E-commerce helps SMEs boost exports

After a month of exchanging information via Alibaba, Vegetexco 1 has exported a consignment of cucumbers to a client in Estonia. Since becoming a Gold Supplier member on Alibaba, the enterprise has received daily letters from potential clients asking about products.

Le Van Anh, Vegetexco 1’s director, said he was satisfied about the result, though he has to pay a fee to maintain high ranking in search results on the world’s leading e-commerce website.

In the past, enterprises had to take 19 steps which cost time and money to export products. Therefore, only large enterprises could export, but things are different now thanks to e-commerce.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), about 200 Vietnamese enterprises had products on Amazon by the end of 2017. 

On Alibaba.com, about 1,000 Vietnamese enterprises pay fees of between VND30 million and VND135 million a year to obtain Gold Supplier membership.

Pham Nang Duy, director of Onbrand, partner of Amazon in Vietnam, said Onbrand is ready to help clients create accounts, post images of products, send goods via Amazon store and ensure safe payment for enterprises.

EDX Group, the import representative of Alibaba in Vietnam, said the company is cooperating with the Vietnam Craft Villages Association to run a program that supports craft households make products for export to China and other markets.

Pham Phuong Lan from Dam San JSC said after nearly one year of joining Alibaba, the company now has many more clients from Germany, the US and France, and receives around 80 letters asking about products each month. 

Five traders on Alibaba have been chosen by the company as strategic partners, and they bring 65 percent of the company’s revenue.

Hien Duong from Asia Crafts said the paint manufacturer has a big client thanks to Alibaba and 50 percent of its total revenue is from the partners it found via Alibaba.

However, analysts commented that many Vietnamese enterprises still cannot take full advantage of all the features offered on Alibaba.com or Amazon.com.

The lack of understanding about the operation of these websites makes it impossible for enterprises to exploit all the benefits the website can bring.

The weak point of most Vietnamese enterprises is that the information shown on websites is not attractive enough and cannot be updated regularly. 

In general, the enterprises don’t have staff in charge of managing and controlling data on Alibaba or Amazon.

Prestigious e-commerce websites all have a market data analyzing system. However, most Vietnamese companies do not know how to make use of this to plan their sales effectively.

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Nam Lich