Voso is the first e-commerce platform focusing on regional specialties. Photo: diendandoanhnghiep.vn

This unified sales channel has provided all services that Viettel Group is running as well as cooperated with manufacturers to distribute products to the district and commune markets. As a result, voso.vn can easily access buyers and sellers, especially in rural and remote markets across the country, making farmers be more active in trading and promoting local economic development, thereby raising the value of Vietnamese agricultural products. Through voso.vn, farmers can search for output and promote exports to foreign markets without having to go through intermediaries. Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Phuong, who is in charge of marketing at Viettel E-commerce One Member Limited Company, said:“Seashells has the advantage of post office selling points and a large number of employees, its employees directly contact suppliers in 63 provinces and cities. They  advise users how to sell e-commerce products most effectively, take the best product photos so that when they are put on e-commerce stores, consumers can see the product and make a purchase decision.”

After a stall owner posts their products onto the Seashells floor, Viettel Post collects all orders, uses the car to transport in batches, and delivers the goods to customers. Viettel Post uses the shared purchase feature and Seashells acts as a supplier to distribute goods to users. Simultaneously, Seashells’ staff come to the site to guide and train stall owners on how to sell on the floor, conduct livestreams on the spot, and provide digital advertising solutions to promote sales as soon as possible. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Xuan of Joint Stock Company of Vietnam Seed Group said: “The platform communicates our products. It often offers programs to support and promote our products to more customers.”

Voso.vn uses advanced digital technologies, provides solutions and connects buyers and sellers by interacting via website system or APP system (via smartphone). The payment has also been connected to payment gateways Viettel money, VNPay, ZaloPay, sales management channels such as Viettelsale, among others. Transactions on voso.vn, whose orders to be delivered within 100 km will be transported by Viettel Post in about 4 hours, from the time of ordering to delivery to consumers. For orders in a longer distance, Viettel Post will transport goods to the gathering point, using last mile technology - last mile delivery to deliver goods to users in the fastest time. Mr. Nguyen Phi Hai of Minh Duong Joint Stock Company, Hanoi, said:“When I just closed the order and signed the contract, the Seashells side immediately made an order and shipped it to the customer very quickly. We did not incur any costs.”

Viettel Post is ambitious to bring Vietnamese agricultural products to conquer the international market through the e-commerce platform Seashells. In June 2021, with the support of the E-commerce and Digital Economy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), more than 4 tons of Bac Giang lychee were successfully piloted to the European market through the Seashells trading floor. In order to be able to operate the cross-border e-commerce flow, Seashells started to build Seashells Global's stall in March 2021. Overseas consumers, especially overseas Vietnamese, can buy quality products of Vietnamese origin at this stall.

After consumers place an order on Seashells Global, the e-commerce platform will collect orders, lychees will be harvested in Vietnam and transported by air to Germany through Viettel Post's transport partners in Germany to deliver to European consumers' homes. Vietnamese lychees delivered to German consumers are GlobalGAP-standard fruits, which have been preliminarily processed to sort out damaged fruits, met the requirements of plant quarantine and quality control in Vietnam and Europe, and been traced back to their origin to the garden through an application provided by iCheck.

After the product is ordered, it only takes about 4-5 days for consumers in Europe to have it delivered to their door. This is the first time Vietnam has exported through cross-border e-commerce on the Make in Vietnam platform.

Mr. Dang Hoang Hai, Director of the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy, Ministry of Industry and Trade. Photo: qdnd.vn

Mr. Dang Hoang Hai, Director of the E-commerce and Digital Economy Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said: “For the first time on Vietnam's e-commerce platform, we have exported lychees to Europe, a very demanding market. This is also a new path that we think will open up a lot of opportunities for other agricultural products.”

After a short time of operation, the voso.vn e-commerce platform, which is a "Make in Vietnam"  product, has won remarkable achievements. They include the only representative of Vietnam honored with the Asia-Pacific Information Technology Award 2020-2021 (APICTA Award), in the "Consumption-Retail and Distribution"  category, the Gold Prize "Make in Vietnam Digital Products" in 2021 in the Excellent Digital Platform category, and the 5th e-commerce platforms in Vietnam for its popularity on social networks according to Reputa's ranking in October 2021.

In 2022, Seashells e-commerce platform aims to continue to increase the number of agricultural production households, through incentive programs, investment in technology application, marketing program towards personalized customer service. Looking further into the future, Seashells aims to become the number 1 e-commerce platform of Vietnamese specialties, connecting producers and farmers with restaurants, convenience store chains and consumers domestically and internationally, contributing to raising the value of Vietnamese agricultural products to the world level.