Vietnamese goods conquer Vietnamese people: The key to competing with imported goods

It is normal for foreign goods to flood into Vietnam at competitive prices, requiring Vietnamese goods to improve their quality to win over consumers.

Chinese goods flood into Vietnam at cheap prices

As a housewife, Ms. Hoang Thi Mai (Cau Giay) has a huge monthly shopping need. In the past, she often went to the supermarket to buy goods, but now, she prefers to buy goods through e-commerce platforms. e-commerce

“Current e-commerce platforms are very modern, customers can watch live videos or send product images for buyers to choose. In addition, many e-commerce platforms support shipping costs, so the products have very good prices. In particular, many Chinese products ordered on Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Taobao are shipped to Vietnam very quickly, ” Ms. Mai shared.

Ms. Mai's consumption trend is similar to many Vietnamese consumers today. In particular, consumers choose to buy a lot of goods on Chinese e-commerce platforms with the advantages of low prices, diverse goods, low shipping costs and especially very fast shipping.

OCOP products are unique and highly competitive. (Photo: Moit)

According to the report of the Lao Cai Department of Industry and Trade at the 10th Conference of Industry and Trade of 28 Northern Provinces, this agency assessed that the logistics system and cross-border e-commerce activities on the Chinese side are very developed. Through surveys and information from the Chinese side, the Department said that Yunnan province has formed a China - ASEAN e-commerce pilot zone (Hekou) and at a number of other border gates along the Vietnam - China border. Warehouses and e-commerce centers in this border area have the function of domestic collection and overseas distribution. Providing online delivery functions, retail livestreams... providing declaration, inspection, and order declaration services. This is the reason why Chinese goods sold in Vietnam always have very competitive prices, especially goods sold on e-commerce platforms.

In fact, competitive prices, diverse designs, and simple ordering procedures... are the visible benefits that the Chinese market brings to consumer Vietnamese. This is the reason why Chinese e-commerce platforms are popular with consumers.

Figures from Metric - a unit specializing in providing e-commerce data - show that the sales scale of the five e-commerce platforms mentioned above in the first 6 months of 2024 reached 143,900 billion VND, an increase of 54.91% over the same period last year. Shopee platform continues to lead with revenue of 53,740 billion VND, reaching 67.9% market share. Having a very quick breakthrough despite having just appeared in Vietnam, TikTok Shop - a Chinese e-commerce application ranked second with 18,360 billion VND, accounting for 23.2% market share.

According to the Vietnam E-commerce Association, 1688.com is the largest wholesale e-commerce website in China, and has recently officially allowed Vietnamese merchants to register to purchase and pay, and has Vietnamese language. This shows that Vietnam is the target of expanding the platform's territory. Also since the beginning of October, Temu, a Chinese cross-border low-cost sales platform, is said to have quietly entered Vietnam. Although the current website version of Temu Vietnam is still quite rudimentary, it commits to a delivery time of only 4-7 days.

Nowadays, competition in the market is very normal. Therefore, opening the market for products of the two countries is also normal. Mr. Nguyen Binh Minh, member of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), assessed that when Chinese e-commerce sites make moves to target the Vietnamese market, the main beneficiaries are consumers. Consumers will have more opportunities to choose goods at cheaper prices. However, this is creating great pressure on domestic businesses and small businesses.

In particular, typical Vietnamese products (coffee, OCOP products, etc.) can take advantage of this distribution channel and the Chinese logistics system to bring goods to Chinese consumers.

What is the solution for Vietnamese businesses?

Consumers benefit, but from the perspective of manufacturing enterprises, Chinese goods or Chinese e-commerce platforms also compete strongly with Vietnamese enterprises. Because price competition will become increasingly fierce, the advantage of goods on Chinese e-commerce sites such as Taobao, 1688 is very cheap, competing directly with Vietnamese goods.

Talking to reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper, economic expert Vu Vinh Phu said that, to be fair, Vietnamese enterprises also have certain advantages at home to compete with Chinese goods such as understanding the market and tastes of domestic consumers. Besides, Vietnamese enterprises have advantages in local products such as agricultural products, or specialty products, OCOP products, etc.

In that context, Mr. Vu Vinh Phu said that Vietnamese enterprises need to focus on building brands, promoting the strategy of Vietnamese people using Vietnamese products, focusing on product quality, focusing on new technology, upgrading services to serve customers faster and more effectively. In addition, optimizing production to reduce costs.

Mr. Vu Vinh Phu also said that the campaign “Vietnamese people prioritize using Vietnamese goods” which has been implemented for the past 15 years has helped Vietnamese goods become popular with consumers. This is also an opportunity for businesses to improve the competitiveness of their products. Therefore, if they continue to improve their competitiveness, looking optimistically, Vietnamese businesses can take advantage of Chinese e-commerce platforms to reach Chinese consumers.

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