Vietnamese businesses to join the global market through strong online presence

August 31, 2015 | 18:00
(0) user say
A seminar discussing e-commerce and development opportunities for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) under the conditions of new trade agreements took place in Danang city in Vietnam’s central region last week in order to help Vietnamese businesses, particularly SMEs, prepare for the impact of the new global economic environment. 

The seminar, hosted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry which represents Vietnamese business community and sponsored by VeriSign, a leading provider of Internet-based secure electronic commerce services and digital certificate solutions, has provided Vietnamese businesses with useful information on how to make a strong online presence with effective domain names in order to be competitive in the global market.

In reality, Vietnam has made strenuous efforts to take part in a raft of new trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement. These actions will bring fresh opportunities for local businesses to expand their markets and attract foreign investment.

Therefore, Vietnamese businesses, especially SMEs, need to prepare for the impact of the new global business environment and strengthen their competitiveness in foreign trade, particularly through online technologies like e-commerce.

There are approximately three billion people around the world that are online today, and in 2014 more than $300 billion in e-commerce sales was conducted in the US and over $1.3 trillion in e-commerce sales was conducted globally.

According to the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce sales in Vietnam in 2014 came to around $2.97 billion.

“E-commerce is bringing a lot of opportunities for SMEs thanks to its ability to allow 24/7 customer sales, reduced marketing and transaction expenses, and an overall market expansion to regions outside Vietnam,” said Nguyen Thanh Hung, vice chairman cum general secretary of VECOM.

“Thus, SMEs need to invest to build an online presence in order to compete in this new business environment. With a strong online brand, they can grow into global businesses with easy access to partners and customers around the world and increase their profitability in the long term,” Hung asserted.

In order to seize this opportunity, it is important for businesses to build and develop their own online brands with a reputable domain name.

Nguyen Minh Thai, business development director of Mat Bao Network, one of leading registrars in Vietnam, stated, “Choosing an appropriate domain name is the first step in building a successful online presence. While there are many domains available, .COM is the global standard for doing business online.”

Mat Bao, who has been a leader in the domain industry for many years, often advises their customers to choose .COM due to its availability, reliability and stability to build their online brands, especially when they want to reach larger markets.

According to a Searchmetrics’ analysis, out of a sample of 100,000,000 links on the Internet, 75 per cent of them go back to .COM domain names.

RELATED CONTENTS:
Vietnamese SMEs to enter the global market through strong online presence
Vietnamese SMEs to take opportunities by moving to e-commerce

By By Mai Thuy

What the stars mean:

★ Poor ★ ★ Promising ★★★ Good ★★★★ Very good ★★★★★ Exceptional