As online sales boom, fast-delivery services thrive

Giving up a job as a technical official for a television company in HCMC, Tran Tue Man decided to provide a delivery service.

Man is optimistic about the new business after six months of operation. The business he set up has been recruiting new workers as the business is scaling up.

“The fast delivery service market has become very competitive, but it is still a ‘blue ocean’ with great potential,” the founder of ‘Giao hang gia re’ (low-cost delivery) said.

“Many online shops have arisen,” he explained, adding that the number of orders his business receives has increased by 30-50 percent a month.

However, he said 30-50 percent is still a modest growth rate. “If my sale and marketing team expands, a 100-300 percent growth rate will be within reach,” he said.

Many businesses, from startups to big express delivery firms, have jumped into the market of fast delivery services for online shops.
Man said his company plans to launch an app of its own in September. To compete with other delivery services, his company also is providing package services, such as marketing for online shops.

Man’s startup project is one of several delivery service firms which have been booming in the last three years.

Not only startups but big companies in some business fields have also decided to expand their business by joining the market.

As a result, the fast delivery service market, which only had 5-6 players in 2013, now has more than 50 businesses.

GrabExpress of Grab taxi transport also provides goods delivery service at a very competitive fee – VND15,000 for the first two kilometers and VND5,000 for the next kilometer. However, GrabExpress does not provide money collection services.

As for Lazada, since October 2015, LazadaExpress, the forwarding unit, has become a separate division which not only delivers goods for Lazada but also provides services for other e-commerce websites.

Meanwhile, DHL eCommerce is considering delivering goods with electric motorbikes. Providing fast delivery services for online shops is no longer a minor business which large logistics and forwarding firms can ignore.

On July 17, Deutsche Post DHL announced its participation in the domestic B2C transport market in Vietnam with DHL eCommerce. The solution includes a range of tailor-made services to fit the e-commerce boom.

Thomas Harris, managing director of DHL eCommerce, said the company employed 300 workers after four weeks of operation.

Before DHL, VNPost, ViettePost and Giao Hang Nhanh, the firms holding the biggest market shares in the delivery market, also launched services specifically designed for e-commerce.

In 2016, the total spending on e-commerce reached $1 billion, though only 50 percent of people used the internet.