click of their mouse in the comfort of their homes.
Web addresses like 1001shoppings.com, 25h.vn or giaremoingay.com have become familiar to many Internet shoppers.
Online supermarkets nowadays are not simply websites displaying limited numbers of items for sale, as seen in the first stages of e-commerce development in Vietnam. These sites now offer a wide range of goods and services.
Home shopping
Web surfers can find anything online, from consumer goods to mobile devices, from office equipment and decorative furniture to electronics. Giaremoingay.com, a recently launched enterprise, even has a bookstore and fresh floral stalls on its site.
Online supermarkets have a lot of advantages over regular supermarkets. They can carry goods in large quantities because they are not concerned with space and displays. Website owners have no rent or salespersons to pay, so they can offer lower prices. Thus, products available online are often cheaper than those sold at the market.
Regular online shoppers even have opportunities to purchase goods at surprisingly “soft” prices. Giaremoingay.com, for example, selects one item daily for a 30 percent discount.
Giaremoingay.com also offers refunds to buyers if their products do not meet quality standards. Other online supermarkets, however, do not make any such commitments. Those who are reluctant to shop online say they want to touch the products and see them firsthand before deciding to make a purchase. This consumer habit is the biggest obstacle for online supermarket retailers.
Opportunity knocks
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the first seven months of 2009, the total retail sales of goods and services had reached 643.6 trillion dong, an increase of 18.3 percent over the same period of 2008. Thus, the increase in consumption allows for many opportunities for online supermarkets.
E-commerce has also been encouraged in Vietnam. Several months ago, the E-commerce Development Center (launched by the E-commerce and Information Technology Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade) introduced www.nhanhtay.vn. The website serves the demand for online shopping.
Meanwhile, Internet World Stats reports that Vietnam now ranks sixth in Asia and second in Southeast Asia in terms of the number of Internet users. The British Business Monitor International has predicted that Vietnam will have 31.5 million people with Internet access by 2011.
The growing number of consumers, Internet users and attractive policies of online supermarkets indicates that e-commerce in Vietnam will expand rapidly in the near future.
VietNamNet, NLD, HNM
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