Regional connectivity to power e-commerce development

Regional connectivity continues to be a key task in 2025 to aim at narrowing the regional gap in e-commerce development.

Narrowing regional gaps

In 2024, the e-commerce market size will exceed 25 billion USD, an increase of 20% compared to 2023, accounting for about 9% of the total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue nationwide. With a growth rate of 18-25% per year, Vietnam's e-commerce is developing very rapidly but also revealing limitations, such as: The development gap between localities is uneven; many e-commerce products of localities overlap and compete with each other...

This places a priority on promoting regional linkages in e-commerce development, in order to promote the advantages of this modern distribution method; at the same time, it helps to remove geographical and time barriers and create a larger e-commerce market. On the digital platform, businesses in the region can reach a diverse customer base, with different interests, behaviors and habits. This form will create conditions for small and medium enterprises to develop, increase revenue, expand production and business scale, contributing to promoting economic growth.

In 2024, the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy organized many regional linkage workshops in e-commerce. Illustrative photo

In fact, in recent years, e-commerce activities in many regions have improved. Typically in the North Central and Central Coast regions in general, and Binh Dinh province in particular. By 2024, Binh Dinh's e-commerce index ranked 26th out of 63 provinces and cities, up 2 places compared to the same period in 2023.

People here are also gradually changing their habits from traditional shopping methods to online shopping. Businesses are more interested in e-commerce, proactively participating in applications, e-commerce platforms, building their own websites to serve exchanges and sales; at the same time, implementing digital transformation, increasing productivity, management efficiency, competitiveness in the market...

Or in Dien Bien and some provinces in the Northwest, the number of products put on e-commerce platforms is increasing day by day. Dien Bien province currently has about 500 products put on e-commerce platforms; the rate of population participating in online shopping is over 30%; the rate of small and medium enterprises with e-commerce accounts is 20%, the rate of agricultural production households with accounts on e-commerce platforms is 50%.

Leaders of Dien Bien province have shared that e-commerce helps businesses and consumers in the province more easily access market information, significantly reduce transaction time and costs, marketing, market development, finding partners, reduce production costs, and help make payments quickly and conveniently.

Records in many localities and regions also show that e-commerce is developing positively, the development process of e-commerce has changed positively from the stage of formation and infrastructure creation to widespread dissemination, gradually entering life, improving the competitiveness of enterprises and the competitiveness of the province.

Through regional linkages, members save investment resources as well as develop quickly and sustainably without causing too much disparity between localities. This helps limit migration, improve competitiveness, and access opportunities to participate in the global production network.

Find a connectivity solution

Although there are many advantages for developing brands and doing business effectively, the number of businesses in the North Central and Central Coast regions participating in e-commerce platforms is still modest, especially cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba, Amazon... Besides, the number of sellers is still low, not commensurate with the product potential of the localities...

Dien Bien province is similar, besides the positive aspects, this activity also faces many difficulties and challenges such as: The team of specialized staff in e-commerce is lacking, the quality of human resources is low; information technology infrastructure has not met the development requirements; most of the province's websites only stop at the form of product promotion and introduction, lacking services to support marketing, payment, and order completion; the number of products that fully meet the standards and requirements to participate in e-commerce platforms is still modest...

Therefore, the current problem is how can localities in the region take advantage of e-commerce to bring their strong products to widespread consumption in the region as well as expand the consumption market nationwide and internationally without competing with each other, still linking and supporting each other according to the competitive advantages of each locality...

According to the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade), based on the summary of the National E-commerce Development Master Plan for the period 2021 - 2025, along with implementing the policies and guidelines of the Party and State, the Department has developed a National E-commerce Development Master Plan for the period 2026 - 2030, focusing on solutions for green and sustainable e-commerce development and strengthening regional connectivity.

Sharing with reporters of the Industry and Trade Newspaper, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Huyen - Deputy Director of the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy - said that organizing conferences to promote regional linkages in e-commerce development has solved the reality that is also within the goals of the national e-commerce development program and plan, which is to aim for sustainable e-commerce development, narrowing regional gaps and promoting consumption of key products in the regions.

“ In 2025, we continue to consider this a key task to aim at narrowing the regional gap in e-commerce development, as well as promoting the consumption of key products in localities and promoting intra-regional and inter-regional e-commerce connections through connecting state management agencies to improve the capacity to enforce legal policies in e-commerce, such as monitoring e-commerce activities, tax management, coordinating with e-commerce service companies to solve the problem of reducing transportation costs as well as cashless payments in e-commerce, especially promoting the consumption of Vietnamese products through e-commerce …”, said Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Huyen.

E-commerce is considered an effective tool to promote regional linkages, helping businesses in the region access diverse markets, thereby improving competitiveness and promoting sustainable economic development. Last year, the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy promoted the development of regional linkages in e-commerce through conferences in key economic regions, such as the Northwest, the Central region, the Mekong Delta and several other regions.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/lien-ket-vung-de-tao-suc-manh-cho-phat-trien-thuong-mai-dien-tu-368198.html