Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’s potentialfor e-commerce development in the retail sector could achieve a 10-billion USD revenueby 2020, accounting for half the country’s total retail sales. 

Data from the Association of Vietnam Retailers(AVR) indicates that in 2015, retail e-commerce surpassed 4.07 billion USD,with a growth rate of 20 percent.

Ho Thi Kim Thoa, Deputy Minister of Industry andTrade, told a forum on e-commerce and mobile phone technologies in Hanoi onDecember 8 that e-commerce was a vital development trend in the retail sector.

Thoa said last year, the growth rate of theretail sector was 9.5 percent. Traditional retail made up 80 percent, whilemodern retail including supermarkets, convenience stores and e-commerceaccounted for only 20 percent. “Notably, in the modern retail channels, theportion of e-commerce was at a low level of around 2.8 percent,” she added.

The country had 217 e-commerce trading floorswith total revenues of 1.66 trillion VND in 2014, double the 2013 figure.

“Vietnamese businesses have seen positivechanges in e-commerce by big firms. The number of small- and medium-sizeenterprises (SMEs) participating in e-commerce was modest even though 97 percentof the country’s 600,000 firms are SMEs,” she said.

The deputy minister noted that the PrimeMinister had promulgated a decision on master planning of e-commerce in2016-20.

She gave the recent Online Friday on December 2as an optimistic example of e-commerce development. The number of enterprisesjoining in the event this year was 3,000, higher than last year.

She urged businesses to catch up with e-commercetrends and have plans to enhance e-commerce development. 

Dinh Thi My Loan, AVR’s chairwoman, said therewere many factors promoting e-commerce development, including the popularity ofmobile devices.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, chairman of the Vietnam E-commerceAssociation (VECOM), agreed that the development of mobile phones andapplications had contributed to promoting purchasing activities. 

Hung said the country’s e-commerce had beendeveloping at a growth rate of 30 percent a year. “Businesses have quicklyshifted from offline to online retail. Several are even totally doing businessonline,” he said.

However, Pham Thanh Cong  from Nielsen saidthe sector should have solutions to meet demand in rural areas as there are 1.3million traditional shops, accounting for 85 percent of the retail sector’srevenue.-VNA