A Gallup research report pointed out that loyal clients can make up to 23 percent of enterprises’ revenue and profit growth, while one unsatisfied client can decrease revenue. Delivery services, the final stage of the online retail process, plays a very important role.

Charles Brewer, CEO of DHL eCommerce, said the delivery should be as simple as possible, provide a variety of choices, and be convenient for customers. Consumers will be happy if they can check goods on delivery and return goods if they are not satisfied. 

In the race to conquer the pocketbooks of consumers, delivery services are the ‘trump card’ for retailers.

Cash delivery is also a good option for the Vietnamese market, where cash remains a priority in most transactions. However, this is not ideal for online retailers because it makes the delivery process more complicated. The retailers need to cooperate with reliable delivery service providers to ensure that the process goes smoothly and they can retain customers.

Fast delivery is an advantage of foreign supermarket chains in Vietnam such as Japanese Aeon Mall and Lotte Mart which jumped into the e-commerce sector in Vietnam late last year.

Analysts noted that big retail chains can deliver goods quickly because their goods are kept at many retail shops throughout the country. The large networks of shops and supermarkets could be storehouses for online sales.

Deliverymen, instead of having to move to central storehouses, only have to go to retail points belonging to the retail chains to receive the goods and forward them to customers nearby.

Lotte and Aeon are using the same method as The Gioi Di Dong, the phone distribution chain, to improve their competitiveness with other e-commerce businesses. 

Thegioididong.com commits to deliver goods within 60 minutes to customers who order products online, if the delivery places are within a radius of 5-10 kilometers from the physical shops.

Lazada.vn and Tiki.vn own big storehouses but they are mostly located in large cities of Hanoi, HCMC and Da Nang.

Setting up more storehouses to shorten the time of delivery and cut costs is an important factor in online sales, but many businesses cannot do this because it requires huge investment capital.

However, as Aeon and Lotte have just joined the e-commerce sector, their delivery activities are somewhat limited. In the first phase of operation, AeonE-shop is only delivering goods in inner HCMC, and not in suburban districts of Can Gio and Cu Chi.

However, the chain is planning to expand delivery in some northern provinces and cities, including Hanoi, Vinh Phuc and Hai Phong.

Lotte.vn states that their delivery time is from 8 am to 5 pm from Monday to Friday.

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Thanh Mai