Vietnam’s e-commerce market value approaches $57 bln

The size of Vietnam’s e-commerce market could grow from $4 billion in 2015 to $57 billion in 2025 as Google forecast, says the Vietnam E-commerce Association (Vecom).

Nguyen Thanh Hung, a Vecom official, also said that the sector was witnessing fierce competition and many players have disappeared from the market.

Major players like VDC sieu thi (vdcsieuthi.vnn.vn), GoPhatdat (gophatdat.com), VnEmart (vnemart.com) left the market in 2001-2010. They were followed by 123Mua, Muachung, Nhommua, Vatgia, Deca, FoodPanda, Zaloza and Adayroi in the 2010-2020 period.

Two more Vietnamese players might leave the market in 2021-2025, amid competition from social media-based businesses with massive resources like Facebook, Zalo, and TikTok, Hung told a recent conference on e-commerce.

Besides, the e-commerce sector in Vietnam still faces several challenges, including human resources, development gaps between localities, and underdeveloped online payment systems, with 86% of e-commerce deals in Vietnam completed by cash payments, Hung noted.

Apart from the habit of using cash, the lack of trust among customers in products sold online is a concern, he added.

Earlier, a report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company said Vietnam is the fastest expanding digital economy in Southeast Asia, surpassing Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. The Vietnamese digital economy’s gross merchandise value (GMV) is projected to grow 28% year-on-year to $23 billion this year, up from $18 billion in 2021, bolstered by a 26% year-on-year growth in e-commerce, according to the report released on October 27.

The business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce industry in Vietnam is likely to see revenues reach $16.4 billion in 2022, up 20% year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The 20% growth is on par with past growth of between 24% and 30% in 2017-2019 and a smaller pace of 16%-18% in 2020-2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the ministry said in its white paper on e-commerce in the country released in September.

Vietnam’s retail e-commerce gross merchandise value will increase from $13.8 billion in 2021 to more than double at $30.6 billion by 2026, according to Research and Markets. The market in Vietnam is expected to grow by 18.56% on annual basis to reach $16.4 billion in 2022, the market insights provider says in its "Vietnam B2C Ecommerce Market Opportunities Databook” released last month.