A Vietnamese rice product displayed on Amazon. VNS Photo Đoàn Tùng

HCM CITY — Vietnamese exporters should boost exports to the US through the Amazon e-commerce platform during the COVID-19 pandemic, speakers told a seminar in HCM City yesterday. 

Trần Phú Lữ, deputy director the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of HCM City (ITPC), said 25 years after normalisation of relations, the US is Việt Nam’s third largest trading partner while Việt Nam is that country’s 16th largest trading partner and seventh largest supplier of goods. 

Last year bilateral trade was worth US$75.7 billion, almost 170 times up from 1995 ($451 million).

Việt Nam’s exports were worth more than $61.3 billion last year, up 29 per cent from 2018. Its imports were up 13.2 per cent. 

Despite the pandemic, their trade grew by 17.7 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months of this year to more than $65.1 billion, with Việt Nam’s exports jumping 22.7 per cent to nearly $54.7 billion.

The US is the largest market in the world with more than 328 million people with a per capita income of $65,760. 

According to Statista, e-commerce retail sales in the US are expected to increase from $343 billion last year to more than $476 billion by 2024.

More than 98 per cent of businesses in HCM City are super small, small or medium-sized with limited capital and technology and need assistance and consulting to export, according to Lữ.

Through Amazon, his centre would help them export to the global market and build and develop brands on a global scale, he said.

Amazon e-commerce 

Amazon is a huge online retailer, the largest in the US, with 18 websites in 27 different languages.

Nguyễn Phương Trinh, senior account manager of Amazon Global Selling Việt Nam, said by putting their products on the platform, businesses would have the chance to access over 300 million customers in 185 countries and territories and develop their brands at little cost.

“Global e-commerce has grown strongly in recent years, rapidly transforming consumer behaviours as an increasing number of people opt to shop online.”

Vietnamese items that are very competitive on Amazon include cosmetics, family healthcare, accessories, footwear, natural products, children’s toys and educational equipment, and groceries, she said.

“When choosing a product to sell online, sellers need to consider factors such as growth, seasonality, brand, characteristics, quality requirements, and consumer segments.” 

According to analysis by Statista, as of February this year Amazon accounted for 38.7 per cent of total retail e-commerce sales in the US. 

A study it published in August said nearly 9 out of 10 respondents in the US had bought something on Amazon in the past 12 months. — VNS