10:23:28 AM | 5/4/2020
As requested by the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT ) launched an action program which includes the introduction of e-commerce management and development in Vietnam and directed e-commerce platforms to review products, fight against fake goods, and prioritize the display of anti-epidemic products and essential supplies provided in the time of the Covid-19 epidemic.
The world is entering an unprecedented time as the Covid-19 outbreak is causing intensive impacts on every aspect of economic and social life across the globe.
In Vietnam, the government and all social strata have successfully controlled the Covid-19 epidemic. Vietnam has also succeeded in ensuring and stabilizing socio and economic activity.
Stabilizing the commodity market is one of the successes. There is no scarcity of goods, no supply-demand instability, no price hikes and no supply of substandard products to the market. E-commerce development in Vietnam has proven the effort of the business community in general and Vietnamese e-commerce firms in particular, together with authorities, in a quick response to the epidemic.
At the online conference themed “Businesses and consumers join hands in the Covid-19 pandemic” held recently by the Business Forum Magazine in Hanoi, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Huyen, Deputy Director of the Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said, given the complicated evolution of the Covid-19 epidemic, avoiding face-to-face contact, consumers tend to shop online. This is also a future development trend.
She said, in response to the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Industry and Trade launched an action program which includes the early introduction of e-commerce management and development in Vietnam and directed e-commerce platforms to review products, fight against fake goods, prioritize the display of anti-epidemic products and essential supplies provided in the time of Covid-19 epidemic. Shops were strictly punished for increasing prices of epidemic prevention equipment. By April 24, about 17,000 shops and about 38,400 products were found in violation. The ministry also cooperated with businesses to bring Vietnamese goods to major exchanges. It also promoted the launch of a complaint settlement and consumer protection system.
“A quick survey with four major trading floors showed that transactions of medical equipment increased by 80-100%. However, as many economic sectors were affected by the epidemic, cancelled orders of e-commerce firms jumped 140%,” she said.
This reality occurred because online business was still based on physical supply, Ms. Huyen explained. This also resulted from import restriction because Vietnamese trade depended on big import markets, especially China. In addition, it came from the capacity of enterprises to respond to the epidemic. More or less, giant corporations were active, able to adapt to new developments, but many smaller ones were passive in responding to the epidemic, especially in digital transformation to apply e-commerce and adapt to new business methods.
From that practice, the Ministry of Industry and Trade launched a group of solutions to support the business community in the short term and the long term: launching the program that encourages consumers to use Vietnamese agricultural products on Vietnamese stalls; building an e-commerce application platform to respond to emergency cases; and engaging delivery companies and intermediary payment systems to provide services for businesses joining full-package e-commerce process that can respond to emergency cases, not only the Covid-19 epidemic as now but in other situations that may occur in the future. At the same time, the ministry also stepped up the launch of a consumer complaint management, monitoring and settlement system in the e-commerce environment through the e-commerce management portal in Vietnam (online.gov.vn).
Mr. Ho Tung Bach, Deputy Director of Consumer Protection Department under the Vietnam Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (VCCA), said, to protect consumer rights, the authority required enterprises to ensure quality, information and price to keep the market stable. VCCA also established a call center to receive consumers' information, and received many complaints regarding purchases, especially wrong online products.
Authorities already aggressively dealt with this situation. Both market watchdogs and economic police seriously dealt with price increase and violators faced both economic and criminal penalties. As a result, profiteering and violations significantly dropped.
“E-commerce is a two-sided trend. Consumers and businesses must be alert. Consumers should scroll down to the bottom of an e-commerce website to know whether it is registered or not. In my opinion, a reputable store will have a link redirected to the information page with the name, address and tax code of the seller when they click on. That is an accurate website,” he said.
Huyen noted that e-commerce businesses must register with the Ministry of Industry and Trade as per Decree 52/ND-CP. They will be against the law if they do not do this. The registration with the Ministry of Industry and Trade will help them gain credibility with the community and avoid post-audit. This also helps consumers confirm information before making a purchase.
“I want our customers to be smart and well-informed when they buy on e-commerce platforms registered with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The need to look up information before buying and study regulations of the site to record trade logs to seek timely assistance from competent agencies if there is a dispute,” she said.
|
Mr. Bui Huy Hoang, Deputy Director of the Informatics and Digital Center, the Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency, MOIT Basically, on an e-commerce site, there are two groups: Sellers of imported products and sellers of Vietnamese products. However, sellers of Vietnamese products are not the majority. Many businesses believe that this is not an effective business channel and their employees have not met e-commerce requirements. However, the Covid-19 epidemic showed a dramatic change in the way they sell Vietnamese products. Currently, many are interested in e-commerce on belief that this is a new direction that helps them do business more effectively. In order to support sellers of Vietnamese goods, we have focused on two main channels: Physical markets/supermarkets and e-commerce websites. With the supermarket channel, we help them distribute goods in traditional supermarkets. This activity is overseen by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. With the e-commerce site, we help them distribute goods, which will also be supervised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Through communication channels, consumers will gradually find that this is an effective channel to buy quality products online. In addition, we help them distribute goods directly to consumers instead of going through distribution intermediaries. Mr. Hoang Chuong, Northern Managing Director of Masan Meatlife JSC Right before the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, when the African swine fever spread, our company applied three disease prevention layers to ensure product quality. Since the Covid-19 epidemic broke out, we have intensified preventive measures. Our company has applied safe distancing, body temperature checks and disinfection measures to ensure the delivery of safe products. Despite high costs for doing this, we still do it every day to ensure product quality supplied to the market. Our company has also applied European packaging technology to ensure the safety of meat and deli products. Besides, the company has offered the highest-ever price subsidy for three products to help consumers with nutritious meals. We always define online sales as an inevitable trend in the future and Covid-19 is another reason for us to further accelerate the trend to bring our products to Vietnamese consumers quickly. To catch up with this trend, we supported customers to buy our products via many other channels such as Web and Fage. Mr. Phan Van Dung, Deputy General Director of VISSAN JSC For VISSAN, in 2020, we will build an e-commerce website. Since February 2020, we have increased our sales through the company's hotline. After the Government's Directive 16 on social distancing and social quarantine, consumers reduced their shopping at supermarkets. We had to adapt to this new marketing method to serve consumers. We have formed 55 warehouses from 55 stores in downtown and in the suburbs. Consumers just need to make a call to the telephone hotline to buy our products. Besides, we have accelerated the company's website development and brought our products onto e-commerce platforms such as Lazada and Tiki in the time of social distancing. |
By Quynh Chi, Vietnam Business Forum
Vietnamese
