Increased demand for online shopping
According to research just published by iPrice, in the second quarter of 2021, the demand for essential goods, fresh food, vegetables, etc. grew strongly during the time when localities implemented social distancing.
Specifically, Google searches related to the keyword online grocery increased 223% in the second quarter. Fresh food and meat and fish; beverages of all kinds; packaged foods and vegetables were the top searched with growth rates of 99%, 51%, 30% and 11% respectively compared to first quarter of 2021. Particularly, the number of searches in July increased 11 times compared to May and increased 3.6 times compared to June.
In the second quarter of 2021, the total number of visits to the top 50 online shopping websites in the e-commerce map of Vietnam increased by 10% compared to the first quarter. In the first 6 months of 2021, total visits to the top 10 These 50 websites have reached more than 1.3 billion visits.
E-commerce also stalled
However, in reality, the increased number of searches mainly reflects only one side of people’s needs. The other side is the ability to meet, the supply is another story. During the period of strict isolation under Directive 16, many large e-commerce platforms and online sales channels also stalled.
Large e-commerce platforms such as Lazada, Shopee, Tiki, and Sendo operate with relative difficulty due to the implementation of distance between provinces and cities. Especially from the time of July 9 when Ho Chi Minh City began to distance themselves according to Directive 16 to a stricter level of “who stays where they are”, shipper activities have mostly stalled.
“Receiving many online orders, but due to lack of shippers, the bags are stagnant, fresh foods, vegetables will be very perishable. From there, they will limit online orders, or even stop this sales channel,” said Mr. Dat Nguyen, who operates Vietnamese mobile phone supermarkets chain.
Another indicator is PMI (purchasing managers) just released by market research firm IHS Markit, showing that in July and August, respectively, were 45.1 and 40.2. The drop below the threshold of 50 is quite far, showing a large contraction in production as well as business activities in Vietnam in the past 3 months.
Although people search online for keywords related to essential products and items, the supply is difficult to meet. In other words, many e-commerce models and online sales channels are broken because one of the important factors in the supply chain is the shrinking or stopping of shipper services.
Minh Ngô
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