Livestreaming right at the garden to sell agricultural products across the country

From having little understanding of computers or email, farmers are now unhesitate to broadcast themselves, livestreaming directly from their gardens in order to sell their agricultural goods through e-commerce platforms.

Employees of the Vietnam Post Office come to the garden to guide farmers to use the e-commerce platform.

Begin from the zero 

With the launch of Postmart.vn in 2019, Vietnam Post has established a channel for agricultural distribution and consumption in the country's e-commerce system. This is the result of a lengthy operation by experts from Vietnam Post's Brand Research and Development Department, who lived and worked with farmers through several years and various crops.

Before the launch of Postmart.vn, in 2017-2018, Vietnam Post researchers collaborated with provincial and district postal personnel to improve access to farmers.

"Through the provincial postal system, we requested to participate in cooperative working sessions and seminars to educate people about the functions and advantages of Postmart.vn in comparison to conventional sales," Mr. Nguyen Dang Hung, Vietnam Post's training specialist, said.

The most difficult part was the first approach; practically all farmers had no idea what selling online or on an e-commerce platform meant, and hence were suspicious of the digital transformation's success. People were cautious and suspected of being scammed.

Mr. Hung recalled those bygone days, saying, "In some remote areas, farmers have no concept of email or bank accounts, so we have to build from zero." It was difficult to convince farmers to switch from wholesale to retail on Postmart.vn".

Certain ethnic minorities in Son La, Lang Son need the assistance of "interpreters" who are officials of the Commune Post and Culture Office throughout the training process. Alternatively, regional variations in the naming of crops such as whips/plums must be accommodated.

After introducing people to the efficiency of e-commerce, Vietnam Post's professionals continued to coach farmers through the process of setting up booths, displaying agricultural products, and how to sell things online.

After two years of advising and assisting farmers in bringing agricultural goods to e-commerce platforms, Vietnam Post experts have gained expertise and developed a fairly comprehensive handbook for this activity.

Accordingly, the most critical and priority aspects are the approach and explanation for farmers to comprehend the advantages of participation in the platform, which include reducing the cost of mediators, gaining help from Vietnam Post, and embrace of contemporary business trends.

Following that, the specialists will thoroughly address all of the farmers' queries before moving on to the practical phase, delivering extensive lessons till the farmer is comfortable with computers and phones.

And yet, even after the items are placed on the market, Vietnam Post's team will continue to monitor and assist as needed, as well as coordinate advertising through information channels on the internet.

Visit gardens to familiarize with agricultural goods and farmers

To have a deeper understanding of farmers and agricultural goods, Vietnam Post training experts must visit farms personally.

Additionally, to assure the quality of items introduced into the e-commerce network for sale, particularly agricultural products and fresh foods, each type needs a unique harvesting and packing procedure.

In 2021, lychee and longan were the most popular agricultural items on Postmart.vn, and to succeed in e-commerce for these two fruits, Vietnam Post personnel spent months in the garden researching before entering the main harvest.

While lychee is a hot fruit that must be placed in cold styrofoam boxes and delivered in refrigerated vehicles, longan is a hydrophobic fruit that requires tarpaulin picking and drying and can be transported in standard trucks.

These may seem like little matters to farmers, but it takes 2-3 weeks for Vietnam Post's e-commerce professionals to grasp how to run Postmart.vn properly in the previous year's lychee and longan crop.

By the beginning of December 2021, four months after executing the Ministry of Information and Communication's plan 1034, Vietnam Post had assisted in the enrollment of 2.5 million households in Postmart.vn, enabling the consumption of over 20,000 tons of agricultural commodities.

Additionally, Vietnam Post provides direct and online training classes to educate farmers, cooperatives, and business houses on how to do business on the platform. Vietnam Post has previously provided direct training to farmers in the provinces of Lang Son, Hoa Binh, Son La, Bac Kan, and Thai Nguyen.

Vietnam Post's aim is to boost Postmart.vn into the most trustful e-commerce platform in Vietnam - for Vietnamese people - while also serving as a bridge between suppliers, stores, enterprises, and consumers, maximizing advantages for both seller and buyer.

The unit decides that Postmart.vn's primary development objective is to specialize in supplying Vietnamese agricultural goods and regional specialities that meet the criteria "Safety - Quality - Convenience."

Vietnam Post's current main objective is to establish "digital shops" for households in cyberspace in general, and specifically on Postmart.vn. Through these shops, it is possible to discover consumers, connect sellers and buyers, and build electronic payment accounts based on the digital address positioning system, therefore creating a digital ecosystem comprised of sales websites, sales apps for smartphones, and traceability portals.

In the future, Postmart.vn will not only assist suppliers and agricultural producers in developing their own brands to increase the value of their products, but will also serve as a breakthrough in bringing 23 million households closer to digital technology, thereby serving as the foundation for promoting people's digital transformation, agriculture and rural areas' digitalization, and gradually building a digital citizen and a digital nation.