Vietnam's Gold Star balm is sold on Amazon

After announcing a cooperation program in January 2019, the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) and Amazon will select 100 businesses in targeted industries which have products satisfying Amazon’s requirements, and put their products on Amazon’s online sale network.

An Amazon representative said the retail giant would help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) access the world market and develop their brands on Amazon.

Bernard Tay, director of Amazon Global Selling Southeast Asia, said Amazon can see great development potential in Vietnam, especially because of the entrepreneurial spirit of young people.

He noted that Vietnam has advantages in household-use appliances, textiles & garments, footwear and handicraft products, which sell very well on Amazon. 

Ngan Le, the founder and CEO of Paper Color, one of the Vietnamese businesses selling products on Amazon, said the company saves sale and marketing costs by being on Amazon. Paper Color now has products exported to 30 countries.

However, it is unclear if Amazon can find 100 suppliers in Vietnam. To be eligible to have products sold on Amazon, Vietnam’s manufacturers will have to satisfy requirements set by retailers. 

Meanwhile, the majority of Vietnamese businesses are small and medium sized which are reluctant to spend money to satisfy the requirements. 

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), 98.1 percent of Vietnam’s businesses are SMEs. Meanwhile, the World Bank  (WB) reported that 60 percent of SMEs in 2018 could not access loans from official sources. They still cannot make appropriate investments to upgrade the quality of products for both domestic consumption and exports.

Before Amazon, Walmart also carried out a campaign to seek Vietnamese suppliers. Vinamit's fruit chips are available at Walmart China, while Trung Nguyen coffee has entered Walmart in Chile, Brazil, Mexico and China.

Ten years ago, Walmart received the first catfish consignments from Cuu Long An Giang Import/Export JSC. Right in the first year of selling products through Walmart, the company earned $2 million after investing $1 million.

Thuan Phuong became the first garment supplier present at Walmart network. It now provides 3-5 million products a year to the retailer and has opened two more factories in Long An province to increase productivity.

However, Walmart met big difficulties in Vietnam as many businesses could not satisfy its requirements on goods quality. Will this happen with Amazon?

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