One of the solutions to improve the competitiveness of enterprises is the application of e-commerce to find outlets for products.
.jpg)
Leaders of Department of Industry and Trade and enterprises are at the workshop of “Measures joint online exportation promotion 2017 for enterprises in Binh Duong through Alibaba.com”. Photo: Tieu My
High efficiency
Data from the E-commerce and Information Technology Agency under Ministry of Industry and Trade in March 2016, based on the survey results of over 800 export enterprises of our country, shows that 52% of large enterprises have made use of websites and electronic trading platform and 36% of small and medium enterprises. The survey also showed that enterprises having website and e-trading platform achieved higher production and export efficiency, with 42% of enterprises having total online order value on total revenue export turnover of 50%; at the same time, the rate of dispute over the use of electronic contracts is very low, only at about 8%.
According to the Agency of E-commerce and Information Technology, website application of websites and electronic trading platform are cost effective and very suitable to the potential of small and medium enterprises in Vietnam. Specifically, businesses carrying out exportation through e-commerce channels do not take much investment costs, distribution through intermediary while being more active in finding sale destination for the products and expand business operations.
Binh Duong province has the advantage of being the province of high E-commerce Development Index (EBI) in 2017 ranked 4th in comparison with other provinces and cities in the country, in which, the application of information technology in manufacturing activities is highly applied and online trading is now a new trend that Binh Duong enterprises pay special attention. However, up to now, many enterprises have not utilized or applied the maximum advantage of this scientific achievements.
At the workshop of “Measures joint online exportation promotion 2017 for enterprises in Binh Duong through Alibaba.com” by the Department of Industry and Trade in collaboration with the Alliance of Export Promotion Vietnam, Ho Van Binh, Deputy Director of Department of Industry and Trade, affirmed that taking advantage of online export to better access to importers has becoming more important than ever for exporters of Binh Duong. He said that the workshop was a way to help businesses in the province to seek customers and expand their markets, so as to strengthen cooperation exchanges and to build Vietnam's brand with other countries in the region and the world. The content of the workshop helps Binh Duong businesses better understand the steps of e-commerce in business, import and export and the opportunity to expand exports by participating in e-commerce platform and business-to-business (B2B) model.
Enterprise proactiveness needed
On investigation, among over 20 enterprises of Binh Duong participated in the workshop of “Measures joint online exportation promotion 2017 for enterprises in Binh Duong through Alibaba.com”, only 12 have websites, of which foreign-language based websites are a few. In addition, many businesses do not have the habit of participating in e-commerce transactions. The common mode of business is still direct meeting and exchange to sign cooperation.
According to Le Ba Linh, Vice President of Binh Duong Lacquer and Sculpture Association, many local lacquer enterprises want to join online trade to find partners instead of participating in the fairs. However, as long as the matter is concerned, those businesses are experiencing how to exploit the information technology applications to promote products and reduce the risk of e-commerce transactions.
In fact, although businesses are participating in the service package on B2B site, but if they do not care about the content of goods on the site, it is difficult to achieve the desired effects. Tran Dinh Toan, Alibaba.com Vietnam representative, noted that domestic businesses when registering members of B2B websites should prepare well information such as company introduction, company image, video clips, pictures and description of goods and services in a thorough manner. In addition, businesses need to constantly update product information weekly, maintain early email reply to potential customers, and actively evaluate the monthly online marketing activities.
Toan added that marketing on B2B sites will help businesses have more sources of new customers, saving costs but also bring risks, such as the loss of image rights of factories, companies, and goods. Therefore, businesses should pay attention to issues such as image copyright, spam, and fraudulent letter orders in the process of investing and deploying this online marketing channel. To avoid risks and create confidence of customers, exporters need to actively cooperate programs, link with banks, and connect with logistics system to promote exportation.
Reported by Tieu My – Translated by Vi Bao
