E-commerce in Viet Nam is more developed than some Southeast Asian countries and is poised to expand in coming years, according to a market research company.
Ashish Kanchan, managing director of Kantar TNS Vietnam, said e-commerce is growing quite positively in Vietnam.
He classified e-commerce development into three groups — developing customer education for e-commerce, widely prevalent e-commerce, and e-commerce as default purchase channel.
Currently, Viet Nam is in the fledgling group together with Egypt, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines, Greece and others. Meanwhile, in some European countries such as the UK, Germany, Demark, Sweden and Norway, and also Singapore, going online and buying online have become a default option.
Viet Nam is already ahead of some of neighbouring countries like the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia and will likely join the next group within the next three years, he said.
The United States, China, Italy, Hong Kong and Malaysia are among countries in the second group.
Unlike countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and India, Viet Nam is not only a mobile phone market, but tablets and laptops are still very prevalent in Viet Nam, he said. Thus, e-commerce companies must develop e-commerce platforms for multiple devices in Viet Nam.
He urged companies to focus more on brand building as it is extremely important to gain more trust from shoppers.
Understanding the e-commerce shopper is also very important so that businesses can provide the convenient experience for shoppers.
Technology changes have ushered in a new era in commerce and digital branding as well as a new set of customer expectations, delegates at a recent Creative Commerce Workshop said.
Denise Thi, managing director of Isobar Vietnam, said the customer journey has changed a lot over time.
In the traditional marketing form, the consumer’s buying process was from attention to interest-desire to action. The process now goes from consideration to evaluate, buy, experience, advocate and bond.
Consumers expect a lot of things, especially memorable experiences.
To succeed in this new world, the first thing firms need to think of is to repurpose their marketing plan or sale plan to turn any point of contact into a shoppable experience, she said.
Next, “we need to redesign, not only our campaign engagement but also our brand offerings and points of intervene”.
The last thing is reposition. “We need to reposition what is the right thing to do first throughout the experience we want to deliver to our customers.”
Sandipan Roy, chief strategy officer at Isobar in Asia-Pacific region, said: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Every shopping moment is an opportunity to tell a story, and every story is an opportunity to sell something, he added.
It is key for brands to create inspirational stories and experiences through the creative use of digital and technologies, which ultimately lead to a transaction, he said.
