Introduction
This report introduces 10 major e-commerce sites in Vietnam.
The spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) has triggered a change in the purchasing habits of Vietnamese consumers, especially increased demand for online shopping, and the Vietnamese e-commerce industry has grown significantly.
According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam’s EC market revenue in 2021 will be US$13.7 billion, up 16% from the previous year. Vietnam is one of the top three countries in Southeast Asia with the fastest growing EC market.
In addition, Vietnam’s rising incomes and modernization of lifestyle are tailwinds for Japanese companies, whose strength lies in quality and safety, and an increasing number of Japanese companies are considering market entry into Vietnam. At the same time, however, the fact that many e-commerce sites have already been established in Vietnam complicates the entry process.
In this report, the “10 sites to watch” were selected not simply in order of sales or number of accesses, but also based on their future potential.
1. Shopee
| Company name | Shopee Pte Ltd |
| year of establishment | 2015 |
| head office | Hanoi |
| HP | https://Shopee.vn/ |
| number of hits | 88,956,700 times / month（as December 2021） |
| sales | 9,95Bil USD |
| characters | Largest number of accesses, products and sellers in Vietnam |
Overview
Shopee is an e-commerce site launched in Singapore by Sea Ltd in 2015 and has so far expanded to many countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, and Brazil.
Shopee’s original model when it began operations in Vietnam in mid-2016 was a C2C marketplace that brokered transactions between individuals, like the so-called “Mercari,” but today Shopee is both a C2C and B2C mediation channel.
Although Shopee’s entry into the Vietnamese market can be said to have been rather late compared to its peers, it steadily gained market share, overtaking many of its larger peers such as Lazada and Tiki.
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It attracts both buyers and sellers by the following advantages
- The site interface (design and usability) is rated as simpler and easier to use than the competition
- Many marketing campaigns and excellent promotions.
- The company has established its own shipping company (Shoppee Express) and also cooperates with 10 major outside shipping companies to establish a flexible and extensive nationwide shipping network in Vietnam.
- Various payment methods are available, including ShopeePay, an e-wallet operated by Shopee.
- The hurdles to opening a store on Shopee are low. The process of opening a store is relatively simple, so many companies/individuals can open a store in a short period of time.
- More incentives for sellers than other companies
However, due to the sheer number of sellers, Shopee’s control over the origin and quality of goods has many shortcomings, and the distribution of counterfeit goods is relatively common. The delivery network is extensive, but delivery speed is not particularly better than other companies.
In addition to its main e-commerce site, Shopee has a food delivery app, Shopee Food (a service originally developed by Foody Vietnam and acquired by Shoppee in 2017). Shopee Food is currently one of the most popular food delivery apps in Vietnam, along with GrabFood, Baemin, and Gojek.
※11.11（ダブルイレブン）とは、中国の「独身の日」から派生した、アジア版のブラックフライデー。
経済効果では既にブラックフライデーを上回っている。
2.Lazada
| company name | LAZADA Group |
| year of establishment | 2012 |
| head office | Ho Chi Minh |
| HP | https://www.lazada.vn/ |
| number of hits | 20,633,300 times/month（as December 2021） |
| sales | 21Bil USD |
| characters | Actively investing in cutting-edge technology and marketing techniques |
Overview
Lazada was originally a German e-commerce site, but was acquired by China’s AlibabaGroup in 2015. Today, Lazada is present in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Lazada has been in Vietnam since March 2012, making it one of the oldest companies operating in Vietnam for almost a decade. With financial and technical support from its parent company, Lazada is one of the largest e-commerce sites in Vietnam.
Lazada has invested heavily in its logistics system, Lazada Logistics, in 2021. The main improvements are:
- Developing an automated product sorting line using AI
- Establishment of a cross-border delivery system to expedite cross-border orders
- Opening more product sorting centers throughout Vietnam to make delivery routes more flexible
- AI can also be used at the delivery stage to provide shippers with the shortest possible delivery route
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Investments in its own logistics system have paid off and Lazada has significantly reduced delivery times while maintaining product quality: more than 80% of Lazada orders can be shipped by Lazada logistics, its own delivery system. During the 11.11 shopping festival, Lazada sometimes completed deliveries in less than 30 minutes.
Lazada is also a pioneer of “shopper entertainment” in Vietnam. Shoppertainment” is a term coined by combining the words “shopper” and “entertainment,” and is attracting attention as a new marketing trend.
Shoppertainment refers to the addition of entertainment elements to the EC customer experience. Specifically, this can include watching live streaming, playing games, and working with influencers.
Lazada has invested heavily in conducting marketing events such as online concerts featuring celebrities, live streaming, etc. In this way, they are increasing Lazada’s exposure while improving the customer experience.
3.Tiki
| company name | Ti Ki Company Limited |
| year of establishment | 2010 |
| head office | Ho Chi Minh |
| HP | https://tiki.vn/ |
| number of hits | 17,866,700 times/month（as December 2021） |
| sales | – |
| characters | First e-commerce site from Vietnam, top class in speed of delivery |
Overview
Founded in 2010, Tiki is the first e-commerce site in Vietnam and competes with foreign e-commerce sites such as Shopee and Lazada.
At its inception, Tiki was a website selling English-language books online to Vietnamese customers. By mid-2012, Tiki had become Vietnam’s top online bookstore.
So, with a lot of investment, Tiki gradually began to handle new product categories other than books. Currently, Tiki has a total of more than 30 product categories.
In 2021, Tiki will have approximately 4,000 employees and 20 million users.
Like other major e-commerce sites looking to invest in logistics systems to improve the customer experience, Tiki has 20 TikiNOW Smart Logistics system centers that serve as both operations centers and warehouses, totaling approximately 80,000m2 of space. In fact, Tiki’s delivery service is highly rated by users.
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Tiki has always conducted very strict audits of its stallholders/product origin/product quality to ensure that no counterfeit products are distributed within Tiki. As a result, consumer confidence in Tiki is much higher than in other e-commerce sites.
On the other hand, the hurdles to opening a store are very high due to strict audits; Tiki has fewer store openings than its competitors, and therefore has a smaller variety of products. This is a major challenge for Tiki.
In the Vietnamese EC market over the past two to three years, foreign companies have invested a lot of capital in large-scale marketing campaigns and advanced technology and systems, and Vietnamese companies like Tiki have gradually lost market share.
Therefore, in order to compete head-on with these foreign companies, Tiki has sought to raise more capital by going for an IPO abroad.
In July 2021, Tiki announced that it had completed the transfer of 90.54% of its shares to “TikiGlobal,” a newly established entity in Singapore, and was preparing to execute an IPO in Singapore. This move shows Tiki’s determination to compete head-to-head with foreign competitors.
4.the gioi di dong.com
| company name | Mobile World Co. Ltd |
| year of establishment | 2004 |
| head office | Ho Chi Minh |
| HP | https://www.thegioididong.com/ |
| number of hits | 59,590,000 times/month（as December 2021） |
| sales | 5Bil USD |
| characters | Largest seller of smartphones in Vietnam |
Overview
thegioididong.com is an electronics-focused retail chain founded in 2004 by Mobile World, currently the largest retailer in Vietnam. At its inception, thegioididong.com website only provided product information for customers to shop at physical stores, but today it is the second most visited e-commerce site in Vietnam after Shopee.
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Thegioididong.com e-commerce site specializes in offering its own chain of electronic devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, related accessories, SIM/cards, and utility services such as electricity and water payment. Featuring high quality products, customer service, and short delivery times, the company has a large market share in Vietnam for online sales of electronic devices such as those listed above.
5.Dien May Xanh
| company name | Mobile World Co. Ltd |
| year of establishment | 2004 |
| head office | Ho Chi Minh |
| HP | https://www.dienmayxanh.com/ |
| number of hits | 24,420,000 times/month（as December 2021) |
| sales | 5Bil USD |
| characters | Top class in large appliance sales in Vietnam |
Overview
DienMayXanh.com, like thegioididong.com, is a retail chain operated by Mobile World, focusing on consumer electronics. The company has about 120 physical stores throughout Vietnam.
The products they handle are extremely diverse, ranging from large home appliances such as TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners to medium and small appliances such as rice cookers, gas stoves, electric fans, and hair dryers.
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Dien May Xanh’s e-commerce site is basically operated in the same way as thegioididong.com, with almost identical features.
Sales from these two e-commerce sites, Dien May Xanh and the aforementioned thegioididong.com, reached VND4.37 billion in 2021 (up 53% from the previous year), accounting for 12% of Mobile World’s sales.
6.Voso
| company name | Viettel Post JSC |
| year of establishment | 1997 |
| head office | Hanoi |
| HP | https://voso.vn/ |
| number of hits | 120,400 times/month（as December 2021） |
| sales | 937Mil USD |
| characters | Main business is postal service, focus on agricultural products |
Overview
In July 2019, ViettelPost (Viettel Post), a member company of Viettel, the largest telecommunications company in Vietnam, established an e-commerce site called Voso.vn (meaning shell). The site focuses on food and agricultural products.
In the two years since its inception, Voso.vn has reached 18 million consumers and partnered with 2.5 million farm households.
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Voso.vn focuses on providing agricultural products directly to end-users without going through wholesalers, and this is its most important feature.
Additionally, since its core business is postal services, it has 1,300 post offices and 6,000 transaction points from the beginning. Voso.vn’s strength lies in the fact that it has access to this skilled logistics system that covers the entire country of Vietnam from its inception. The excellent delivery system is especially compatible with agricultural products, where freshness is critical.
In addition, Voso.vn continues to strengthen its support for farmers through its e-commerce site to promote its products.
7.Sendo
| company name | FPT Online JSC |
| year of establishment | 2007 |
| head office | Hanoi |
| HP | https://www.sendo.vn/ |
| number of hits | 4,946,700 times/month（as December 2021） |
| sales | 27Mil USD |
| characters | Focus on rural areas, focus on Vietnamese national products |
Overview
Sendo is a Vietnam-based e-commerce site established in September 2012 by FPT Online Service Co.
Currently, Sendo offers products in 29 categories, with more than 10 million products and over 200,000 stalls. In addition, despite many attractive measures for consumers, such as aggressive discount promotions, free exchanges within 48 hours, and free shipping campaigns, Sendo’s traffic has continued to decline in recent years.
The logistics system is relatively weak and the company has not been able to invest much in marketing.
However, Sendo is likely to benefit from the current EC boom taking place in Vietnam later than its competitors.
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Sendo is often compared to Tiki in that Sendo originates from within Vietnam, but Tiki is differentiated in that it focuses on urban areas and Sendo focuses on rural areas. Sendo also focuses on handling products made in Vietnam, which is another unique characteristic of Sendo.
The current EC boom in Vietnam is spreading mainly in urban areas. Although goods can be delivered in rural areas, the number of EC users is still smaller than in urban areas. However, since the number of EC users in rural areas is also on the rise, a steady increase in demand is expected in the future.
In addition, although Vietnamese people today do not feel much brand awareness toward domestically produced goods, gradually, the awareness of “let’s use domestically produced goods” is also becoming apparent.
Thus, if the two factors of “local EC demand” and “domestic brand value” increase in Vietnam in the future, Sendo has a good chance of making a comeback.
8.Bach Hoa Xanh
| company name | Mobile World Co. Ltd |
| year of establishment | 2004 |
| head office | Ho Chi Minh |
| HP | https://www.bachhoaxanh.com/ |
| number of hits | 5,026,700 times/month（as December 2021） |
| sales | 5Bil USD |
| characters | Large market share in food sales, fresh and frozen foods |
Overview
BachHoaXanh, like the aforementioned the gioi di dong and Dien May Xanh, is a small supermarket chain operated by Mobile World. In the six years since its establishment, the number of stores has reached approximately 2,000 nationwide, with more than 20 distribution warehouses. This number of locations is also a major strength in e-commerce sales, and BachHoaXanh.com is its e-commerce site. BachHoaXanh.com operates primarily targeting young customers, especially in the southern, eastern, and south-central provinces.
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At the peak of the Corona disaster, Vietnam was on lockdown, making it difficult to get groceries. At that time, demand for delivery services and e-commerce surged, which was a tailwind for this Bach Hoa Xanh.
With a wide variety of products, clear origin labeling, and advanced delivery services, BachHoaXanh.com holds a large share of e-commerce sales of fresh and frozen foods, etc.
9.FPT SHOP
| company name | FPT Retail |
| year of establishment | 2012 |
| head office | Hanoi |
| HP | https://fptshop.com.vn/ |
| number of hits | 9,310,000 times/month（as December 2021） |
| sales | 982Mil USD |
| characters | Affiliated with one of the largest IT companies in Vietnam |
Overview
FPTshop.com was established in 2012 by FPTRetail, a group company of FPT Corporation, one of the largest IT companies in Vietnam, at the same time as the physical store.
FPTShop.com specializes in providing electronic devices such as phones, computers, related devices, and SIM cards. The company’s sales approach is characterized by a combination of physical stores and e-commerce.
10.POSTMART
| company name | Vietnam Post Logistics (VN Post) |
| year of establishment | 2007 |
| head office | Hanoi |
| HP | https://postmart.vn/ |
| number of hits | 50.000 times/month（as December 2021） |
| sales | 1.1Bil USD |
| characters | Main business is postal service, generous support for stall holders. |
Overview
POSTMART is an e-commerce site established by Vietnam Post Corporation (Vietnam Post) at the end of 2018, offering products in a variety of categories. Among them, it focuses on agricultural products and local specialties. Similar in concept to ViettelPost’s Voso.vn mentioned above, POSTMART, along with ViettelPOST, is the main e-commerce site for trading agricultural and specialty products in Vietnam.
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Statistics show that the average number of visits to the POSTMART site is about 9,400 per day and the average number of orders is about 1,500 per week. In 2021 alone, VietnamPost helped 2.7 million farm households set up store on POSTMART. With regard to registering with POSTMART, farmers receive the following support:.
- Free creation of stores on your e-commerce site
- Comprehensive support for marketing, customer communication, packaging, shipping and payment
- Use of VNPOST’s distribution network of more than 13,000 locations
- Provision of IT solutions to ensure traceability
Summary
This report introduces 10 e-commerce sites in Vietnam that should be paid attention to, including POSTMART, Voso, and Bach Hoa Xanh, which are already successful sites such as Shopee and Thegioididong.com, as well as those that are expected to grow significantly in the future. When Japanese companies enter the Vietnamese e-commerce market, they need to be familiar not only with the strengths and characteristics of their products, but also with the characteristics of each e-commerce site.
