Agricultural products put on sales on sendo.vn. (Photo kinhtedothi.vn) Along with that, logistics infrastructure, transportation anddelivery costs account for a large proportion, from 20-30%, sometimes even upto 40%, which is also creating considerable pressure in bringing agriculturalproducts to the e-commerce floors.
Cooperatives have focused on production, trying to create productsthat meet the quality standards in recent times, but have not really investedin human resources for the development of e-commerce, according to Vu QuangPhong, Director of the Trade and Investment Promotion Centre under the VietnamCooperative Alliance.
Meanwhile, this is an inevitable trend in the digitaltransformation process that is strongly promoted by a segment of youngconsumers, but there is still a relatively large gap for the elderly who havenot kept up with the pace of technology development.
Phong said that competition on e-commerce platforms is inevitable.However, due to many difficulties in scale and capital, cooperatives do notknow how to invest in human resources and build marketing and advertisingcampaigns, so they need systematic support.
Cooperatives and farmers need to have an innovative mindset to beable to take full advantage of the benefits of e-commerce.
Doing business through e-commerce platforms does not just stop atharvesting and selling, but requires investment in packaging, logistics, transportationor making promotional images to improve methods of production and developbusiness in an optimal way.
Although online business was no longer unfamiliar, in reality, forproduction, business establishments, and farmers, to bring agricultural productsto e-commerce platforms was still very small and modest, said Bui Huy Hoang,Deputy Director of the Centre for Information and DigitalTechnology of the Vietnam e-Commerce andDigital Economy Agency (iDEA) under the Ministryof Industry and Trade (MoIT).
According to Hoang, difficulties come from limited awareness andresources of businesses for this business method. Most businesses andcooperatives producing and trading agricultural products still lack humanresources knowledgeable about information technology, sales processes, andmarketing.
Besides, registering a store and posting products on e-commercestores is something businesses can do. However, in order for products to reachconsumers, businesses need to be properly guided and trained on how to promoteonline, build product images and implement product packaging and preservationprocesses, or customer care methods, after-sales services.
As one of the provinces and cities with a high e-commerce index,the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta city of Can Tho technology trading floor has becomeone of the useful information channels for searching and offering products forbusinesses and cooperatives in the area.
In particular, the city has supported and guided hundreds ofbusinesses and cooperatives to participate in online trading platforms such asTiki, Lazada, Voso, Sendo, Shopee, Postmart.vn to promote agricultural andrural digital economy; organise training for businesses, cooperatives,production and business establishments, and households to bring products toe-commerce platforms.
Up to now, many provincial OCOP products have been supported andguided to be listed on major e-commerce platforms.
However, according to representatives of cooperatives, withlarge-scale sources of agricultural products, cooperatives are supplyingtraders and distribution systems, but do not know how to start on e-commerceplatforms.
A representative of the Can Tho City Cooperative Alliance saidthat the connection and consumption of goods between manufacturers, farmers anddistributors only took place through traditional methods before.
Furthermore, most cooperatives only produce and farm mainly on asmall scale, lacking the connection to create key products. It is the technicalbarriers, regulations, and product standards that make linking and connectingto consume goods difficult, according to the representative.
Similarly, representatives of a number of cooperatives andcooperative groups in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap also saidthat although they had put agricultural products on the e-commerce platform,due to small-scale business, limited financial capacity, information technologyinvestment and application of e-commerce applications of cooperatives had notbeen as expected.
Notably, the agricultural products of these cooperatives aremostly daily foods and are sold by many units, making it difficult to compete,according to the cooperatives.
Therefore, the cooperative's goods are displayed on the e-commerceplatform mainly for customers to learn about products and compare prices.
On the other hand, the majority of members of cooperatives,especially agricultural cooperatives, are in their 40s and 50s, and are evendisabled people, so the ability to apply information technology has not yetbeen popular.
In the initial steps of implementation, cooperatives alsoencountered a number of problems such as a lack of qualified human resources one-commerce, so there was a situation where agricultural products were broughton the floors, but maintaining virtual booths and reaching customers is stillineffective.
To overcome difficulties for Vietnamese agricultural products whenparticipating in e-commerce platforms, the iDEA has been continuing toco-operate closely with e-commerce platforms, connect partners with businessesto implement training programmes for businesses.
In addition, the MoIT also coordinates with provinces, localities,as well as e-commerce platforms to train cooperatives and business householdsto master technology and change production and business models to adapt to thenew commercial trends.
Along with that, training programmes for opening stalls, operatingand fulfilling orders, managing logistics, and managing product quality onmajor e-commerce platforms are organised in a methodical manner.
Recently, the MoIT has implemented a series of e-commerceconnection programmes combined with e-commerce training and coaching in anumber of provinces and cities, especially, promoting regional connectivity andlinks to consume agricultural products, food, and local specialties throughe-commerce.
With the advantage of e-commerce to help operate the consumptionof goods throughout provinces and cities through the e-commerce deliverysystem, agricultural products and local specialties have been promoted in manyprovinces and cities.
The MoIT will continue to implement cross-border e-commerceco-operation programmes with major international partners/e-commerce platforms suchas Amazon, Alibaba, JD, Sea Group to promote cross-border e-commerce.
Through these co-operation programmes, Vietnamese specialtyproducts such as processed agricultural products, handicrafts, consumerindustrial goods, which are products with export strengths of the country, willbe boosted via e-commerce.
In addition, the MoIT also built an e-commerce platform unifying63 provinces and cities at sanviet.vn toconnect and create a support platform for both sellers, buyers and digitalplatforms in providing goods, connecting services, creating conditions fordeveloping the e-commerce market in a competitive and transparent manner,thereby, gradually building a centralised online retail database from centralto local levels and helping final consumers buy quality products at reasonableprices./.
VNA
