Some top experts in payments, e-commerce and retail gave their insights into the future of online trading in Viet Nam at a two-day seminar in HCM City this week.
The content and structure of Seamless Viet Nam were designed to cover the entire omni-channel journey.
Participants heard some experts speak about digital marketing, merchandising, pricing, and in-store technologies.
Others spoke about payments, staff training, multi-channel, call centres, home delivery, click & collect, supply chains, packaging, customer service, loyalty and retention, and product returns.
Attendees were from major Vietnamese banks and leading e-commerce and retail giants.
With a population of 95 million, the highest retail sales growth in Asia of 10.4 per cent, an e-commerce market predicted to be worth US$10 billion by 2020, and a regulatory environment increasingly opening up to foreign investment, there has never been a better time in Viet Nam for senior executives from across the e-commerce eco-system to come together and discuss future strategies, partnerships and solutions.
The State Bank of Viet Nam had kicked off the conference with a keynote address on “Moving towards a cashless society in Viet Nam by 2020.”
“Cashless payments have strongly increased in Viet Nam recently with 65 banks providing internet banking, 35 others providing mobile banking and many other credit organisations launching electronic payments,” Tran Dinh Cuong, deputy director of the central bank’s HCM City office, said.
“The cash payment ratio has reduced to 12 per cent in comparison with 14 per cent in 2010 and the figure will be less than 10 per cent by 2020.”
Le Anh Tuan, head of VietinBank’s electronic banking division, said: “Low fees and safe, secure, fast technologies are the two most important things to attract customers to electronic payments.”
Nguyen Huu Phuc, director of Sacombank’s credit card centre said: “Adopting the most modern banking technologies is also a way to satisfy customers.”
Dong A Bank has persuaded 40,000 seniors to receive their pensions through bank accounts and hopes to increase the number in future.
Nguyen Phu Vinh, head of the HCM City Electricity Corporation’s business department, said his company has already tied up with 22 banks and eight fintech companies to collect electricity tariffs online.
“As of the end of July there were 1.7 million customers paying through banks and other credit organisations, accounting for 60 per cent of our revenues.
“We plan to reach 100 per cent by 2020.”
A leading player in payment technologies, Switzerland-based BPC Banking Technologies, led the discussion on “How to forge partnerships and move towards cashless payments and digital banking?”
“BPC Banking Technologies is happy to partner with Seamless Viet Nam to share its payments technology expertise with the local financial industry,” its senior vice president and managing director for Asia Pacific, Rajan S. Narayan, said.
“With our global practice and strong presence in Viet Nam we continue to provide thought leadership on digital payments transformation to our valued customers and industry partners.”
Another session was delivered by local e-commerce superstar Tiki, whose COO Huan Nguyen presented a keynote address on how Vietnamese online retail is reaching an inflection point and how both disruptive and established businesses can benefit from the ever-growing market.
On the sidelines of the conference was held an exhibition of the products and services offered by major players from across the payments, retail and e-commerce vendor communities.
Seamless is Asia’s largest and longest running conference focused on cards and payments.
It was the first time it was organised in Viet Nam, a country with a young, mobile and internet-savvy population where e-commerce is taking off, a growing middle class with disposable income, rapid growth in payments infrastructure and uptake, and an educated population with an increasingly international outlook.
Over 400 senior executives and experts attended the event. – VNS