The end of 2018 saw significant events in the Vietnamese e-commerce market. Tiki surpassed Lazada to occupy the second position in the market in quarter IV/2018 and Vietnamese e-commerce companies are in the top 10 of Southeast Asia’s highest-traffic e-commerce sites.

A fruitful year for e-commerce

After a wide range of dynamic activities in 2018, Viet Nam’s e-commerce is in the world’s largest e-commerce markets with total revenues of US$2,269 million, increasing by 29.4 per cent year over year. The number of consumers shopping on e-commerce sites reached 49.8 million people, growing by 2.6 per cent. 72 per cent of e-commerce purchases were made on mobile devices. (Source: Statista - 2018, VECITA - 2017).  

Vietnam e-commerce market 2018 at a glance (Source: Statista - 2018, VECITA - 2017).

This is a positive sign for the domestic e-commerce market. However, the most remarkable factor is the change of Vietnam e-commerce site ranking order in quarter IV/2018.

Specifically, Tiki surpassed Lazada to rank after Shopee as the number two site in traffic in quarter IV last year with 107.9 million visits. Shopee still holds the dominant position with 123.2 million visits. Lazada ranks third with 97.6 million visits, closely followed by The Gioi Di Dong (88.3 million visits) and Sendo (76.2 million visits).

Overview of the site traffic of Vietnam e-commerce in quarter IV/2018

Domestic e-commerce businesses including Tiki, The Gioi Di Dong and Sendo show the market’s progress through their spots on the list of Southeast Asia’s Top 10 highest-traffic e-commerce sites in 2018 (Source: iPrice Insights and SimilarWeb).

This is a positive situation for Vietnamese enterprises, which leads to the prediction of considerable changes in the e-commerce site ranking order in 2019.

Top 10 highest-traffic e-commerce sites in Southeast Asia in 2018

The communication wave of the e-commerce market

2018 witnessed a multitude of news pieces related to capital injection into e-commerce sites, as well as dynamic and viral communication campaigns.

Besides the extra investment of 122 billion VND from VNG and other investments from JD, Tiki continues to impress its audience with the communications campaign “Troi oi, tin duoc khong? (OMG, can you believe?)” with the cast Truong Giang and Nha Phuong. Tiki has not only successfully conveyed its message of two-hour delivery and sales but has also become a trend setter on social media.

Tiki’s communications campaign “Troi oi, tin duoc khong? (OMG, can you believe?)”

After receiving $51 million from eight investors, led by SBI Holdings, Japan, Sendo has shown its increasing coverage on communications channels with Sendo’s big sister My Tam, building a new look for the brand. Sendo expects to reach more consumers.

That Lazada Southeast Asia was injected with an extra $2 billion also stimulated Lazada Vietnam last year. In terms of communications, Lazada is a little bit quiet on social media. However, in the promotion campaign “Dai Tiec Mua Sam (Shopping Party)” last November, Lazada focused on bringing its brand image to more consumers via offline channels.

Lazada “Dai Tiec Mua Sam (Shopping Party)” in November 2018

Shopee Vietnam received an extra $50 million in investments by SEA, reaching the leading position for site traffic in 2018. Its communications activities were promoted by the presence of well-known faces such as Miss Vietnam Tieu Vi and members of the U23 national football team.