Online shopping is a new trend among young people
The outbreak of Covid-19 has changed consumer trends and tastes, and Vietnam is no exception. Online, touchless, cash-based buying and selling has become more popular, causing new business methods to be born.
In particular, sales on social networking platforms such as TikTok, Facebook or some e-commerce platforms have exploded in recent times.
According to data provided from Lazada, up to 57 million Vietnamese people will participate in online shopping in 2022. Among them, Gen Z consumers (born from 1995 to 2012) account for 43% of visits to Lazada. Daily online shopping applications.
In addition, recent research data shows that Vietnamese people spend up to 6.38 hours a day accessing the Internet and 58.2% of that is spent on online purchases. Meta Company (owner of Facebook and Instagram) recorded that in 2022, Vietnam will have 4 million more digital consumers making purchases through online channels, achieving a growth of 41% compared to 2019. .
Online shopping has become popular. Photo by Khai Pham.
“Buying online now is easier, more convenient and also has many promotions, so this is my choice. Most of the smallest consumer items can be easily found on Shopee or TikTok and of course are cheap. Much better than buying directly at the store,” Mr. Cuu Long (Hanoi) shared.
Realizing the explosion of online shopping trends recently, e-commerce platforms with the largest market share such as Shopee (69%) and TikTok Shop (16%) also regularly launch promotional programs. big.
For Shopee, this e-commerce platform always makes consumers excited, waiting for a day in the month like January 1, February 2… On these days, users will be able to buy products with preferential policies such as 0 VND or free shipping.
Meanwhile, TikTok Shop often has livestream sessions to subsidize sellers with a 50% discount and shipping support. Brands also seek customers by launching many offers to buy goods at 0 VND.
Special incentive policies of e-commerce platforms to attract customers have helped people increasingly shift from in-person shopping to online. Since then, non-cash payments, QR Code scanning, and bank transfers have also become more popular.
Counterfeit goods are still difficult to control on e-commerce platforms during the Lunar New Year
Every Lunar New Year, the amount of goods consumed always increases dramatically compared to normal days because people’s demand increases sharply. From increasing shopping demand, difficulty distinguishing real/fake when shopping online is also a headache for consumers.
“Buying online is cheap, so it is often difficult to distinguish between real and fake products. Sometimes I even know that there is an item that is a prize, but because it is cheap and does not last long, I still accept to buy it because the store is also cheap. It’s not necessarily genuine,” said Ms. Phung Huyen (Cau Giay, Hanoi).
The psychology of cheap prices, the crowd-buying effect or the “clicking” of accepting purchases even though they know they are fake have caused this situation to explode in cyberspace.
There are still genuine booths for users to choose from. Photo by Khai Pham.
According to statistics from the Department of Competition and Consumer Protection (Ministry of Industry and Trade), each year, this agency receives thousands of consumer complaints, of which 50% are related to purchase and sale transactions. on websites, including the phenomenon of selling fake goods, pirated goods, counterfeit goods, poor quality goods, goods of unknown origin, and trading without invoice documents. Violating websites advertise falsely and mislead customers regarding the origin of goods…
According to research, currently, many sellers on e-commerce platforms do not have warehouse or warehouse locations, do not have transaction information, sales invoices… but only import goods for self-distribution, causing many consequences in the business. Control the market once morest smuggled and counterfeit goods by authorities.
Economic expert Vu Vinh Phu, former Chairman of the Hanoi Supermarket Association, said that when shopping online, users will face many risks.
“Many cases of buying things online, having paid, but when receiving the goods are not as advertised, wrong model, wrong color, poor quality… are common. Even large e-commerce platforms are approved Many users still have widespread counterfeit goods sold. Managing online commerce is very difficult and remains a difficult problem for state management agencies. Buying and selling online, in addition to creating creates a new consumer trend that is popular with many people, but there is still a downside, specifically fake and poor quality goods sold openly. At the same time, tax evasion when selling online is really worrying. current concerns,” Mr. Phu said.
To protect themselves when spending money to buy products online, consumers need to choose reputable sales units.
E-commerce platforms today all have “Mall” (genuine) sellers so consumers can distinguish and choose. Therefore, to avoid “losing money and suffering”, users can choose these stores to buy goods during the Lunar New Year or whenever they intend to shop online.