Handicraft trade slow to embrace e-commerce

Handicraft businesses in northern Bac Ninh Province have been slow to embrace e-commerce, according to Nguyen Duc Hung, director of the Trade Promotion Centre under the Industry and Commerce Department.

Hung said there were more than 3,000 small handicraft businesses in the province but that many were missing out on not applying new technology to reach potential domestic and international customers.

“Small–and medium-sized ones and handicraft villages have not been active in participating in the activity,” Hung said.

He said the lack of awareness of the benefits e-commerce can bring was chiefly to blame for its lack of application, adding that those businesses that had launched website, lacked the necessary investment to upgrade them.

“There were some websites that sound like jokes,” Hung said.

He said that the Trade Promotion Centre had helped 50 firms launch websites, but that others were reluctant to follow suit.

Set up in secret

“An ornamental plants business in Tien Du District refused to make their own website. Unknown to them, their son set one up himself in secret and told his parents the truth when he began receiving huge orders from foreign countries,” Hung said.

He said that since their own website www.cayxanhphulam.vn, had been launched they had received five orders from domestic and foreign customers, and that some were long-term contracts up to 2013.

Hung added that in the first half of this year, six out of 29 websites had received 22 online orders up to 2015 worth a total of VND2.6 billion (US$149,000).

Nguyen Dang Che, a 75-year-old artisan at the Dong Ho Painting Folk Culture Exchange Centre, said creating a websites was crucial to the future success of a business, providing much-needed access to foreign markets.

“However, not everybody understands the benefits,” Hung said, adding that those websites that had been set up were usually poorly designed and did not allow customers to pay online.

“They are in Vietnamese and badly designed. A lack of online payment as well as trade promotion is typical of almost all the websites,” Hung said.

“We have only received small domestic orders through our website though it was established in 1994,” said the owner of Xuan Lai Traditional Bamboo Production Co-operative, whose website address is www.maytrekinhbac.com.vn.

Provincial officials began helping businesses develop e-commerce in 2007. “Under the policy, 60 per cent of handicraft villages, both traditional and modern, will have websites,” Hung said, adding that training courses were set up to spread the e-commerce message.

However, Hung said lack of funds meant that the province could only offer guidance to handicraft firms.

“We can only offer support in terms of technique. Investment capital, human resources and awareness are huge problems for villages to deal with,” Hung said.

Nguyen Dang Tam from the Dong Ho Folk Painting Business, which has the website www.tranhdongho.com.vn, said his firm had yet to receive a single online order.

“We want to upgrade our website into English. However, it is difficult for us to hire people who know the language,” Tam said.

“Web administration and maintaining a website also require well-informed people,” Hung said.

He said that the province provided a domain name, design know-how and fees for maintaining a website for a year. Businesses would have to invest about VND10 million ($570) to set up a web page.

“Investing in e-commerce is cheap in comparison the cost of travelling and meeting customers,” Hung said.

Hung said the centre in the first six-month of this year helped set up 29 websites. It also organised trips to Hai Phong, Ha Noi and the northern province of Vinh Phuc so businesses could get a better insight into the benefits of e-commerce.

He said more than 100 businesses were given IT training and that the province planned to set up a further 50 websites by the end of the year.

The province was planning to launch a media campaign to publicise e-commerce and expand its training programme, Hung said.

Tags: Vietnam business news, Vietnam Handicraft