According to a study released by the Ministry of Trade in February, there are 18,000 business websites in Vietnam, many of which enable people to trade online. That is to say the majority of them sell directly to customers, in contrary to those business-to-business (B2B) websites. International success stories like Amazon, Craigslist, eBay and Froogle are more persuasive to the local business community.

For Amazon, its partners in Vietnam include vinabook.com, songhuong.com.vn or golbook.com. For Craigslist, they are webraovat.com, webmuaban.com, or raovat.com. For Froogle, it is izday.com and marofin.com. And although auction is pretty new and risky, people still rush through chodientu.com, haya.com and mBay.com as eBay doesn't accept customers with credit cards from Vietnam.

Books, electronics and digital devices like mobile phones and computers make up the largest proportion of product sales. In deed, 82 percent of the e-commerce businesses are owned by computer hardware/electronics vendors, traders and tour organizers. Everyday, more and more B2C websites take shape, both quantity and quality. Last year, I ordered a pizza at Dijon, a chain of three pizza restaurants in HCMC, at their online shop vietco.com/Dijon, just to receive an email two weeks later saying they missed the order. Yesterday, I ordered a memory card and received it a couple of hours later.

Offline payment

However, most websites require customers to pay 'offline.' This is the most noticeable feature of e-commerce in Vietnam. In addition to direct collection, money transfer and international financial services like Western Union, other sites are also accepted. Just not credit cards.