Speaking at the opening ceremony, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said Online Friday was in its sixth year and had seen strong development and response from Vietnamese consumers as well as the business community.

The first national online shopping day in 2014 saw a modest transaction total of 180 billion VND (7.7 million USD), said the minister.

However, the programme has developed with more than 3,000 participating businesses and 27,000 products introduced through online shopping programmes, as well as e-commerce experience weeks.

The turnover of the online shopping day reached more than 2 trillion VND (nearly 86 million USD) last year with 1.8 million orders on the system of e-commerce and social networks.

Dang Hoang Hai, Director of the Vietnam eCommerce and Digital Economy Agency, said Online Friday this year would offer an enhanced experience with a series of events taking place in the three most exciting parts of the three big cities, namely the walking street around Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, Nguyen Hue walking street in HCM City and the area around the Rong (Dragon) Bridge in Da Nang.

The spaces will offer booths of more than 65 e-commerce businesses and producers, music programmes and art shows, and games with special prizes from December 5-8.

Online Friday this year brings together many e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Tiki, Sendo, Voso and Sanhangre; manufacturers such as Oppo, Habeco; and other distributors.

Some 50,000 items from more than 1,000 brands were launched with discounted prices up to 70 percent.

The organisers expect strict quality control and the promotion to drive turnover for this year's Online Friday to exceed 2.5 trillion VND (107 million USD).

Companies in the fields of payment infrastructure, delivery and product origin verification and price comparison systems are also involved.

The event also kicked off the Ministry of Industry and Trade's nationwide programme titled 'Every Friday' offering goods starting from Friday on the website www.onlinefriday.vn and application Online Friday, downloaded from the iOS and Android./.VNA