After moving to Vietnam, I discovered too late that Amazon dot com doesn’t deliver to Vietnam. In fact, Vietnam is not even on the list of countries. If you are really set on using Amazon, there are a couple of options available.
The first option for using Amazon in Vietnam, is to have a contact in the US who will forward the purchases to you. This take a long time and is maybe an imposition on your friend. It’s possible that you can hire a service to do this for you, but the reality is that most businesses will refuse. There would be a liability risk for a business to do this.
One person doing this complained. “It’s a hassle to buy stuff from overseas to have it shipped back to Vietnam. I used to be asked from friends and family to buy things here in the US and sent back to them. The problem is it takes forever to collect the money and sometimes it’s only $50 to $100 in total, but I’d have to go to the local shipping service to send the package and that basically I’d have to spend 4, 5 hours in total just to help someone out. It comes to a point that I feel dreaded when someone asks for help.”
The last time I checked (for this article, March 2019), Vietnam was not on the list of countries. Previously, I had added a Vietnam address, but when I selected this for the default delivery location, the page did not update. However, according to this article, Amazon.com is to officially launch its e-commerce services in Vietnam, with the aim of taking on Chinese rival Alibaba in one of the fastest-growing e-tailing markets in the world.
Further in the article, Amazon has been lagging behind its Chinese rivals in cultivating Vietnam. Alibaba officially entered the country last year, and claimed it had accumulated tens of thousands of business members after just half a year. By comparison, some 200 Vietnamese companies are currently selling their items on the Amazon platform, according to the latest survey by the Vietnamese authorities. However, that article is dated March 2018, just one year ago.
More than 90% of investment into Vietnam’s e-commerce platforms has come from foreign sources, including from China, South Korea and Thailand as of 2017. Popular names in the market include Lazada, Tiki, Vatgia, Hotdeal, Shopee, Nguyenkim, Adayroi, Thegioididong, Sendo, FPT shop and Careerlink.
Until the Amazon information is updated with an official announcement, Lazada is the supplier of choice. Lazada is Amazon’s Asian competitor, and lazada aldready delivers. Lazada began as an independent company. Today, Alibaba has bought into this company and many of the products come from AliExpress. They are generally reliable, though shipping to Vietnam takes a little time.
Lazada website
There is an English, option, but many product descriptions are still in Vietnamese. There is a wide selection of products, and service is good. It is looks like it is styled after Amazon, but maybe it’s the other way around.