HCM City's industry and trade department will launch its first online shopping day on August 29. — VNS Photo Quynh Hoa

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade will launch its first online shopping day on August 29 on the website khuyenmaitructuyenhcm.gov.vn in an aim to enhance trust among consumers.

Tran Vinh Nhung, the department's deputy director, said today that "Vui la mua, tin la sam" (Happy to buy, trust shopping) will last only 24 hours.

Promotions in 31 product categories with 10,000 kinds of products will be offered in hopes of attracting consumers who still mistrust online shopping.

The online shopping day is an extension of the Autumn Online Shopping Day held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on August 28.

The local business community asked city authorities to extend the event.

The city's online shopping day is expected to help local businesses and e-commerce websites tap the potentially huge market of HCM City.

The country has 7,500 e-commerce websites, and HCM City accounts for half of them (3,600).

Viet Nam has 40 million internet users, 30 million of whom use social media and e-commerce.

Jose Finch, country managing director for online shopping site Zalora Viet Nam, said business-to-customer (B2C) e-commerce turnover in Viet Nam had hit US$2.97 billion in 2014, accounting for 2.12 per cent of the country's retail sales.

Citing figures from the Viet Nam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency, Finch said in comparision to China's B2C e-commerce turnover accounted for 10 per cent of that country's total retail sales.

So, there are still rooms for e-commerce market development.

Many shoppers, however, still mistrust online shopping, fearing low-quality products, lack of payment security and poor refund policies.

Participating businesses in the online shopping day agreed to guarantee quality and source of origin information.

The DoIT said "it would supervise all transactions during the shopping day and solve any dispute to ensure the legal rights of both businesses and consumers."

For the online shopping day in HCM City, popular shopping portal Zalora is offering 300 deals on cosmetics and fashion products.

Another 20 shopping websites are participating in the event, including The Gioi Di Dong, Tiki, Thien Hoa, Hotdeal, Nhommua and Lazada.

The DoIt plans to make the national online shopping day an annual event. It has scheduled the event for the Lunar New Year period and National Reunification Day (April 30) holidays.

The department will organise the next event from January 18-24 next year. — VNS