The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the growth of e-commerce in many countries, including Viet Nam, said Chairman of Viet Nam E-Commerce Association (VECOM) Nguyen Ngoc Dung.

The Viet Nam Online Business Forum (VOBF) 2022 was held by VECOM in HCM City on Tuesday, focusing on e-commerce’s role in promoting post-pandemic economic development.

Dung said that along with looking into signs of global recovery, the resumption of global connections, motivation and future of e-commerce, participants provided information on new and outstanding technological solutions and trends, market potential, and new populations and regulations.

He added that in the first quarter of 2022, Viet Nam saw good signs of GDP growth, which are expected to continue.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Tan Vuong, Director of Retail Measurement Services at Nielsen Viet Nam, said that decisive factors promoting online shopping are good price, promotions and delivery time. Comments from users and the prestige of the trademark are also among the factors affecting consumers’ shopping decisions, he added.

He advised e-commerce platforms to thoroughly understand customers’ demands and trends and held that omni-channel shopping will still dominate the retail market and businesses need to continue to improve their competitiveness to optimise the customer's shopping journey to ensure convenience, selectivity and interaction.

Pham Thi Quynh Trang, trade director of Lazada Vietnam, said that e-commerce is one of the channels that help businesses speed up digital transformation and develop operations in the current situation.

Some experts held that high market potential will help e-commerce continue to expand and contribute to post-pandemic economic recovery. Meanwhile, the number of enterprises investing in digital transformation, e-commerce and online business is rising, they noted.

According to a global e-commerce report in the first half of 2022 by Metric.vn, Viet Nam has become the second largest e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, only after Indonesia.

It pointed out that products with a price of VND200,000 (US$8.71) to VND5 million ($217.83) are the easiest to be sold on e-commerce platforms, while consumers tend to buy products with higher values and long-term warranties directly at shops and showrooms. — VNS