Consumer goods e-commerce spending in Vietnam 2023, by category

In 2023, e-commerce expenditure on consumer goods in Vietnam was the highest in the electronics category at 4.11 billion U.S. dollars, followed by fashion at over two billion U.S. dollars, and toys at 1.79 billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, e-commerce spending growth was highest for food at 18.6 percent that year. 

Shift in e-commerce spending in Vietnam

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest e-commerce spending of Vietnamese internet users was on online travel, mobility, and accommodation services. Over the past few years, consumer goods have taken over as the e-commerce category with the highest expenditure. More and more people in Vietnam have grown comfortable with shopping for these products online, a shopping habit formed by the pandemic and its past restrictions on physical retail shops. Digital media was another e-commerce category with substantial growth in consumer spending in 2023, with expenditure on video games and video-on-demand services being the subcategories with the highest observed growth rate. 

E-commerce landscape in Vietnam

Vietnam has one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia. In the last couple of years, e-commerce has accounted for a growing share of the total retail sales across the country. While international players such as Shopee and Lazada are the leading online marketplaces in Vietnam, local retailers have been making their mark, especially when it comes to specialized retailing, such as consumer electronics and IT devices. Apart from e-commerce platforms, Vietnamese consumers have also been shopping via social commerce, which is expected to be an e-commerce channel of significant importance in the coming years.