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COVER STORY

New setting

for sales

Vietnam’s e-commerce scene has been changing
since the pandemic broke out as most retailers have
had to switch business models to adapt.

KHANH CHI Reports

clear majority of consumers across Vietnam’s total revenue. “We have seen a nationwide, health and beauty retail chain
Asia-Pacific now find online shop- slight increase in sales to small traditional Guardian Vietnam serves millions of cus-
A ping more convenient and safer traders and grocery stores, who are his- tomers and has online sales channels such
than shopping at physical stores and almost torical customers, and more remarkably as a website and an e-commerce channel,
80 per cent prefer to use digital payments have seen sharp growth in the B2C segment, and also uses GrabMart. Online channels
over cash, according to Kantar’s Covid-19 when all traditional and wholesale wet have contributed positively to sales, espe-
Barometer report. During the four Covid- markets have been closed due to Covid- cially as the pandemic has grown more
19 outbreaks in Vietnam, businesses and 19,” said Mr. Bruno Jousselin, Managing complex and people have been limited in
merchants have had to deal with social Director of MM Vietnam. going out and have increased their spending
distancing, bans on the sale of non-essential MM is committed to offering stable on shopping with home delivery.
goods, and temporary business closures, prices for customers despite disruptions Similarly, leading local jewelry brand
which makes it evident that they cannot to supply chains and rising transportation PNJ has introduced plans to maximize
rely on the bricks-and-mortar model alone. cost and other expenses. “These have partly and optimize its business operations, such
What this means for businesses is that affected our business results,” he said. “The as a nationwide “4-hour delivery service”
consumers are now online, and retailers online sales channel via B2C has been on that is free and quick. Its retail sales in the
must move with them to create loyalty the up by month, which enables our overall first half of 2021 rose 46.8 per cent and
through consistent end-to-end excellence business performance to more or less online sales were up 317 per cent year-on-
in their offerings, according to Ms. Dang achieve an acceptable growth rate.” year. “Customers have had to change their
Tuyet Dung, Visa Country Manager for In this situation, e-commerce channels shopping habits because of the pandemic,
Vietnam and Laos. “To the credit of retailers benefit a great deal from increasing online so businesses without thorough preparation
in Vietnam, they have been astoundingly shopping demand. “Since the fourth out- will not be able to keep pace,” said Mr. Le
quick in rewiring their operations and adopt- break of Covid-19 in Vietnam, the number Tri Thong, CEO of PNJ.
ing e-commerce and social commerce capa- of orders coming from online shopping
bilities,” she said. “Last year, almost one- channels has increased significantly, at more ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES
fifth of them were doing business on e- than ten-fold higher than in previous waves,” Covid-19 has brought sweeping changes
commerce platforms, which is a solid start, Mr. Jousselin told VET. “Since we launched to the retail landscape, with businesses in
but 85 per cent of consumers are already our website, we have seen regular growth Vietnam looking at immense digital oppor-
shopping on these platforms - and that’s month-on-month, at higher than the indus- tunities. Ms. Dung from Visa observed
how big the first-mover advantage is.” try average, and have experienced a drastic that consumers are embracing new habits
increase since the lockdown in Ho Chi and forming new expectations of what the
RAPID MOVES Minh City in July. This is why we will put retail experience should look like. It is
Covid-19 has hit retail quite hard, espe- e-commerce at the heart of our critical increasingly important to adopt omni-
cially B2B business, which accounts for business strategies in the years to come.” channel operations by not only opening
60-70 per cent of MM Mega Market (MM) With more than 95 physical stores online stores but by integrating digital

14 | VIETNAM ECONOMIC TIMES | SEPTEMBER 2021