A new report published by consulting firm Access Partnership (UK) said that retail export turnover from business to consumer (B2C) via e-commerce in Vietnam reached 3.5 billion USD (about 80,700 billion VND) dong) last year. This figure accounts for about 1% of total exports in 2022. The Access Partnership said the data was calculated based on data from Vietnam's customs authorities, statistics and information from the Asian Development Bank. , Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Bank.

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Based on recent export trends and the current rate businesses adopt e-commerce, this unit forecasts that e-commerce export revenue in Vietnam could increase to 5.5 billion VND. USD (VND 124.2 trillion) in 2027, with an annual growth rate of 9%. This is called a "business as usual" (BAU-Business as Usual) scenario.

In a better scenario called "MSME in charge", Access Partnership forecasts the turnover could reach 13 billion USD (296.3 trillion VND) by 2027. To achieve this number, micro-enterprises and small and medium enterprises (MSME) must accelerate the rate of e-commerce adoption to export their products and services compared to the present.

"Vietnam is in an advantageous position to reap significant benefits from the rapid development of the e-commerce sector," the report commented. The advantages are mainly due to restrictions from the pandemic that help to change consumption habits and a favourable policy environment for exports through e-commerce.

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Access Partnership says 95% of MSME respondents expect B2C export growth via e-commerce of at least 10% annually over the next five years.

"Cross-border e-commerce is assessed to have great potential and is in line with the government's policy of developing the digital economy," said Ms Lai Viet Anh, Deputy Director of the Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) commented at the "Cross-Border E-Commerce Conference" held by the Department and Amazon Global Selling on June 9 in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Ms Viet Anh, many market research units expect Vietnam's turnover to exceed tens of billions of dollars in the next four years. However, for this number to become a reality, Vietnamese enterprises need to overcome four main barriers in terms of import market regulations, competitiveness, costs (marketing, logistics) and market information.

To help businesses overcome obstacles, the government now has several policies such as supporting 50% of the cost of opening and maintaining booths according to Decree 80, stimulating cross-border e-commerce demand under Decision 645 or a project to train 5,000 businesses with cross-border e-commerce knowledge and skills to participate in global distribution platforms.

However, as noted by the Access Partnership, businesses still want to receive more support. This unit recommends that Vietnam consult many government support schemes for sellers from other countries. For example, China's "Comprehensive Pilot" (CPZ) for cross-border e-commerce.

Among them, Hangzhou CPZs have developed two platforms, an online integrated service platform and an offline industrial park platform, allowing information exchange between government agencies along the chain value, including customs, financing and taxes. These platforms have reduced the time required for customs clearance and simplified the export declaration process for MSMEs.

Assessing the situation of B2C exports across borders in the first 5 months of the year, Gijae Seong, Managing Director of Amazon Global Selling Vietnam, did not share specific data but said that the revenue of Vietnamese sellers on Amazon is still positive growth.

"The growth rate of Vietnam's exports on Amazon is the highest in the world and is being noticed by the corporation. Not many countries have built a cross-border export model like here," he said. The reason is that the number of new sellers increased sharply and quickly. Vietnam has abundant strength and capacity.

In 2022, the number of Vietnamese sellers on Amazon will increase by 80% compared to 2021, to thousands of units. This helped export value increase by 45%, with more than 10 million "Made in Vietnam" products sold abroad.

"2023 still has global economic challenges, but cross-border e-commerce opportunities still await," added Mr Gijae Seong. To grasp, he recommends businesses pay attention to 3 aspects: reading customer tastes through digital tools, thereby innovating products to match needs, and building a brand to add value to the product.