HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Shipping services have been developing in recent years, however, the service still has not caught up with the development of Viet Nam's e-commerce sector, said Nguyen Thanh Hung, general secretary of the Viet Nam E-Commerce Association (Vecom).

The association co-operated with the Viet Nam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency (Vecita) organising a conference titled "From shipping service to order fulfillment" in Ha Noi on Tuesday with the participation of relevant agencies, e-commerce enterprises and post and fulfillment service companies.

The number of post enterprises in Viet Nam increased about three times from 40 in 2010 to 110 in 2013 but the total turnover of shipping companies just increased 1.5 times in the period, according to statistics from the Department of Posts under the Ministry of Information and Communications.

So we can see that the average scale of post enterprises is going down, said Hung.

According to a survey of Vecita under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, low quality of shipping service is the second-biggest obstacle to the country's e-commerce sector last year.

A report from the management board of Online Friday event last year also showed that up to 50 per cent of enterprises participating in the event evaluated the shipping service as "not good" while nine per cent said the service was "weak".

Shipping is an important service in e-commerce, which helps sellers deliver their products to buyers, said Hung.

The trend of online retail is moving towards high specialisation.

Salespeople will focus their resources in activities which lead buyers to online contract signing.

Related services such as warehousing, picking, shipping and payment can be outsourced.

These services basically are associated with the completion of online contracts and are called fulfillment service.

The relationship between online retailers with fulfillment service providers will have great significance to the development of e-commerce in the world as well as in Viet Nam in the coming years, according to Vecom.

It is necessary for shipping companies, e-commerce enterprises and relevant agencies to associate with each other to better the cooperation between shipping service and e-commerce enterprises in the time to come, Hung said.

Le Duc Anh, a representative from Vecita emphasised that e-commerce is not only a requirement but also tools facilitating the delivery of goods and parcels in particular and logistics in general.

Shipping services have flourished recently and have coverage at the community level across the country.

With 35-40 per cent of the population using the Internet every day, online shopping is gradually becoming an inevitable trend, which creates opportunities for e-commerce businesses and delivery companies to further develop. — VNS