
The EBI 2023 averages 19.24 points, compared to 20.37 points lastyear. This indicates a big gap between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the twobiggest economic hubs of Vietnam, and the remaining localities, according tothe report.
HCM City with 89.2 points, continues to top the rankings thisyear. With 85.7 points, the capital city of Hanoi ranks second, followed by thecentral city of Da Nang with 39.5 points.
Meanwhile, the Central Highlands provinces of Dak Nong and Kon Tumare the worst performers with 10.6 and 10.2 points, respectively.
The report is based on three sub-indexes – information technologyhuman resources and infrastructure, business-to-consumer e-commerce, andbusiness-to-business e-commerce.
The booming e-commerce sector in 2023 and development in thefollowing years is aided by a series of growth drivers such as the wave ofdigital transformation, consumers' trust, technological infrastructure, andfavourable mechanisms and policies issued by the Government.
According to this VECOM report, the difficulties of the worldeconomy along with many unfavourable domestic factors impacted negatively thedevelopment of the economy and trade last year, especially in the last monthsof 2022. Those disadvantages are forecast to remain until 2023.
However, continuing the previous two waves of growth, thisassociation report still expects a high growth rate for Vietnam's e-commerce.
According to experts, the potential for e-commerce development isstill huge.
With thousands of businesses nationwide, the e-commerce industryis expected to continue this high growth rate at about 25% until 2025.
Vietnam's e-commerce market is developing at an early stage.Meanwhile, its scale of e-commerce is still small, accounting for about 8.5% ofthe total retail sales of consumer goods and services.
Exciting business activities on e-commerce platforms and socialnetworks were the highlights of Vietnam's e-commerce sector in 2022 and thefirst quarter of 2023.
The report said that up to 65% of businesses have implementedbusiness activities on social networks. Selling on social networks is alsoconsidered to be the most effective, surpassing other forms such as businesswebsites or applications as well as e-commerce platforms.
The most prominent is the birth and strong growth of Tiktok Shop.Doing business on this platform has great appeal to a large number of tradersin Vietnam.
Business activities on e-commerce platforms continued to growsteadily. In 2022, 23% of businesses sold products on e-commerce platforms,according to the survey.
Metric Data Science Joint Stock Company said the total sales ofthe top four e-commerce platforms - Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, and Sendo - alongwith Tiktok Shop were estimated to reach 141 trillion VND (about 6 billion USD).
Shopee and Lazada are the two largest e-commerce platforms, whileTiktok Shop has become the third largest retail e-commerce platform in Vietnamalthough only operating since mid-2022.
VECOM's report also shows that the percentage of businesses havingwebsites and mobile applications has not changed much. A high number ofbusinesses suspending or dissolving in 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 couldbe one of the reasons for this situation.
Although the development of websites and mobile applications aimsat the promotion of brands, start-ups and business households could prioritisedoing business on e-commerce platforms or social networks.
The rate of websites that integrate online interaction featureswith customers reached 78%. Half of websites that had online interactions withcustomers used chatbots.
Especially, the number of websites having mobile versionsincreased to 22% in 2022.
In 2019, Vecom proposed a sustainable e-commerce developmentprogramme. In the past, it actively implemented a number of specific activitiesunder this proposal.
In 2023-2025, Vecom will support State management agencies toresearch and propose policies and laws towards sustainable development of thedigital economy as well as e-commerce. At the same time, they will propagateand encourage the online business community to implement specific activities./.