Ben Tre gardeners do livestream to sell their own products, not depending on traders

Mr. Le Hoang Tan (19 years old, living in Cho Lach district, Ben Tre province) is livestreaming to sell bonsai to gardeners to earn commission - Photo: MAU TRUONG

Especially during the recent Tet holiday, about 50% of flower and ornamental plant products were sold online.

Year round sales

On a sunny afternoon in late August 2024, along Highway 57, passing through Cho Lach District (Ben Tre Province), a series of flower and ornamental plant shops were still bustling with employees packing goods to send to customers. Occasionally, the sound of greeting the audience and the sound of streamers closing orders rang out.

"A few years ago, I would close my shop around noon to rest. Now, this is the time when many viewers watch live, so I have to take advantage of selling," said Mr. Nguyen Van Tu, 65 years old, a gardener in Cho Lach district.

Mr. Tu has been growing yellow apricot flowers for more than 10 years, but he mainly sells through traders and only sells around Tet, so he spends most of his time taking care of the plants. However, about a year ago, after being guided by a gardener, he and his wife started selling through TikTok and Facebook.

Every day, Mr. Tu and his wife use two phones to live stream at noon to sell products. The rest of the time, he goes to the garden to water the plants and trim the branches of the bonsai. There are live sessions where he doesn't sell any plants, but there are also times when he sells 5-10 products.

Mr. Bui Hoang Trong (Vinh Thanh commune, Cho Lach district, Ben Tre province) has a different direction from Mr. Tu and his wife. "I have never known what online sales are. Luckily, Phat is knowledgeable so everything is smooth," said Mr. Trong.

Mr. Trong is a large gardener producing yellow apricot and bonsai in Ben Tre province with tens of thousands of products each year. However, with the previous traditional way of selling, each year he only sold about 2,000 products, so the number of yellow apricot and bonsai was quite large.

Around mid-2020, Mr. Trong's son, Bui Huu Phat (24 years old), posted pictures of yellow apricot and bonsai on Facebook and someone asked to buy them. The opportunity to sell online also came to Mr. Trong's family from then on.

Mr. Bui Huu Phat said he approached online sales four years ago, but it was only in the past year that online sales have developed strongly. Currently, Phat sells an average of 20-40 online orders per day, bringing the total number of orders to 6,000-7,000 per year.

"The beauty of selling through social networking platforms is that you can sell products all year round, providing year-round income to create stability for your family's life," said Mr. Phat.

Always keep your word

The trend of selling online not only brings stable income to gardeners but also creates more jobs for young people who quickly grasp social trends.

Mr. Le Hoang Tan (19 years old, Hoa Nghia commune, Cho Lach district) is one of the pioneers in the trend of selling goods online in rural areas and brings in a good income.

Mr. Tan said that he does not directly produce ornamental flowers, but through online sales, he earns an income of about 10 million VND per month. Every day, Tan goes to ornamental gardens and broadcasts live to sell products through his TikTok account.

Mr. Tan added that there are orders he sells for only a few tens of thousands of dong, but there are also orders worth hundreds of millions of dong, so even though he only receives a 10% commission, it still brings him a fairly high income.

Mr. Tran Huu Nghi, Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Cho Lach district, said that there are currently no exact statistics on the number of farmers applying online sales, but he affirmed that the number is very large and constantly increasing.

Mr. Nghi said that in response to that trend, the district's agricultural sector has coordinated with the cultural sector to organize training sessions for people to sell online to constantly innovate in sales methods.

"In addition to guiding people on how to sell online, we also recommend that people focus on improving quality to maintain the brand of local products. Only then can we do business sustainably and long-term," said Mr. Nghi.

Mr. Huynh Quang Duc, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ben Tre province, said that the trend of selling agricultural products online in Ben Tre province is growing strongly and this is also a common trend in the world.

Mr. Duc added that even large corporations in some countries focus on online sales and are even very professional in this.

"Especially for those who are still weak in terms of human resources for marketing, sales, finance, distribution channels... selling through online channels will help them create a difference and help them integrate into the market and introduce products better," said Mr. Duc.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nha-vuon-ben-tre-lam-livestream-tu-ban-hang-khong-le-thuoc-vao-thuong-lai-20240823230220836.htm