Retail in Vietnam: Trends to watch

Several high-profile marketplace developments include VinGroup’s launch of Vietnam’s first business-tobusiness-to-consumer channel (B2B2C) platform known as VinShop.

>> Retail in Vietnam: Omnichannel takes off

Vietnam’s retail sector is expected to experience a rapid rebound. Although there are some lingering concerns that e-commerce sales may taper off with the relaxation of COVID-19 social distancing measures, Deloitte believes that at least some of the new omnichannel habits will become permanent as consumers grow accustomed to the convenience that they offer.

Digital wallets and non-cash payments

A stark contrast from a few years ago, there are now a wide variety of digital and e-wallet payment methods in the Vietnam market. With digital wallets growing increasingly popular amongst urban affluent consumers, this trend is set to continue to accelerate – thereby setting the stage for hypergrowth in the e-commerce sector.

Some of the latest developments to encourage greater uptake of digital payments include the draft plans set out by the Prime Minister’s Draft Decision on the National Strategy for Digital Economic and Social Development to 2025, with a Vision to 2030, which has proposed the objectives of achieving a digital payment rate of 50%, and ensuring that 80% of Vietnam’s population has access to electronic payments accounts by 2025.

>> Retail in Vietnam: Evolving market dynamics

Growth in B2B e-commerce

While we have focused mostly on the business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce segment, it is worthwhile noting that there has also been a boom in the wholesale, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce segment.

In fact, Vietnam is now Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing B2B e-commerce market: in 2020, its market value reached USD 13.2 billion, and this is expected to continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43% until 2025.

Several high-profile marketplace developments include VinGroup’s launch of Vietnam’s first business-tobusiness-to-consumer channel (B2B2C) platform known as VinShop, as well as VNG Corporation’s pre-series B investment in Telio, a B2B e-commerce start-up 7. EI Industrial, Vietnam’s first industrial-focused B2B marketplace, also recently received seed funding to expand its operations. Currently, El Industrial serves the procurement needs of over 500 wholesale customers by enabling them to easily source from multiple suppliers and identify the best deals available.

Ultimately, the bottomline implication of these trends is clear: we are set to witness the end-to-end digitisation of Vietnam’s retail sector. Indeed, digitisation will no longer be limit ed to the front-end, B2C experience: from procurement to shipping and payments, we can expect to witness an upcoming, wide-sweeping digitisation of the entire retail supply chain.