Online business: Everything can be sold on the internet.

Based on data from customers registering to use the online sales platform, DKT assesses online business trends in the first half of 2016.

Online food sales are booming – it's time everything could be sold online.

According to aggregated data on the business sectors of e-commerce websites using the Bizweb online sales platform, fashion, cosmetics, and electronics/refrigeration remain the most popular product categories for online sales, with websites in these categories accounting for 25.5% and 19.1% respectively. Following closely behind are websites related to industrial and office equipment and machinery. These product categories are easily sold online through websites or e-commerce platforms; however, recent data suggests a shift in the types of goods preferred for online business.

A highlight of the first six months of 2016 was the food sector, with the proportion of websites offering these products through e-commerce doubling compared to the previous year. Specifically, in 2015, only over 3% of DKT's client businesses participated in supplying food online, but by 2016, this figure had increased to 7%.

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Food – especially fresh produce – is a product category that is difficult to sell online due to preservation issues and consumers' habit of buying in person. This trend partly stems from the issue of clean and safe food, but it is also considered a positive sign for e-commerce in Vietnam. In terms of production, the e-commerce cycle has been optimized to solve the problems of preservation and transportation, shortening the process from farm to consumer. At the same time, in terms of consumption, e-commerce has reached the deepest corners of Vietnamese people's purchasing habits, maximizing the benefits this model brings to customers.

Not only in the food industry, 2016 also witnessed the rise of traditional handicrafts. A year earlier, only 1% of businesses using the Bizweb online sales platform were in the handicraft sector. By 2016, that number had increased to 3%. This data demonstrates that Vietnamese handicrafts and traditional products are receiving more investment in branding and sales channels. E-commerce has contributed to the development of this traditional product group.

Although the market share of food and handicrafts is still relatively low compared to fashion or electronics, the positive shift in these product categories shows that e-commerce is directly impacting areas previously thought difficult to sell online. This opens up a "blue ocean" for many businesses to develop their e-commerce markets, not being limited to one or a few specific product categories.

Over 73% of online business websites are concentrated in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Although e-commerce is demonstrating miraculous and increasingly widespread development in all aspects of life, DKT's data shows that this development is uneven across localities nationwide.

Of the 20,000 customers using the Bizweb online sales platform, over 73% are businesses based in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. In the first six months of 2016, 44.1% of businesses registered on the Bizweb platform had their business headquarters in Hanoi, while the corresponding figure for Ho Chi Minh City was 29.5%. This means that out of every 100 businesses with online business websites, 73 are located in the two largest economic centers in the country. This data shows little change compared to DKT's 2015 data, where the proportion of e-commerce websites registered in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City was 75%.

Compared to the number of customers who learned about Bizweb through service experiences on the homepage, out of more than 110,000 individuals/businesses recorded in the first six months of the year, over 70% came from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This shows that, right from the initial stage of learning about e-commerce to serve business purposes, there is a huge disparity between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces and cities.

The above data highlights a crucial issue in the popularization of e-commerce in Vietnam. If this situation persists, e-commerce will indirectly widen the gap in economic development levels between localities. However, from the perspective of providing the Bizweb online sales platform, DKT Technology Joint Stock Company believes this is an opportunity for businesses in localities if they can take advantage of the opportunity while there is still little competition in provinces and cities nationwide.

Evaluating the usage trends of the Bizweb online sales platform, Mr. Tran Trong Tuyen – CEO of DKT Technology JSC – stated: “The figures for the first half of 2016 show that the goal of popularizing e-commerce has come a long way, deeply integrated into our lives. The next goal is to bring the successful lessons from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to further develop in other localities across the country.”

According to VOV