In the past two years, Vietnam saw an increase in online purchasing of local consumers and businesses. (Photo: courtesy of IDEA) Accordingto IDEA, the country’s e-commerce market, in 2020, reached 11.8 billion USD. Inthe past two years, Vietnam has seen positive changes in online purchasing withboth consumers and firms moving online. The growth rate of e-commerce retaillast year was 18 percent.
Anotherreport from Google, Temasek và Bain & Company announced in the beginning ofthe year also showed that Vietnam has been one of the most dynamic e-commerce marketsin Southeast Asia.
Thereport also revealed that internet users in Vietnam account for 41 percent ofthe population, the highest in the region. Up to 94 percent of new users planto continue to use the digital services they used during social distancingafter the pandemic ceases to be an issue.
Thiscould form a firm foundation for the development of e-commerce in the country,the IDEA added.
Statisticsfrom the E-commerce White Book showed that the rate of new internet usersshopping online had also increased from 77 percent in 2019 to 88 percent in2020.
Thevalue of goods purchased online also increased from 229 USD in 2019 to 240 USDin 2020 per person. Business-to-customer (B2C) e-commerce revenue now accountsfor 5.5 percent of the country’s total retail sales.
Essentialitems such as food and household appliances account for an increasingproportion of online sales. The data showed that 53 percent of users shop forfood online; 43 percent shop for shoes, clothes, and cosmetics; and 33 percentshop for household appliances.
Specifically,in 2020, 74 percent of people were shopping on websites and e-commerceplatforms. Alternatively, online shoppers buying on forums and social networksreached 33 percent. This was a significant increase from the previous year with52 percent buying on e-commerce channels and 57 percent on social networks in2019.
E-commerceplatforms continued to see high growth in terms of revenue, users and sellersand sites like Shopee, Lazada, Tiki and Sendo have increased their offering offood and essential goods to meet user demands.
Onlinee-commerce platform, Lazada, has seen these outcomes first hand. In the secondquarter of 2020, they reported the number of people accessing their platformeveryday doubled while the number of orders tripled.
Inaddition, the number of sellers on the platform doubled too and revenue on allproducts on Lazada has seen growth from the second quarter of last year.
Bigbrand names have also started to join e-commerce platforms. In the first threemonths of the year, the number of big brands joining special promotionprogrammes on Lazada was double that of the same period last year.
However,the IDEA said there are still many challenges for users participating in onlineshopping.
Upto 44 percent of respondents said they think that price held them back frommaking a purchase, 42 percent said they were concerned about the qualitycompared to how they were advertised, and 33 percent said they were concernedabout their personal information being disclosed.
Inaddition, poor shipping, delivery and customer care services were also listedas reasons many consumers were not open to this form of shopping./.
VNA
