Vietnamese consumers spent $4.07 billion purchasing goods via e-commerce in 2015, a 37 per cent increase against 2014 and accounting for 2.8 per cent of total retail revenue, according to the E-Commerce Report 2015 released on April 14 by the Vietnam E-Commerce and Information Technology Agency (VECITA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

On average each person spent about $160 on e-commerce purchases in 2015. Clothing, footwear, and cosmetics were the best-selling category, accounting for 64 per cent of revenue, followed by technology, electronic goods, and household appliances and equipment.

E-commerce websites earning the highest revenue were those selling airline tickets, electronic and digital items, and audio equipment.

The ten leading websites by revenue were vietnamairlines.com, thegioididong.com, esale.zing.vn, fptshop.com.vn, lazada.com.vn, nguyenkim.com, pico.com, dienmaycholon.vn, hc.com.vn and phucanh.vn.

The top ten e-commerce exchanges in terms of revenue were lazada.vn, chodientu.vn, hotdeal.vn, vatgia.com, enbac.com, rongbay.com, sendo.vn, cungmua.com, deca.vn and adayroi.com.  

A VECITA survey on 500 people in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City found that 88 per cent used mobile devices to research goods and services prior to purchase and 45 per cent used mobile devices to search for information on goods at least once a day.

Forty per cent of respondents said that they spent less than VND100,000 ($4.50) on average when buying goods via mobile devices, while 36 per cent spent from VND100,000 ($4.50) to VND500,000 ($22.50) and 24 per cent spent over VND500,000 ($22.50).