Losses recorded by Tiki, one of Vietnam’s most popular e-commerce providers, raises questions about the state of the industry.

VietNamNet Bridge - Low profit margins and high operating costs are daunting problems for investors in the e-commerce sector.  

The lack of customer confidence, payment solutions and information transparency all have prevented e-commerce from booming, with only 17 percent of the population buying online.

VietNamNet Bridge - The Vietnamese e-commerce market has become more crowded with powerful players such as Lotte, Alibaba, VNG, Vingroup, Aeon and The Gioi Di Dong.

The confrontation between Vuivui and Tiki, one of the most successful e-commerce firms in Vietnam, which is supported by VNG, is expected to be an interesting story in 2017.

VietNamNet Bridge - The revenue from e-commerce only accounts for 2.8 percent of total revenue of Vietnam’s retail industry, but state management agencies say they want to see the figure rise to 5 percent by 2020.

VietNamNet Bridge - Many e-commerce floors have opened to great fanfare, while others have shut down quietly.

VietNamNet Bridge - E-commerce firms now have more rivals as the most powerful conglomerates in the industry have arrived in the country.

  The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoIT) and military-owned telecom company Viettel Group on Monday signed a cooperation agreement on applying information technology (IT) to build e-governance and e-commerce infrastructure.

VietNamNet Bridge - In a new business field like e-commerce, the competition in quality is important as it brings benefits to Vietnamese users.

VietNamNet Bridge - E-commerce revenue in Vietnam in 2017 is forecast to reach $2.08 billion as the market becomes more competitive. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese customers will often order 10 or more products online, but then only pay for one item because of a late change they make to their order.  

VietNamNet Bridge - Many e-wallet systems were started for the primary reason to create an ecosystem for e-commerce, but their owners fear they may not make money from the service.

VietNamNet Bridge - Experts believe that the high cost of logistics services is slowing down the growth of online shopping.

VietNamNet Bridge - No one doubts the power of e-commerce giants like Amazon, but many local analysts believe the company cannot succeed in the Vietnamese market.

VietNamNet Bridge - Fashion products are the most easily sold online items in Vietnam, followed by high-tech products and mobile phones.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam has set the ambitious goal of achieving $10 billion in revenue from e-commerce by 2020. The figure was $4.07 billion in 2015.

VietNamNet Bridge - Representatives of freight and forwarding firms attending a recent workshop held by Vecom all expressed concern about the invasion of foreign e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and Amazon. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam has decided to resume its commodity exchange plan, which it had tried to build five years ago, but could not implement well.

 Instead of opening e-commerce floors in the old way, some businesses have tried new solutions to develop online sales to avoid repeating the same mistakes made by their predecessors.