“Google Singapore office has a room for officers to work out in the gym and I often go there after working hours. One day, I saw a brand there, Yes4All. I searched the name on Google and realized that this is a Vietnamese brand.

“Later, the brand appeared at other Google offices all over the globe. I asked myself how a Vietnamese company could do this. When connecting Yes4All, I found the answer: the business exports its products via Amazon cross-border e-commerce platform for the last many years,” Brandon Thanh Do, in charge of developing clients in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand for Google, related.

Working with Yes4All, Brandon realized the difficulties faced by Vietnamese enterprises after successful online exports: the limited resources for investment and market expansion.

“We then proposed to Amazon and Yes4All that Google can support them in terms of platform, warehouse and logistics, and payment as well. In fact, on Google Search, YouTube and other platforms owned by Google, many users have demand for buying products on Amazon. We worked with the marketing team from Yes4All on solutions to lead Google and YouTube users to the Yes4All stall on Amazon,” he continued.

“With the solution, Yes4All doesn’t have to set up a new website, and doesn’t have to run a payment channel or a new warehouse, while it still can access more clients,” he said, explaining that cooperation of different parties can help Vietnamese businesses better approach the international market.

Just within one week after Brandon and his team tried the first five Yes4All products, the enterprise’s sales on Amazon increased sharply with the ROAS (return on ad spend) of 340 percent.

Vietnamese SMEs like Yes4All now have a lot of opportunities for online exports. With new technologies, they can access international markets and customers quickly and easily via online channels.

International consumers have become open to imports, according to Brandon. Five years ago, Australian consumers were not interested in imports, including made-in-USA ones, because they preferred domestic products. But in recent years, their habits have changed and Made-in-Vietnam fine art products have become more favored in the country.

Google has recently launched useful tools for enterprises to use for free to export Vietnamese products. Google Trend helps finds potential markets, while Market Finder helps find markets which have demand for products available on websites.

5th largest export industry

Analysts said Vietnamese enterprises now have great advantages in the global cross-border e-commerce playing field as it ranks fifth among top 10 countries in terms of e-commerce retail turnover growth in 2022 as announced by eMarketer (Brazil 22.2 percent, Indonesia 23 percent, India 25.5 percent, the Philippines 25.9 percent and Vietnam 19 percent).

Access Partnership recently showed a scenario for Vietnam’s cross-border e-commerce development with encouraging figures. It is expected that by 2027, participation of SMEs would help boost B2 e-commerce exports by 2.4 times compared with the conventional business trajectory, reaching $12 billion (VND296.3 trillion), thus helping to boost trade surplus.

Meanwhile, AlphaBeta predicted that Vietnam’s annual average cross-border e-commerce in 2021-2026 may reach 20 percent with value expected to reach $10 billion (VND256.1 trillion) by 2026.

“The figure of $10 billion is really significant. By that time, B2C cross-border e-commerce retail will become the fifth largest export industry in Vietnam among top 10 business fields with export turnover of trillions of dong,” said Trinh Khac Toan from Amazon Global Selling Vietnam.

Amazon reported that the number of products exported via Amazon has increased by 300 percent over the last five years. In 2023 alone, more than 17 million Vietnamese products were sold via Amazon, and the export value of Vietnamese enterprises via Amazon soared by 50 percent compared with the same period in 2022.

Toan, who has been accompanying thousands of Vietnamese enterprises in cross-border e-commerce for four years, recommended that Vietnamese should join the cross-border e-commerce right now, or they will be left behind in 2-3 years.

He stressed that there are three benefits that the model can bring to enterprises. First, they can control goods flow and get reactions from target markets. Second, they can better control cash flow. Third, they can build global brands, an important asset for businesses.

Binh Minh