Việt Nam online marketing forum 2019 was held in Hà Nội on Wednesday. — Photo https://dangcongsan.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam could have Southeast Asian's third-largest e-commerce market by 2025.

The information was released during the Việt Nam online marketing forum in Hà Nội yesterday.

The country could sit behind only Indonesia at US$100 billion and Thailand at $43 billion.

According to the E-Business Index 2019 report drafted by the Việt Nam E-Commerce Association, the scale of Việt Nam's e-commerce market in 2018 was $9 billion. The report also forecast the compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 2015-2018 period was 25 per cent and the market would reach $33 billion in 2025.

The report, developed since 2012, shows most e- commerce activities take place in the two largest cities of the country, Hà Nội and HCM City and nearby provinces such as Bắc Ninh, Vĩnh Phúc, Đồng Nai and Bình Dương, as well as municipalities like Hải Phòng, Đà Nẵng and Cần Thơ.

According to Nguyễn Thanh Hưng, chairman of the Việt Nam e-Commerce Association, online business activities in most other provinces are weak and there is a risk of falling behind compared to the two leading cities.

Hà Nội and HCM City accounted for 70 per cent of e-commerce transactions. E-commerce scale in other localities, especially in rural and remote areas, is very small, the report said.

Meanwhile, about 70 per cent of the population live in rural areas. The countryside has great potential for consumption and also supplies various products suitable for online sales.

Hưng said it is necessary to narrow the digital divide between localities, especially to help rural areas sell online in order for e-commerce to develop via synchronous policies and solutions to turn e-commerce opportunities into reality.

In addition to helping local consumers benefit from online shopping, the key factor is to support small and medium enterprises and households in rural areas to sell goods and provide services online, he said.

According to a report by Nielsen and Demand Institute, in the current digital economy, the income level of the middle class is not enough to identify potential consumers able to influence the global economy.

According to Trần Trọng Tuyến, CEO of Sapo Technology JSC, social networks have a prominent role in connecting consumers with each other and with sellers and greatly influence marketing, customer relations, human resources and research and development (R&D).

In Việt Nam, social networks support activities that provide information about sellers, products and services, advertising, product marketing and customer care. Many individuals and households have started selling goods and services through social networks, he said.

A survey of Sapo in 2017 for 1,000 retail stores that had used Sapo sales management application showed Facebook was the second-most effective sales channel after the direct sales channel at the store. — VNS