According to the Vietnam E-commerce White Paper 2021 of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Vietnamese e-commerce market has grown steadily over the past five years. In 2016, this market reached 5 billion USD in value, but it doubled to reach over 10 billion USD by 2019.

This growth momentum still maintained in 2020, with 11.8 billion USD, an increase of 18% over 2019. Although this was the slowest growth rate in the past five years, this industry is still forecast to reach 39 billion USD by 2025.

Vietnam's economic growth slowed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but in 2021, the digital economy in general and e-commerce in particular was a bright spot. According to a report by Google, Temasek and Bain&Company, the total merchandise value (GMV) of the e-commerce industry in Vietnam grew dramatically from 8 billion USD in 2020 to 13 billion USD in 2021.

This made an important contribution to bringing Vietnam's digital economy to an impressive growth milestone when it skyrocketed 31% over 2020 and reached a total GMV of $21 billion.

The figures clearly demonstrate that Vietnam's e-commerce industry has successfully overcome difficulties caused by Covid-19 and is thriving in the context of the "new normal", experts said. This development was even more impressive than in the pre-pandemic period.

Thanks to this growth, Vietnam and Indonesia are forecast to become the second largest e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia. According to Statista’s report, the value of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market has grown 24 times over the past six years, and is expected to reach 234 billion USD by 2025.

Indonesia’s e-commerce is expected to grow by 196%, from 53 billion USD in 2021 to 104 billion USD in 2025 while Vietnam’s e-commerce is expected to grow 300%, from 13 billion USD in 2021 to 39 billion USD by 2025. The two countries will lead the region for the size of the e-commerce market.

Vietnam's e-commerce also recorded growth in the number of new users in 2021. By the end of June 2021, Vietnam had more than 8 million new online consumers, with 55% of them coming from non-urban areas. The rise in the number of new users from these regions is a positive sign of the potential for market expansion for businesses in the field of digital business and e-commerce in particular.

The percentage of e-commerce users in Vietnam tends to increase with 97% of new consumers still using the service and 99% intending to continue using it in the future.

Also, according to the report by Google, Temasek, Bain & Company, Southeast Asian consumers are using four digital services more than the number of digital services they used before the Covid-19 outbreak. Digital consumption is becoming the lifestyle of Southeast Asian and Vietnamese consumers.

Buying and selling online also promotes cashless payments. The white paper on Vietnamese e-commerce in 2021 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the main form of payment when shopping online is still cash on delivery (COD), but this rate decreased from 86% in 2019 to 78% in 2020.

The rate of consumers choosing digital payment via e-wallets, credit cards, debit cards and scratch cards all increased slightly in 2019-2020.

E-payment services are becoming an important driver of the growth of the e-commerce market and are expected to achieve a significant growth rate very soon.

Hai Dang

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