Turning challenges to opportunities with E-commerce

Change is inevitable, it's what we do next to evolve that matters. U-Studio team together with Unilever e-comm team has turned on their game faces navigating a competitive space that is crucial to our progress.

Vietnam has been very successful in containing the Covid 19 pandemic. However many shoppers in Vietnam are still choosing to stay home rather than going into malls and shopping centers, cautious about their social distancing.

This behavior has triggered the consumer to shop for their necessities in online channels. In fact a Deloitte report titled ‘Retail in Vietnam: Navigating the Digital Retail Landscape,’ released in February 2019, stated that online business-to-consumer (B2C) sales accounted for a modest 3.6 percent of total retail revenue nationwide in that year. That figure, however, was expected to soar five percentage points higher in 2020, reaching US$10 billion in sales.

American management consultancy Bain & Company forecasts online shopping sales to continue their acceleration, even after life returns to normal post-COVID-19. Deloitte’s ‘Retail in Vietnam’ report said that consumer-to-consumer (C2C) sales, also known as social commerce, are booming in Vietnam. They are typically hosted on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and Vietnamese chat app Zalo, C2C involves buyers and sellers sharing information, photos, reviews, and recommendations directly and in real time. An e-commerce expert from service consultant Ernst & Young (EY) said in a recent article that the sudden surge in consumer demand for digital shopping services could result from the implementation of social distancing to contain the pandemic. This 'new normal' is finding increasing acceptance amongst consumers, thus leading to widespread adoption by traditional businesses, according to the expert. The convenience of online transaction models, which includes a diverse selection of goods and easy ordering and payment systems, is evident in market numbers. The question is which trends the e-commerce environment will follow and whether service providers can move fast enough to seize business opportunities. Complex algorithms and AI are a major factor driving heightened consumer experience in the online marketplace. Companies that can leverage these tools to offer customers products whenever they want are seeing the most success.

Unilever Vietnam team together with the U-Studio and media team has quickly grabbed this growing trend from the start. We are building and integrating on this big opportunity, enhancing the availability, the attention and the access to Unilever products in different e-commerce companies in the country. It is essential that we continue to grow our presence on this purchasing habit that has no other way but go up as projected even after the COVID pandemic is over. Together with our global network we are coordinating through trainings and aligning on best practices that will even sharpen our expertise in space that can dictate our success.

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Reference:

Pham Nhat - Vu Thai Ha / Tuoi Tre News