Purchasing Chinese goods online booming in Vietnam

Like anywhere else in the world, the use of the Internet and e-commerce has flourished in Vietnam, especially in the capital Hanoi.

In fact, for the past few years, the Vietnamese people have been purchasing goods online, including products from abroad.

With rapid development of commodity production with various designs and the growth of online websites, more and more Vietnamese people choose to buy Chinese commodities online.

Duong Thu Hien, 27, has been in purchasing Chinese goods online for the past seven years. She often receives orders from Vietnamese people for Chinese goods and then she orders for them on Chinese online sales sites.

China's Taobao, Alibaba and Paipai are among the most browsed websites for Hien in her line of business.

Hien's customers range from individuals to shop-owners in Vietnam. They will search for products on these Chinese websites, copy a hyperlink of the products they need and send to Hien for her to make the orders.

Fashion items including clothes, shoes, bags, eyeglasses and cosmetics, are among the most ordered products from China, said Hien.

After making the orders on Chinese sites, Hien will contact her partners in China to do the payment. Most of her contacts in China are Vietnamese students or people who can speak Chinese.

Payments can be made by cash or through bank accounts, Hien said.

After receiving order from the suppliers, the contacts in China will send goods to China's Guangzhou and from there, the goods will be shipped to Vietnam.

Customers must deposit from 70 percent or even 100 percent of the value of their orders, Hien said, adding that they can get the goods that they ordered after seven to 10 days.

After arriving in Vietnam, the products will be sold at shops or again posted on Vietnamese online sites for sale.

According to Hien, the number of orders has increased sharply in the past four years as Vietnamese, especially young people, prefer to purchase goods online because it is cheaper and they can choose from a variety of designs through the websites.

Like Hien, Nguyen Hai, a Hanoi resident, has also got familiar with Chinese online shopping websites for around four years.

At first, Hai bought Chinese products online, mostly fitness and gym equipments, and resold them in Vietnam for a profit. Hai said that it is quite easy for him to purchase Chinese goods online, just click on the products, make payment and receive the ordered goods a few days later.

But he then found that the profit was not too high so he decided to turn to another way to make bigger profit.

Hai found products online through Chinese websites, including Taobao, then directly contacts the manufacturers in China and proposes to make a modification in the designs to suit to the needs of his Vietnamese customers. Hai said that this way of doing business is more effective and more profitable.

According to the report of Vietnam e-commerce association based on a survey conducted by the Global Payment Technology Company VISA in Vietnam in 2012, among 36 percent of 87 million Vietnamese people using internet, 71 percent had done online shopping.

With the estimated purchasing value of $30 per person per year, the total value of e-commerce within Vietnam under Business-to-Customer (B2C) portals reached an average of over $660 million in 2012.

It is forecast that by 2015, if the Vietnamese population would increase to 93 million people and the value of online purchase would also increase correspondingly by $20, the total value of e-commerce in Vietnam will reach $1.3 billion in 2015, said the report.