Despite having operated for less than two years, Chautfifth has already positioned itself among the fastest-growing start-ups in Việt Nam's fashion industry. To date, the brand has sold over 130,000 self-designed products and established a strong presence nationwide. Building on this foundation, Chautfifth confidently aims to achieve 100 per cent sales growth this year compared to 2023.

These impressive figures underscore the feasibility of founder Tran Hoang Chau's ambition to expand the brand into the regional market, with the potential to reach this goal even earlier than expected. In addition to strengthening its domestic marketing and sales channels, the brand began venturing into online exports with the 'Shopee International Platform' (SIP) programme in May this year, enabling international customers to shop for Chautfifth products more easily and conveniently.

SIP: a promising model for globalising Vietnamese products

Participating in the SIP program, Chautfifth has set its sights on key Southeast Asian markets, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The results have exceeded expectations, with Chautfifth's international sales in August this year increasing by nearly 300 per cent compared to the previous month—a remarkable leap after just four months of testing. This online export segment has also contributed to Chautfifth's overall 30 per cent monthly growth on Shopee, both domestically and internationally.

SIP has helped Chautfifth shorten the time it takes to reach customers in international markets.

“Shopee has successfully addressed the issue of reducing shipping costs, one of the main factors influencing customers' shopping behavior abroad,” a brand representative said. Previously, Chautfifth handled its own product deliveries to customers, but due to its small scale, it couldn’t optimise costs. Shopee has resolved this drawback by arranging to ship a large volume of orders simultaneously to overseas warehouses, resulting in better shipping rates, and customers are also pleased to receive free shipping vouchers from the platform.

Within the SIP program, Chautfifth also receives Shopee's support in synchronising storefronts automatically across multiple countries, running marketing campaigns, and handling all legal documentation related to import-export, warehousing and logistics. This allows Chautfifth to focus entirely on developing new products, identifying key products for each market and catering more specifically to its core consumer base—Millennials and Gen Z.

During the year-end peak season, the brand aims for a positive growth rate exceeding 30 per cent and believes this figure will continue to rise as Shopee helps foster easy shopping habits in any country.

E-commerce - an 'extended arm' for many businesses

In reality, not only large enterprises but also small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly expanding their operations regionally and globally, thanks to significant support from e-commerce.

Dinh Huu Lam, owner of the Big Size Boutique fashion brand on Shopee, noted that with the emergence of global selling programs like SIP on Shopee, businesses can now reach foreign customers quickly and conveniently, with the e-commerce platform providing support for all legal and operational procedures in cross-border e-commerce. In Thailand alone, Big Size Boutique achieved 167 per cent growth, with order volumes hitting 220 per cent just 30 days after joining SIP.

Another case is SK Food, which specialises in Vietnamese cashew nuts and dried fruit products. During the recent 9.9 Double Digit Sale, across all the markets where SK Food is currently present, including Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia, sales on the 9.9 day saw a 270 per cent increase compared to regular days, with the number of orders rising by 200 per cent. Dried fruit was the best-selling product, with a 64 per cent increase over regular days, largely thanks to Shopee's support policies, which included advertising campaigns combined with discounts and free shipping.

On September 15, SK Food joined the livestream series 'Tinh Hoa Việt Du Ký' on expanding into global markets with Shopee, exemplifying effective use of the platform's support resources for growth both domestically and internationally.

Evaluating the effectiveness of online exports through e-commerce for Vietnamese businesses, a representative from Shopee Việt Nam noted that there are currently over 350,000 Vietnamese sellers participating in SIP, with thousands more joining each month, promoting more than 15 million products in the Southeast Asian market. On average, the monthly sales of Vietnamese sellers in the programme have also steadily increased by 20 to 30 per cent.

As Việt Nam increasingly integrates into the global economy, along with opportunities arising from new-generation free trade agreements, the trend of shifting from traditional business practices to digital platforms is seen as an effective solution for companies to penetrate and expand their export markets.