Vietnam mobile e-commerce value to reach $10.2 billion by 2023

E-wallets in Vietnam have benefited greatly from changes in payment habits during the pandemic .

Mobile e-commerce in Vietnam is growing rapidly and is expected to reach a valuation of US$10.2 billion by 2023, according to the 2021 Vietnam Mobile Application Report by market research firm Appota .

The report shows that mobile e-commerce is experiencing dramatic growth, accounting for around half of all business-to-consumer e-commerce revenue in Vietnam .

Mobile platforms also showed an advantage over desktops in terms of transaction rates , accounting for 62% of all transactions , while desktop users only accounted for 38%.

Last year, China had 49 million online shoppers aged 15 and over , ranking third in Southeast Asia after Indonesia ( 137 million) and the Philippines (57 million). However, this number only accounted for 65% of the total, which is not high compared with Malaysia (83%) , Singapore ( 79%) and the Philippines (74%) .

The report pointed out: This shows that the potential of Vietnam's payment and e-commerce market is huge , both in terms of the number of users and potential value .

A survey by We Are Social shows that the 25- to 54-year-old age group is the most shoppers , accounting for about 82-85% of the respondents . Generation Z accounts for 70.6% and is the pioneer of the online shopping trend. However, the middle-aged consumer group is more familiar with this model, so online shopping will become more popular .

As financial and economic losses affected consumers' purchasing power, transaction volume did not see a significant increase in 2020 compared to 2019. Vietnam's total digital transaction volume in 2020 reached US$11.6 billion.

In 2020, Vietnam's total spending through online channels averaged $280.3 per person, of which transactions through mobile POS and digital commerce accounted for 21.8% and 78.2% respectively. As Vietnam's economy is expected to recover after the epidemic, the value of digital payments is expected to reach nearly $15.1 billion this year, a 30% increase from 2020.

German market research firm Statista estimates that in 2021, spending through digital commerce will be close to $250 per capita, while spending through mobile POS payments will be close to $74.

In 2020, there were 121 startups operating in the fintech sector in Vietnam , of which electronic payment was the largest fintech startup, accounting for 31%, followed by P2P lending, accounting for 16%.

Vietnam’s leading e-wallet has seen a sharp increase in users over the past year, thanks to changing payment habits in the country.

Last September, Momo Wallet announced that it had 20 million users, becoming the most used e-wallet in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnamese payment startup VNPay was valued at over $1 billion, according to Google's Economy SEA 2020 report, and is considered the second unicorn startup after VNG.

In terms of downloads, Momo is the most downloaded e-wallet, with peak downloads of 992,000 and 839,000 in February and March, respectively. As of February this year, Vettel, Payet and Zalope have surpassed the former, and the competition between the two is very fierce.

Vietnam

E-commerce