The trend is back! Vietnam's top five e-commerce companies earn nearly 100 billion yuan a year

The global e-commerce market is booming, and there are not many new blue oceans left, but the Southeast Asian market, which is nearly one trillion US dollars in size, has been reporting good news frequently.

Vietnam, as the country with the fastest growing e-commerce market in Southeast Asia and the third largest in size, is really eye-catching in 2024, and has also attracted many sellers to make plans to make money.

Vietnam’s e-commerce market is booming

Online shopping has become the mainstream, and consumers' preference for online shopping has gradually surpassed offline shopping, while also boosting the growth of e-commerce in Vietnam.

According to a report by e-commerce data platform Metri, in 2024, the revenue of Vietnam 's five major e-commerce platforms , Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop , Tiki and Sendo alone , will reach 318.9 trillion Vietnamese dong (about 91.205 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 37.36%.

In 2024, a total of 3.4 billion items were sold on Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop , Tiki , and Sendo platforms , a significant increase of 50.76% compared to 2023. Among them, the types of goods sold have exceeded 3.4 million.

In 2024, beauty, home appliances, and women's clothing became the three most popular categories in Vietnam's e-commerce market, but groceries had the highest growth rate, reaching 76.3%, highlighting consumers' strong demand for online purchases of daily necessities .

In addition, a series of shopping activities launched during the holidays in the second half of the year have also provided a lot of help to Vietnam's e-commerce platforms.

However, as market competition became increasingly fierce, even though sales volume increased significantly, the number of stores receiving orders decreased by 20.25 % , and many stores left the market in the face of fierce market competition.

The report also counted the average daily online shopping expenditure of the five major e-commerce platforms. In 2024, the average daily online shopping expenditure of the five major e-commerce platforms was 874 billion VND (about 250 million RMB).

Judging from the specific performance of the above five e-commerce platforms, in 2024, Shopee and TikTok Shop had outstanding revenue growth, increasing by 69.79% and 181.31% respectively .

There is no need to say much about Shopee’s status in the Vietnamese market. However, TikTok Shop entered the Vietnamese market obviously later than Shopee, and it has also achieved such excellent results, indicating that consumers’ love for this platform is increasing.

In addition, sales of official brand stores on Shopee and TikTok Shop both increased, with some brands seeing significant sales increases of nearly 70% and over 180% respectively.

At the same time, thanks to the advantages of foreign goods in terms of price and other aspects and the improvement of Vietnam's logistics system, more foreign goods have begun to enter the Vietnamese market, and local consumers are also very willing to pay. In 2024, the sales volume of Vietnam's imported goods exceeded 324 million pieces, and sales reached 14.2 trillion Vietnamese dong (about 4.07 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 38% and 43% respectively.

Vietnam's e-commerce market has great potential

The market prospects are bright, and Vietnam's e-commerce growth has ranked among the top ten fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the world.

Previously, Vietnam's Ministry of E-Commerce and Digital Economy predicted that the overall size of Vietnam's e-commerce market will grow by 20% in 2024 to more than US$25 billion (approximately RMB 182.7 billion). The "Southeast Asia Digital Economy Report 2024" released by Google, Temasek and Bain also predicted that Vietnam's e-commerce scale is expected to be US$22 billion (approximately RMB 160.8 billion) in 2024 and will increase to US$63 billion (approximately RMB 460.4 billion) by 2030.

Although the statistics from the two are different, they both reflect that the size of the Vietnamese market will continue to grow in the future.

At the same time, this fertile soil has also nurtured many Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms. TikTok Shop is one example. It uses live commerce as its main growth engine, combines discount incentives with entertainment-driven shopping, and achieves explosive sales growth through live sales and video commerce.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, TikTok Shop live broadcasts lasted 100,000 hours and attracted 2.9 billion views. The two largest live sales events set a record of 400,000 orders , reflecting Vietnamese consumers' pursuit of live streaming as an emerging shopping method.

Foreign media reported that Vietnam has become the third largest live e-commerce market in Southeast Asia . Live e-commerce has gradually become a mainstream trend, and many local brands have also begun to deploy live e-commerce in order to get a piece of the pie.

Opportunities and challenges coexist. We have reason to believe that the Vietnamese market has unlimited potential, but the unpredictable market environment also requires attention.

Recently, Vietnam has taken action against cross-border e-commerce again.

Previously, goods with a value of less than 1 million Vietnamese dong (about 286.6 yuan) could be imported tax-free via express delivery. Recently, the Vietnamese government announced that it will cancel the VAT exemption policy for low-value goods imported via express delivery from February 18, 2025. This policy may create a relatively fair competition environment for local companies, but it will also increase the costs of cross-border sellers and weaken their market competitiveness.

Affected by this policy, Shopee Vietnam will also impose a maximum value-added tax of 10% on imported goods arriving at local customs from February 18 (local time). From February 13 (Beijing time), the product page will automatically display the tax-inclusive price, and the buyer will pay the amount including the value-added tax.

With the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, adjusting tariff policies has become a common response measure for major overseas markets. Sellers can pay attention to market trends in real time and reduce unnecessary losses in a timely manner .

Vietnam is not the only country that is digging for hot land

There are many potential markets in Southeast Asia. There is no doubt that Indonesia is far ahead in the scale of e-commerce in Southeast Asia. In addition to Indonesia and Vietnam mentioned above, the scale of e-commerce in Thailand cannot be ignored.

Thailand's economic size and per capita income are both among the top three in Southeast Asian markets, and it has huge room for development.

The "Southeast Asia Digital Economy Report 2024" released by Google, Temasek and Bain also shows that Thailand's e-commerce scale is expected to reach US$26 billion (approximately RMB 190 billion) in 2024, higher than Vietnam, an increase of 19% from 2023.

In the future, Thailand's e-commerce market will continue to maintain rapid growth, and is expected to grow to US$60 billion (approximately RMB 438.4 billion) by 2030.

Thailand has an outstanding performance in the global online shopping field . A report released by We Are Social and Meltwater shows that among the respondents in Thailand aged 16 and above, as many as 96.2% make online purchases at least once a week, which is the highest proportion in the world.

Thailand's e-commerce market is developing rapidly. Online shopping has penetrated into people's daily lives and has gradually become the first choice for shopping. The huge user base also provides a continuous source of nutrients for the booming development of e-commerce.

At present, the development status of Thailand's e-commerce platforms is diversified and highly competitive. Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop are also the three major mainstream platforms in Thailand, but their advantages are different and each has its own advantages.

In fact, whether it is Vietnam or Thailand, the treasure market of Southeast Asia can always bring surprises, but competition is also everywhere. Sellers should pay attention to market trends in many aspects and respond in time.

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