Vietnam e-commerce forecast to exceed US$11.8 billion

Vietnam's e-commerce market will continue to grow in the post- epidemic era and its revenue will exceed that of last year , experts revealed at the recent Vietnam Science and Technology Festival 2021 Digital Economy Future Seminar .

According to Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy , director of the e-commerce department of the Voso e-commerce platform , Vietnam's e-commerce market is the fastest growing in Southeast Asia . Last year, Vietnam's e-commerce revenue reached US $11.8 billion, with a growth rate of 18 %.

It is expected that e-commerce will continue to flourish and create new consumption trends after the epidemic is brought under control. Since the outbreak of the epidemic , the demand for online shopping through e-commerce platforms in the Vietnamese market has increased dramatically.

So far, more than 70% of Vietnam’s population has access to the Internet, of which nearly 50% of consumers have tried online shopping, and 53 % have used e-wallets and online payments.

Thuy said that during the epidemic , consumers' habits have completely changed. They have reduced offline shopping activities, focused more on buying daily necessities , and increased their interest in Vietnamese local products .

Tran Chi Dung, head of the Technology Innovation Department of the Vietnam Logistics Business Association, said that changes in shopping habits have created huge opportunities for the development of e-commerce. However, e-commerce in Vietnam still faces many challenges, such as consumer trust when purchasing online goods , payment and delivery methods , user information security and logistics transportation .

Le Thi Mai Anh, head of Vietnam Post's e-commerce sales department , also said that the rapid growth of the market is expected to continue in the future. This growth will not only bring major opportunities, but the growing demands of customers and the market will also bring challenges to the development of logistics platforms.

She also said that e-commerce logistics companies also face the problem of low application of information technology. Currently, only about 11% of companies are applying information technology related to tracking and tracing goods, delivery and warehousing. Anh also mentioned that the lack of a legal framework for e-commerce logistics is also a challenge facing the local e-commerce industry .