A representative of Lotte Mart Vietnam once told the Vietnam National Television (VTV) that there were not many e-commerce firms involved in selling fresh food, but Lotte had been doing it very well.

However, things have become different over the last two months. Many businesses in other fields have joined the market, including Bach Hoa Xanh, a brand of The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World), Grab and Now, the e-hailing platforms, and Lazada, an e-commerce firm.

Lazada began distributing fresh food on April 14, committing to deliver products within two hours.

According to James Dong, CEO of Lazada Vietnam, e-commerce firms start with electronics sale, then expand their business into fashion, cosmetics, groceries distribution, and finally fresh food.

With the cooperation with 10 partners supplying fresh food, Lazada now sells a wide range of products from meat to milk. The goods are delivered to customers several hours after Lazada receives orders.

“Distributing fresh food is a part of the plan to expand our business and Covid-19 just accelerates the implementation of the plan,” he said.

With the cooperation with 10 partners supplying fresh food, Lazada now sells a wide range of products from meat to milk. The goods are delivered to customers several hours after Lazada receives orders.

At Bach Hoa Xanh, there are 5,000 online orders each day, or 50 percent higher than the days before the epidemic outbreak. The Gioi Di Dong plans to set up three distribution centers, understood as hypermarkets storing goods to serve online orders.

Nearly one year ago, Vingroup decided to take part in the competition of selling fresh food online through the virtual store project. Customers just need to open VinID app, choose Scan&Go and scan QR codes of the products they want to buy at ‘VinMart 4.0’ and make payment with VinID app.

The supermarket chain has committed to deliver goods to customers within 2-4 hours.

According to Hexa Research, the global food delivery market would have value of nearly $9 billion by 2025 with the CAGR of 18 percent.

Experts believe that in Vietnam, the demand for ordering fresh food always exists, but there are too few businesses which can do business well to stimulate the market development.

The Covid-19 pandemic has created opportunities for businesses to gather more strength in the business field.

In Japan, Aeon, the well known supermarket chain and fresh food retailer, in late 2019 joined hands with Ocado, which proclaims itself as the world’s largest online supermarket with robots and high technologies.

Experts believe that the cooperation model can also be implemented in Vietnam to optimize the quality of service.

Mai Lan 

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