Amazon Lures Sellers As Vietnamese Exports Surge

Amazon is looking to expand its eCommerce relationship with Vietnam and is recruiting merchants to join its marketplace as exports in the country soar, Nikkei Asia reported.

“Vietnamese sellers have enriched our global product selection,” Gijae Seong, head of Amazon Global Selling in Vietnam, told Nikkei Asia.

Amazon said the number of sellers that exported at least $1 million in merchandise from Vietnam in 2020 has more than tripled, per Nikkei Asia. The biggest sales were for home goods, tools, kitchenware, handicrafts and clothing. 

Last year, Vietnam’s sixth biggest export destination was the U.S., up from eleventh in 2015, Nikkei reported, citing U.N. Comtrade data. 

Numerous factories in Vietnam had relocated from China due to the trade war with the U.S., which Seong told Nikkei gives companies “competitive advantages in manufacturing.”

Amazon Global Selling has grown its presence across Asia, opening numerous offices and training centers. The eCommerce giant established a merchant training facility in Hanoi three months ago and already has a location in Ho Chi Minh City.

Amazon’s biggest rival in the country, Alibaba, was the first eCommerce giant to bring merchants from Vietnam onto its marketplace in China, per Nikkei.

Earlier this month Alibaba launched livestream shopping to compete with Amazon’s social selling efforts. The Chinese eCommerce giant also rolled out cloud services and is opening new data centers in the Philippines and Indonesia. Alibaba said last month that it plans to further expand its presence in Asia after reaching 1 billion users and $1.2 trillion of gross merchandise value sales on its platforms. 

Vietnam’s digital economy could reach $52 billion by 2025 and its growth is attracting the attention of big brand names like Goldman Sachs and JD.com, according to a study by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Temasek Holdings Pte and Bain & Co and reported by Bloomberg. eCommerce could account for 10 percent of Vietnam’s retail sales by 2025. In Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, online shopping could reach 50 percent.