A screenshot of the website onlinefriday.vn several hours before the event kicks off. —  VNS Photo

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The E-commerce and Information Technology Agency expected sales of the national online shopping day tomorrow to triple and touch US$25 million with around 1 million orders.

Sales of the country's second online Black Friday will kick off at midnight and last for 24 hours only via website www.onlinefriday.vn, offering various promotions on purchases as well as the e-commerce development.

More than 2,000 firms would be participating in the event offering more than 60,000 products on special discounts, including fashion products, books, digital equipment, and tours, in addition to airline tickets and home appliances. Promotions would be disclosed right after the kick-off.

Online Black Friday, an annual event falling on the first Friday of December, was initiated last year by the E-commerce and Information Technology Agency, aiming to help local e-commerce businesses to tap the huge market potential in a country of more than 90 million people.

Around 30 per cent of the population is expected to conduct online shopping transactions by 2020 with an average shopper spending US$350. The total revenue of e-commerce was expected to hit US$10 billion by 2020, or 5 per cent of the economy's total retail sales, according to the E-commerce and Information Technology Agency.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade's statistics showed that total revenue from business-to-consumer e-commerce reached $2.97 billion last year, or 2.12 per cent of the total retail sales of goods and services.

Preparations for a busy day

Anticipating page views on www.onlinefriday.vn double to around 20 million on online Black Friday, the server received the necessary upgrades to ensure accessibility,

In addition, the online Black Friday mobile application was developed on all of three mobile platforms, such as iOS, Android and Windows Phone, to meet the demand of shoppers.

The new feature of consumer feedback was added to the website to eliminate swindling through promotions.

The first online Black Friday on December 5 last year attracted more than 10.68 million page views with more than 160,000 orders, worth totally VND154 billion or $6.86 million at the current exchange rate. — VNS