An agency under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade has introduced the sixth edition of an online sales program scheduled for Friday, for which a national store will be launched on the platform of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.

The first Friday of December has been designated as ‘Online Friday’ by the Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) since 2014, a replica of ‘Black Friday’ – the busiest annual shopping event in the U.S.

The shopping spree will be available on the onlinefriday.vn website and the Online Friday mobile apps for iOS and Android devices for the sixth consecutive edition of the event this year.

As many as 50,000 products from more than 1,000 brands will be offered at hefty discounts of up to 70 percent.

The organizing board is expecting 830,000 orders valued at VND2.5 trillion (US$108.6 million) to be placed during the day-long event.

This year, apart from the aforementioned domestic websites, the trade ministry plans to introduce Vietnamese products internationally through an online national store on JD.com - the second-largest B2C online retailer in China after Alibaba.

Speaking at a press conference announcing the 2019 Online Friday on Monday, iDEA head Dang Hoang Hai said the organizing board had had a meeting with JD’s vice-chairman for the launch of the national store.

“The store will be operated by iDEA’s Center for Information and Digital Technology,” Hai said.

According to Hai, about ten Vietnamese brands have been chosen to be listed on the online store, with more to come when the store is put into official operation by the end of this month.

The 2019 Online Friday will introduce e-vouchers for the first time in an attempt to enhance customers’ shopping experience.

Last year, participating enterprises raked in VND2.5 trillion (US$108.6 million), exceeding the sale forecast by 167 percent.

JD is currently the largest shareholder of Tiki, an online shopping website that hopes to become Vietnam's Amazon, with an ownership rate of 25.65 percent as of August 2019, according to the National Business Registration Portal.

In Vietnam, two national online stores will also be opened for the first time on two Vietnamese e-commerce platforms Sendo and VOSO.

Sendo is developed by technology corporation FPT, while VOSO is powered by military-run telecoms group Viettel.

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