Booming e-commerce sales provides opportunity for cooperatives

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, made-in-Việt Nam goods accounted for more than 90 per cent of products on shelves of domestic distribution companies and 60-95 per cent of foreign supermarket chains.

Booming e-commerce in Việt Nam is providing significant opportunities to promote sales while cooperatives are trying to improve the quality of their products to meet consumers' demands better.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, made-in-Việt Nam goods accounted for more than 90 per cent of products on shelves of domestic distribution companies and 60-95 per cent of foreign supermarket chains.

According to a survey by e-commerce aggregator platform iPrice Group, the percentage of shopping through online channels more than doubled over the same period last year.

Seeing the trend of booming e-commerce, highlighted after the COVID-19 pandemic, cooperatives were making moves to promote sales via this channel.

Many cooperatives improve their products in terms of quality, packaging, and origin to better meet the demand of consumers, which would help improve consumers' trust in shopping online.

Quyết Thanh Agriculture Cooperative had arranged their dried mango pieces into a brilliant yellow rose and packed it in a round plastic box instead of a zip bag. According to the cooperative, this helped attract the attention of many consumers in both online and offline channels.

Cooperatives also cooperated with e-commerce platforms to improve the production and distribution process.

Nguyễn Thị Hoan, director of Tài Hoan Vermicelli Cooperative in Bắc Kạn Province, said that in the past, customers were concerned about the quality and origin of products which were sold online. Still, many cooperatives opened official kiosks on e-commerce platforms where customers could be assured of the product quality and a clear origin.

Lưu Thị Hoà, director of Po Mỷ Cooperative in Hà Giang Province, said that e-commerce platforms helped cooperatives to reach more customers. Moreover, the consumer information file of e-commerce platforms was diverse, which would help cooperatives to improve their adaptation to the market demand and increase revenue.

According to Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Hạnh, deputy director of Grab Việt Nam, if the cooperatives across the country knew how to take advantage of support tools and features on e-commerce platforms and online sites to reach target customers, cooperatives could grow strongly in revenue and reap many sweet fruits in the year-end shopping season.

The application of digital technology was considered an important factor in creating breakthroughs in developing cooperatives.

Director of Tam Đảo Mushroom Cooperative Nguyễn Quốc Huy said that the cooperative installed an automatic irrigation system, net house, greenhouses, a semi-automatic control system, accounting software, online tax declaration, email, data storage, digital signature and camera system to ensure the quality of products for exports. The cooperative’s products were also sold on e-commerce platforms such as Postmart.vn and Voso.vn.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, there are more than 17,770 agricultural cooperatives in Việt Nam; 1,718 of these have applied high technology in farming and preservation, automation technology and biotechnology.

Of them, 21 per cent have plans for e-commerce sales, 23 per cent sell their products on e-commerce platforms, 21 per cent have created simple websites, 7 per cent have websites that appear on Google and 7 per cent advertise on Facebook.