Vietnamese shop online four times a month

This figure is also double the monthly supermarket visit frequency of Vietnamese people, NielsenIQ Vietnam reported.

The survey presented at an event on June 28 showed that, on average, a person uses 3.2 platforms to shop online.

The low cost of online goods is not the biggest factor in attracting consumers. The two bigger reasons are purchasing to stock up for family reasons (25%) and immediate needs (21%).

In previous years, Vietnamese people primarily used e-commerce to buy non-essential items such as electronics, fashion items or home appliances. However, nowadays, they purchase daily necessities online more frequently.

Customers buy an average of 6.5 types of products, and the top three categories with the highest buy rates are food, beverages, and cosmetics. The next priorities are fashion, sports, home care, and technology.

Le Hoang Long, head of Retailer Vertical at NielsenIQ Vietnam, said, "Online shopping is becoming a common activity and essential goods are increasingly popular."

Earlier, a Q1 report from e-commerce data company Metric indicated that Vietnamese people spend more on online shopping, far exceeding the forecasts of the platforms. The top five e-commerce platforms - Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Sendo and TikTok Shop - reached a total retail revenue of VND71.2 trillion (US$2.79 billion), an increase of 78.7% compared to the same period in 2023.

E-commerce is maintaining a better growth rate than the general retail market. According to the country’s General Statistics Office, total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue in the first half of the year increased by 5.7% after excluding the price hike factor, slower than the 8.8% growth of the same period last year.

Hung Huynh, director of TikTok for Business SMB Vietnam, noted that the online commerce market is still very open and has much potential, but medium, small and micro enterprises have not fully exploited it.

"The main reason comes from limitations in human resources, tools and digital transformation of these enterprises," he said.

In the second half of 2024, TikTok Shop Vietnam plans to support 10,000 small and medium enterprises with a total budget of $1 million. They will not work directly with the enterprises, but through local authorities and business associations that send a list of those in need of support. Some 20 provinces and cities and more than 10 associations have submitted lists.

"We also plan to hold a livestream festival in one province each week," said Nguyen Lam Thanh, representative of TikTok Vietnam.