Vietnamese consumers have increased their online shopping frequency in 2020 compared with the previous years, of which the percentage of monthly online users has risen from 47% in 2019 to 61% in 2020, according to the latest survey conducted by Asia Plus Inc., the Asia and ASEAN market research company.

Source: Vietnam E-commerce market 2020, October 2020. Screeshot: NM

The survey titled "Vietnam E-commerce market 2020" was conducted in October 2020 amongst nearly 700 customers who are shopping online to have an up-to-date understanding on e-commerce market in Vietnam.

Mobile application becomes the dominant media to enjoy online shopping. About 59% use mobile app the most, which is the huge increase from 47% of the previous year. Meanwhile, 19% use office and home PC, lower than the 29% of the users in 2019.

Source: Vietnam E-commerce market 2020, October 2020. Screeshot: NM

As Vietnamese shoppers had to stay home more during Covid-19, the category usage has been widened. Online usage for the food and beverage category has increased during this period. Fashion, cosmetics, sport items, books, mobile phones, personal care products are the main categories in online shopping during Covid-19.

Regarding amount spent, 53% of the users spend less than VND500,000 (US$21.6) per month while 21% of high spenders consume VND700,000 (US$30.3) - VND1 million (US$43.2) monthly.

Source: Vietnam E-commerce market 2020. Screenshot: NM

The survey noted that the mixing of the pricing/promotions and product variety are the big motivations for the online shopping. In addition, delivery speed became one of the good motivations to the rise of online shopping. This is the great improvement by the e-commerce providers.

Although cash on delivery is still dominant method, online shopping witnessed the method declined from 88% to 75% of the users choosing. Meanwhile, the number of those who use mobile payment in online shopping increased 9% compared to the 1% of 2019. Cashless penetration has gradually increased compared with the previous year.

Source: Vietnam E-commerce market 2020. Screenshot: NM

Regarding e-commerce platforms, Shopee, with 36% Vietnamese shoppers, is the most preferred platform for online shopping, followed by Lazada (28%) and Tiki (11%). Shopee increased its popularity in online shopping due to the strong pricing and product varieties, with good fun shopping images. 

Tiki delivers the sensation of premium and trustful. About 45% of e-commerce shoppers also use social network for online purchase. The image of social shopping is pricing and fun shopping, according to the survey.