Dairy giant Vinamilk launches online shopping site

               Vinamilk products displayed for sale at a shop in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham

Milk, yogurt and ice-cream are now available at the click of a button.

Vietnam’s dairy giant Vinamilk has put its products online for the first time by launching a shopping site this month targeting customers in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Vinamilk eShop website offers all of the company’s products for debit and credit card payment, making the company the first company in Vietnam’s fast moving consumer goods sector, or FMCG, to launch an online business.

The move comes at a time when e-commerce is picking up in Vietnam, where nearly 49 million people, or more than half of the country’s population, are internet users, and more than half of them shop online.

Vinamilk, known for its diverse portfolio of products ranging from milk and formula to yogurt and ice-cream, has for years been one of the country’s most sought-after equities.

The government currently owns 45.1 percent of the company and recently confirmed a plan to sell the stake later this year.

U.K.-based consultancy firm Brand Finance last month ranked the company the most valuable brand in Vietnam, valuating it at more than $1 billion.

Operations at the company’s 13 plants in Vietnam and one each in Cambodia, New Zealand and the UK are expected to increase its 2016 revenue by 11.3 percent from last year to $2 billion.

By VnExpress