Vietnam wants half of population to shop online by 2025

By Dat Nguyen May 20, 2020 | 04:00 am PT

A person makes online purchases using a credit card. Photo by Shutterstock/Kostenko Maxim.

With an annual average spending of $600 per capita, Vietnam wants 55 percent of its citizens to shop online by 2025.

E-commerce revenue should reach $35 billion by 2025 to account for 10 percent of national retail and services earnings, according to an e-commerce development plan signed Monday by Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung.

Half of e-commerce transactions should be cashless, while 70 percent should include e-receipts.

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City should account for half of e-commerce transaction value in the next five years.

Half of small and medium businesses should develop online shopping channels, including social media, with 70 percent of utility and telecom providers supplying customers with e-contracts.

Vietnam’s e-commerce scene has boomed in recent years with fierce competition between players like Singapore’s Shopee and Lazada and Vietnam’s Tiki and Sendo.

The country’s internet economy was estimated at $12 billion last year, with an annual growth rate of 38 percent since 2015 and is expected to surge to $43 billion by 2025, according to "e-Conomy Southeast Asia Report 2019" by Google.