Only 5 percent of online shoppers in Vietnam are highly satisfied with shopping via the Internet, 29 percent satisfied, 62 percent made no comment and 4 percent were unsatisfied, a recent survey revealed.

According to a study carried out by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, product quality is the most worrisome factor when shopping online with 77 percent of those surveyed complaining.

They said that in many cases, the products they received were not as good as the advertised ones they ordered online, according to the survey, which questioned thousands of online shoppers from cities nationwide.

Meanwhile, 40 percent of them doubted the reasonability of prices, 38 percent were not satisfied with the delivery service and 31 percent were worried about the confidentiality of their private information while making online transactions.

Aside from the products themselves, 29 percent of those surveyed complained about the complexity of the online ordering process, while 20 percent questioned the professionalism of websites.

The findings of the survey, entitled "Revision of e-commerce development in Vietnam in 2013", were made public at an international conference on Vietnam – Japan E-Commerce Co-operation held in Hanoi on October 29.
According to the survey, as many as 36 percent of Vietnam's 90 million people are now accessing the Internet, and 57 percent of this are engaging in online shopping.

The most common online products are clothes, footwear, cosmetics, high tech devices, household appliances, air tickets, food, books, cinema tickets, hotel bookings and games.

The ministry in August established a portal to help consumers identify trust-worthy e-commerce sites as well as provide a blacklist of sites that have failed to provide good business practices.

According to the ministry, the portal updates the list of trusted e-commerce websites, which must register to offer e-commerce services and are required to meet standards established by the ministry.

It said customers can see if the websites are labelled with SafeWeb, a standard system in e-commerce transactions in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the ministry last month published a draft on developing e-commerce from 2014-20.

According to the draft, 350 billion VND (16.6 million USD) from the State budget will be used for building a national e-payment portal, developing an integrated e-commerce payment card and an online transfer management system.

The money will also be utilised to help train enterprises in e-commerce and to enable them to participate in trading floors inside and outside the country, building online shopping solutions for small and medium companies, developing e-commerce applications on mobile devices and improving on-line trade marks for Vietnamese products and services.-VNA