Vietnam has seen impressive growth in e-commerce within the region, according to the SYNC Southeast Asia report - Southeast Asia’s digital consumers: A new stage of evolution, released by Bain & Company and Meta.

In the past five years, the e-commerce market in the region and in Vietnam has experienced something of a boom. By 2027, Vietnam is expected to see the highest growth rate in the region, of about 28 per cent and reaching $40 billion. The average contribution of e-commerce to total retail sales has continued to grow and stands at 15 per cent.

Mr. Khoi Le, Country Director of Meta in Vietnam, said that over the past year, Vietnam saw an additional 4 million digital consumers making online purchases. In particular, eight out of every ten people of working age are now digital consumers. This means that Vietnam has 60 million digital consumers.

Post-pandemic, 10 per cent of Vietnamese respondents to the report’s survey had moved at least one of their shopping categories from offline to online. “This shows that online shopping continues to serve as an important channel in the country,” Mr. Khoi said.

Vietnam is among the leading markets in terms of adoption of technologies such as financial technology (fintech) and the Metaverse. Fifty-eight per cent of its digital consumers have used fintech solutions (online banking, e-wallets, money transfer apps, etc.) over the past year. Moreover, the number of online platforms used by Vietnamese consumers increased from eight in 2021 to 16 in 2022.

Businesses in Vietnam’s e-commerce market will be able to thrive if they focus on the right direction, build integrated channel strategies, establish flexible supply chains, and use digital tools and new technologies to reach, interact with, enhance the experience for, and retain digital consumers.