An online meeting between VinaCapital Ventures and DutyCast. VinaCapital has bought an undisclosed share in DutyCast, the creator of a tool that helps consumers buy online globally with ease. — Photo courtesy of VinaCapital Ventures

HCM CITY — VinaCapital Ventures has bought an undisclosed share of Dutycast, the creator of a tool that eases the cross-border e-commerce experience for shoppers by providing transparency around final prices, duties, taxes, and logistics expenses. 

Created in 2020 the app enables customers to buy goods from certain global e-commerce sites and marketplaces with ease. 

In some countries, cross-border shopping comes with hidden surprises around foreign exchange rates, customs duties and local taxes, and shipping and other logistics fees, making the online shopping experience more expensive than planned and creating significant challenges for consumers. 

Dutycast eliminates those surprises as well as other common hindrances such as language and payment methods, with its transaction processing tool providing users with a secure and transparent, end-to-end international shopping experience.

Customers can shop at multiple stores in different countries and checkout once, paying in their local currency via trusted payment methods and without worrying about foreign exchange fluctuations.   

Hoàng Đức Trung, partner at VinaCapital Ventures, said: “E-commerce is growing rapidly in Việt Nam , especially as a result of the pandemic. Anyone living here or in other countries knows how difficult and sometimes frustrating it can be to order from online retailers based overseas. 

“Dutycast provides a very simple solution to that. It is a tool that will be very valuable and useful, not just in Việt Nam but potentially in many countries in the region and around the world where online shopping is not as easy as it should be. We look forward to assisting the founders on scaling up and realising the full potential of their business.”

The global cross-border e-commerce market was valued at US$994 billion in 2020, and is expected to top $2 trillion by 2026. 

In Việt Nam, e-commerce was valued at nearly $12 billion, or 5.5 per cent of all retail sales, according to the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy.

Việt Nam is one of the world’s fastest growing e-commerce markets due to its young, digitally savvy population and rapidly expanding middle class. — VNS