CHAPTER 2: SITUATION OF CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE
2.1 CURRENT SITUATION OF CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE
2.1.5 The results of cross-border e-commerce promotion in Vietnam
Vietnam is one of the countries considered to have great potential for developing e-commerce. Cross-border e-commerce promotion helps to improve the scale of Vietnam's economy. Vietnam is located in the Asia Pacific region and is the country with the fas test growth rate of cross-border e-commerce. The average proportion of the region to the world has increased continuously over the years, reaching the average value of 41.3% per year and the average growth rate of 37.7% per year, higher than the demand of 27.4% per year for the period 2014-2020. According to the statistics of the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM, 2019), the market size value reached 7.8 billion USD (2018). The average growth rate is over 30% per year, the market size is expected
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to reach 33 billion USD (2025) and ranked third in Southeast Asia after Indonesia (100 billion USD) and Thailand (43 billion USD) (VECOM, 2019). In 2020, despite many difficulties and effects from the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam's e-commerce still achieved a revenue of 11.8 billion USD, growing 18% compared to 2018. Vietnam is the only country in Southeast Asia with such a high growth rate.
b. Vietnamese consumers for cross-border e-commerce
Cross-border e-commerce supports consumers to access products in many international markets. The more developed the economy is, the higher demand for quality products and services customers need. Therefore, consumers gradually tend to search and purchase in international markets. Google and Temasek said that Vietnam's e-commerce revenue ranked third in the region and is forecast to reach $15 billion by 2025. According to the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy, Vietnamese consumers spend more money when shopping online, an estimated 1.5 million orders are processed every day. "Vietnam e-commerce White paper 2020" also pointed out that Vietnamese people spend an average of 225 USD (equivalent to 5.2 million VND) for online purchases in 2019.
c. Vietnamese import-export enterprises in cross-border e-commerce
Vietnamese import-export enterprises have advancements in cross-border e- commerce promotion. The report of VECOM (2018) shows that export turnover increased four times compared to 2008, reaching more than 244 billion USD while imports increased about three times. The reason is online export has become an effective tool, even the main export channel of many exporters. According to the Vietnam E- commerce Index Report (2019), cross-border e-commerce has become a critical channel for export activities. Currently, 32% of Vietnamese SMEs have established business relationships with foreign partners through online channels. Besides, joining the B2B e- commerce platform helps exporters directly approach customers globally, reducing costs associated with trade promotion such as participating in fairs and exhibitions. In recent years, ceramics is an export item with a strong growth rate. The reason is businesses
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focus on online exports. Traditional villages expeditiously catch up with trends, seize opportunities, take advantage of e-commerce to promote export to international markets.
Consequently, ceramic products are actively exported to major countries in the world such as Japan, the USA, EU. In November 2020, the export turnover of ceramic products reached US$193 million, up 10.1% over the previous year. In addition, Vietnam's import-export enterprises also thrived in other fields such as electronic components (increase 36.3%), footwear (increase 21.7%), wooden furniture (17.7%).
d. Organizing seminars, forums to discuss cross-border e-commerce
With the policy of building and developing cross-border e-commerce, the government agencies regularly organize meetings, seminars, and forums to report the current situation, outline achievements and difficulties encountered, sharing experiences and knowledge, proposing strategies and plans to promote future development.
Department of Industry and Trade cooperated with VESA to organize the seminar
"Solution of online export promotion linkage for Binh Duong enterprises via Alibaba.com"; The Department of Trade Promotion, Ministry of Industry and Trade organized "Exporting through e-commerce platforms: Opportunities with Amazon"
(2019); ITPC cooperated with OSB company to organize a seminar "Promoting export through e-commerce" to businesses in Ho Chi Minh City; "Online import and export 2017" (2017) organized by VECOM in collaboration with VESA; Recently, the seminar
"Exporting Vietnamese goods to the world with Amazon" (2021) was organized by the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade) and Amazon Global Selling Vietnam.
Organize the contest "Vietnamese cross-border e-commerce talent" (2019) to encourage the spirit of learning and passion for e-commerce, and find young talents to develop this field in the future.
In addition, to share knowledge, organizations, associations and specialized agencies also organize the publication of reports related to e-commerce and cross-border
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e-commerce, such as "E-commerce White Paper" (annually published by VECOM),
"Vietnam E-Commerce Index Report".