From queuing to booking to online shopping

A time of ration stamps

I was born in the early 80s, so the image of my mother waking up early and joining the queue of people shopping for Tet is unforgettable. Goods were scarce at that time and under the rationing system, all food and food items were regulated in ration stamps.

Normally, it is difficult to line up to reserve a spot, but on the days before Tet, the queue gets longer and it becomes even more difficult to buy things. Every family has to line up from 3-4 am to buy according to Tet standards. My mother is the same.

The Tet bag my mother brought home always had a box of mixed jams with some bird egg candy, pink, green, yellow, white coconut jam, carrot jam packed in a hexagonal box, surrounded by the words “Happy New Year”; tea bags, cigarette packs, lemon wine bottles, candy packs, bamboo shoots, vermicelli, green beans and sticky rice to wrap banh chung and banh dao, a little of each.

Long-lasting items such as vermicelli, bamboo shoots, sugar, jam, etc. are bought about half a month before Tet, while dong leaves and rice paper are bought only a week before Tet. Especially pork, because it cannot be kept for long, people only start lining up to buy it from the 27th of December. During the days from the 27th to the 30th of Tet, every store is packed with people standing in long lines.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, a retired official of the Provincial Labor Federation in Kim Son Street, Tan Binh Ward, said: “During the subsidy period, everything was in short supply, so preparing for Tet was very elaborate. Starting from December, agencies had to send people to the localities to contact and buy more pigs, sticky rice, vermicelli, bamboo shoots, dong leaves... to distribute to cadres and workers. As a result, union workers like me often had a lot of work. We had to slaughter pigs, divide rice, divide leaves, and then bring them to each family.” Because of such private channels, agencies that had close relationships with localities would have more abundant Tet rations.

Digital production, digital commerce

In 1986, our country entered a period of innovation and opening up, with open production and business.

The “sweet fruit” of the economic modernization process is that now, just sitting at home, clicking the mouse or tapping on the smartphone, you will have a full shopping cart. The digital economy is no longer a concept but has infiltrated into commercial activities.

On the occasion of the Lunar New Year, Long Hai Company Limited in Hai Duong City will supply the market with about 1.7 million boxes of jelly products (equivalent to 12,000 tons), an increase of 15% compared to the Lunar New Year 2024. The company has installed and put into production a fresh cream jelly production line with a capacity of about 4 tons/day.

In addition to investing in products, Long Hai focuses on promoting to consumers. The company negotiates and signs contracts with large chains and systems such as Coopmart, Bach Hoa Xanh, Go, Winmart to bring products to serve in these systems. Sales on e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada... are also promoted for investment.

This Tet, consumers only need a smartphone with the Thach Long Hai application installed to be able to buy all products directly from the manufacturer, with fast delivery progress and many incentives and conveniences.

The short videos that Mr. Pham Tien Du posted on the Tiktok account "Hai Duong Fish Sauce" became a trend in just a short time.

As Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kim Thanh Clean Agriculture Cooperative, to boost sales, Mr. Du learned how to make videos and sell his products on Facebook, Fanpage, Zalo, and TikTok.

In addition to promoting Hai Duong fish sauce (the main product of Kim Thanh Clean Agricultural Products Cooperative, which has been recognized as a 3-star OCOP), the cooperative is also a supplier of clean meat products and seasonal rustic dishes such as blood worms, eggplant, etc. Each season has its own food, and Mr. Du produces promotional videos for his products. Thanks to that, social media channels are now the main transaction channels of the cooperative.

Selling by advertising on social networking platforms and participating in e-commerce platforms is a popular form that attracts more and more businesses, business households, and many farmers in Hai Duong to participate, with Long Hai Company or Kim Thanh Clean Agricultural Products Cooperative being examples.

Hai Duong has been synchronously implementing many solutions to promote e-commerce development, actively supporting businesses to introduce and promote product consumption on trading floors. Maintaining applications serving the development of the e-commerce market such as: online map of Vietnamese Point of Sale; provincial e-commerce trading floor; software for collecting and managing online import and export information of the province...

People now just need to sit at home, find information, choose products and click a button to order. Cashless payments are also becoming popular. According to the Department of Industry and Trade, in the 11 months of 2024, the total revenue from e-commerce sales of organizations and individuals in the whole province is estimated at 4,500 billion VND (in 2023 it was 4,070 billion VND).