If Vietnam’s e-commerce market could maintain a 30% growth rate in the 2019 – 2020 period, the market revenue is on track to reach US$13 billion by 2020, according to Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM)’s latest report.
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Starting at US$4 billion by 2015, high growth rates sustained in the next three years had led to revenue of US$7.8-billion in 2018, up 30% year-on-year.
At the conference announcing the report on March 26, Nguyen Huu Tuan, representative from Vietnam’s E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency, said Vietnam is considered one of the world’s high potential e-commerce markets, thanks to young population and a large number of smart phones users.
According to Tuan, 66% of the population or 64 million has access to the internet, while 58 million Vietnamese are using social media.
Vietnam could be Southeast Asia’s fastest growing e-commerce market, Tuan said.
A survey conducted by the VECOM showed online retail has been the primary beneficiary of the high growth rate of Vietnam’s e-commerce, in which revenue growth rate of thousands of Vietnam’s e-commerce platforms in 2017 was 35%.
Additionally, revenue of delivery firms has grown by 62% - 200%, while that of online marketing companies was 100% - 200%.
However, the VECOM’s representative said one of the major challenges for e-commerce in Vietnam is online payment, which is also a shared concern among e-commerce firms.
Statistics from the E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency revealed only 25% online shoppers pay online, while the remaining 75% still prefer cash-on-delivery (COD).
Vice Chairman of the VECOM Nguyen Ngoc Dung said for a stable and healthy development of Vietnam’s e-commerce, the country needs an appropriate legal framework, which is now unable to keep up with current practices.
Dung added it is vital for the regulations to be updated in a timely manner and fully reflect the development of e-commerce.
A representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) considered low quality and counterfeit goods another challenge to e-commerce development.
Last year, the E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency identified 20 cases of violations in this field, mainly due to unclear information, and irresponsibility of all parties involved, said the MoIT representative.
In the coming time, the E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency is tasked with revising the legal framework supporting the development of e-commerce, focusing on measures against counterfeit and smuggled goods, as well as violations of intellectual property rights.
