Tet rush goes digital as Hanoi craft villages sell out through overnight livestream sales

Theu, 42, of Phu Tuc craft village stands before two smartphones holding baskets of Tet products and promoting them on Facebook and TikTok livestreams.

With no script or professional crew, she interacts with viewers and banters with staff to keep hundreds of viewers engaged.

"My products are locally made, and, thanks to the festive atmosphere, I closed 30 orders in less than an hour, not counting wholesale buyers who messaged privately," she says.

She has regularly live-streamed until 1-2 a.m. for the past three years, she says.

Dang Thi Kim Theu adjusts the camera before a livestream at the product showroom in Phu Tuc bamboo and rattan craft village, Phuong Duc Commune, Hanoi, on the evening of Jan. 22, 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Nguyen

Three kilometers away in Co Hoang hamlet, the peanut candy workshop of Duong Thi Hong Gam also operates late into the night.

Among stacks of ingredients, Gam places her phone on a stand, packaging products while introducing her five generations of certified candy.

She asks customers to place orders early to avoid delivery congestion due to the holidays and says her prices are lower than in the market.

Behind the camera, her husband and children roast peanuts and cook malt syrup.

When customers ask about production, Gam turns the camera toward the stove or cutting table to show the process. "I can sell my products directly from where I make them, and talking with viewers through the night keeps me awake," she says.

Hong Gam promotes peanut candy products on a TikTok livestream on the night of Jan. 22, 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Nga Thanh

Sounds of looms and chiseling mix with calls to close orders across 18 craft villages in the commune. More than 200 households turn parts of their workshops into livestream spaces to promote their products, which include wooden items, leather shoes and to he rice powder toy figurines.

Their equipment typically consists of a smartphone and a clip-on microphone though some use specialized lighting rigs or high-wattage lights.

Livestream sales are often informal and unscripted. Workshop owners would step out of frame mid-sentence to stir a batch of candy, check a loom or seal a shipping box before returning to continue chatting with customers.

Le Tien Xuan, former head of the local economic division, says craft villages used to struggle with unsold inventories virtually until Tet, but now many workshops sell out days before the holidays start. "Instead of waiting for traders, local workshop owners now promote products and close orders themselves and retain maximum profits."

Currently 241 of 862 workshops in the commune sell their products online, with many making annual revenues of VND10-50 billion (US$400,000-2 million).

 

 

Tet rush goes digital as Hanoi craft villages sell out through overnight livestream sales

Cả xã xuyên đêm livestream bán hàng Tết

Le Van Binh, the Party secretary of Phuong Duc Commune, says the trend of selling products on livestreams follows a local push for digital transformation that began in 2023.

Local authorities organized hands-on training sessions and invited specialists to teach residents how to film, edit videos and write livestream scripts using AI.

Nguyen Van Khang, 57, of the commune’s Xuan La village, says he initially hesitated to join the trend. He used to sell his to he toy figurines at the marketplace before Tet but says this year has set up a tripod and promotes the "Spring Horse 2026" model on livestreams.

"I was very nervous at first and almost turned off the camera several times because I struggled to find the right words. But closing 10 orders after the second livestream helped me shed the pressure."

Since adopting livestream sales in 2023, Theu says production at her workshop has increased by around 40% a year, and now averages more than 1,000 products a day.

Three weeks before Tet she eases off on the livestream sessions to two or three a week due to order volumes.

Gam says her monthly output also rose from one or two tons before 2023 to five to seven tons this year. Her customer base, previously limited to Hanoi, now extends to a number of provinces across the country, and she has a high rate of repeat orders.

Nguyen Van Khang, 57 (R), attends a livestream training session in Phuong Duc Commune, Hanoi on Jan. 23, 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Nga Thanh

In 2025 Phuong Duc Commune recorded nearly VND450 billion in online sales, seven times the previous year’s figure.

Binh says: "Livestream sale sessions give customers a look behind the creation process. That’s how we preserve our crafts and make a living from them."