Mê Trang Coffee Joint Stock Company has had access to the international market through e-commerce platforms for years. Photo courtesy of the firm

HÀ NỘI - Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have many digital export opportunities when Việt Nam becomes a new global production area.

Alibaba.com – one of the leading B2B E-commerce platforms, has announced the 2023 Annual Digital B2B Outlook Ebook for the Việt Nam market. The exclusive ebook by AliResearch gathers contributions and efforts from businesses, academics and research institutions, to help businesses accelerate digital transformation. The ebook highlights current global market trends, and explains how Alibaba.com in Việt Nam can help SMEs overcome a string of difficulties and uncertainties in 2022, towards a successful future.

According to ebook, with the lingering shocks of the pandemic, more and more businesses will move to digital. The relative stability of digital sales will be what many companies need to maintain their operation in the coming year. This trend also implies that B2B online sellers are likely to see greater competition.

Andrew Zheng, Vice President of Alibaba.com, said: “We discovered some lessons that B2B businesses can learn to apply in the new year. The first lesson is that a stable B2B e-commerce platform is crucial. As e-commerce flourishes, finding a destination to sell as well as sourcing is very important. The second lesson is the value of strengthening partnerships with trusted suppliers. As a business owner or chief operating officer, you know there will be fluctuations, so you need partners who can together face the movement with you.”

When moving to digital, digital marketing has always been a great attraction to enterprises, especially since there is 93 per cent interaction through search engines. With digital marketing, new entrants can take action immediately to get a piece of those interactions. The possibility that the number of companies using digital tools for administrative purposes will also increase.

Some long-term trends take place constantly, such as the rise of personalised experiences and video marketing in B2B e-commerce. But some new trends will take centre stage, such as the reduced time consumers spend online.

Việt Nam export volume has increased rapidly over the past year, contributing to successful growth over the past decade, and emphasising Việt Nam manufacturing to the global market. There are many reasons for this growth, from political events and a shift in the structure of foreign investment to the pandemic and global supply chain problems. Each piece has come together, making Việt Nam an important player in the global economy. Việt Nam is also a member of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and a member of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This creates even more opportunities for SMEs in new foreign markets.

Roger Lou, Country Manager of Alibaba Vietnam, said: “Việt Nam has always been one of Alibaba’s most strategic markets. Currently, Việt Nam supplies mainly to the US, Europe, Japan, Korea and Asia Pacific countries. We continue to expand investment in Việt Nam and establish a local ecosystem, including domestic partners, local customer service and development teams and market operations teams to continuously improve the organisational capacity of local teams.”

According to Alibaba.com, to be successful on the platform, sellers need to have good negotiation skills, a strong country origin and a low minimum order quantity. Investing in platform operations is essential to help sellers reach more customers. Efficient day-to-day operations allow sellers to secure more orders. More than 30 per cent of sellers have dedicated staff to operate online stores that can secure more than six important orders on the platform each year. For sellers operating through a third-party reseller, about 1 to 10 orders are viable in the first year. VNS