More than 200 business owners were trained on how to develop their e-commerce strategy for sustainable development in Viet Nam at a seminar on Wednesday in HCM City.

The seminar, entitled “E-Commerce Trends and Legal Issues”, was jointly organised by the Vietnam Internet Association (VIA) and Adpex JSC with support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Ministry of Information and communications.

“Viet Nam e-commerce has grown rapidly in the last 10 years but the market size is not large and the transaction scale is rather small,” Vu Hoang Lien, President of Viet Nam Internet Association said.

Lien said that retailers needed to invest in marketing and online sales, improve delivery services, and integrate online payment on their website. Businesses also needed to keep up with the latest e-commerce trends to stay competitive.

“Particularly, building brand reputation and credibility is the pre-requisite to enhance business competitiveness. For e-commerce businesses, choosing the right domain name is the first step to build a trustworthy online presence, thereby, ensures business success,” said Lien.

Experts said that there were still obstacles that prevent the sustainable development of e-commerce which were trusted by consumers in terms of the quality of goods, services they bought online, and the security for online payment.

“A strong online presence requires a successful website with the right domain name. Especially for businesses with global vision, .com has always been trusted thanks to its availability, credibility and high stability for more than 18 years,” Hoc Nguyen from P.A Vietnam said.

At the event, experts from various IT related fields such as Microsoft, IM Group, VNG, P.A Vietnam, Verisign brought business opportunities to understand the situations to adjust business strategies in a timely fashion in line with technological and digital changes, legal issues in e-commerce and updates on new payment methods.

According to Nielsen, Viet Nam is leading the world in terms of the number of people who love technological products. A survey result in 2016 showed that 90 per cent of urban residents use smartphones and their average Internet access time per week was 24.7 hours, which was only lower than that of Singapore.

The growth rate of e-commerce in the retail sector will reach about 20 per cent per year and by 2020 will be about $10 billion. However, e-commerce in the retail sector is rising faster and is expected to grow at 25 per cent in 2017, according to the Government’s e-commerce developing plan from 2016 to 2020. — VNS