Changes in consumer behavior and shopping needs as well as the trend of personalizing the buying experience promise to push the Vietnamese e-commerce market to a new height.
A glance at Vietnam’s e-commerce market in 2021
A recent report on the e-commerce market by Lazada noted that, despite challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 was considered a prosperous year for the digital economy across Southeast Asia, in which e-commerce was the main growth driver.
According to Statista, the value of e-commerce market in Southeast Asia has increased 24 times in the past 6 years, from 5 billion USD in 2015 to 120 billion USD in 2021; and is expected to reach 234 billion USD in 2025. Vietnam's retail e-commerce market is forecasted to increase by 300%, from 13 billion USD in 2021 to 39 billion USD in 2025.
The driving force for this growth comes from the trend of grocery shopping on e-commerce platforms, the increase in the number of new sellers (meaning that more and more sellers want to develop their business on online channels), and people's response to Shoppertainment activities (shopping combined with entertainment).
The age of online consumers on e-commerce platforms has been expanded. People spend more time on these platforms, and are willing to place orders of greater quantity and value.
Specifically, 58% of Vietnamese consumers think that they will continue to shop for groceries on e-commerce platforms because of the convenience and this habit will still remain with 53% saying that online grocery shopping has become a normal part of their lives.
Vietnamese consumers are also willing to spend more online. Data shows that the percentage of online consumers shopping over 5 million VND in 2020 increased significantly compared to 2019.
The report of the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM) also acknowledged that the Covid-19 epidemic has promoted the development of e-commerce, which has both promoted online consumers to increase rapidly in both quantity and quality while increasing the number of merchants participating in digital transformation.
The survey results of 4 leading e-commerce platforms in Vietnam show that the number of orders generated in the period June - September 2021, when the fourth wave of Covid-19 broke out, increased sharply compared to the same period in 2020 with a growth rate between 8% and 50%.
The above results are similar to the business trends of delivery service providers. According to the survey results of the top 9 enterprises in the field of delivery, most companies had the same or higher order growth compared to the same period in 2020, with an average growth of about 12%.
In addition, under the impact of the pandemic, a large number of merchants have made efforts to digitalize to capture new business opportunities.
Forecast for 2022
Assessing the development of e-commerce in the near future, Lazada predicts a number of new trends that will take place. Specifically, Social commerce will continue to grow strongly in 2022. Accordingly, sales methods using highly interactive content, direct communication with consumers such as livestream, virtual booth experience, Shoppertainment activities will help boost sales.
Revenue from sales via livestream is expected to continue to increase, leading to a high demand for product reviews to support purchasing decisions.
Multi-channel will become a new form of retail. Brands will take advantage of both traditional and online channels by joining e-commerce platforms, using available online marketing tools.
The customer shopping journey will gradually be personalized. This will be the key to attracting attention and retaining consumers. E-commerce platforms are already investing in AI and Big Data to aggregate and process information, thereby designing their own experiences.
Finally, diversifying payment methods brings convenience and safety. To enhance convenience for consumers, e-wallet payments are becoming more popular and are likely to dominate over payment on delivery (CoD) in the near future.
Source: VietnamCredit
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