Nearly half of Vietnamese shop online: report

By Nguyen Quy August 20, 2020 | 04:51 pm PT

A person makes online purchases using a credit card. Photo by Shutterstock/88studio.

Some 44.8 million people, or nearly half the population, shopped online last year, a 13 percent rise from the previous year, a report said.

Each person spent an average of $225 on online purchases last year, 40 percent up from the $160 in 2015, according to the report by the Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency that the Ministry of Industry and Trade released this week.

77 percent of Internet users, mostly in the 18-25 age group, shopped online at least once last year, up 7 percentage points from 2018.

More than 60 percent of online purchases involved clothing, footwear, cosmetics, tech and electronic goods, household appliances, and audio-visual equipment.

Purchases on social media grew by 57 percent in 2019 despite the growing fears of scams and phishing.

But cash remained the most preferred payment method at 86 percent, followed by cards (56 percent) and e-wallets (20 percent).

Online retail revenues surged 25 percent to $10.08 billion last year, accounting for 4.9 percent of the country’s total spending on goods and services, the report said.

According to an e-commerce development plan approved by the government last month, the revenues should reach $35 billion by 2025 to account for 10 percent. The government wants 55 percent of the population to shop online by 2025.