Online shopping in Vietnam experienced a boom last year when revenue rocketed to US$2.2 billion, a staggering 314 percent rise from $700 million in 2012, according to a recent report.

The average spending of the Vietnamese people was estimated at $120 per capita in 2013, the Vietnam E-Commerce and Information Technology Agency (VECITA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said in the report released on Monday.

The rapid expansion of the country’s e-commerce sector, thanks to the fast growth rate of Internet users, has forced VECITA to revise its 2015 forecast for the sector from $1.3 billion to over $4 billion in revenue.

Given the current Internet population of more than 30 million, economic development will grant Internet access to even more people in the next two years. With 40-45 percent of its population forecasted to use the Internet by 2015, VECITA foretold that every Vietnamese person will spend at least $150 on e-commerce purchases per year.

In a more optimistic scenario, with a population of 93 million projected for 2015, about 65 to 70 percent of the population with an Internet connection will generate from $4.08 billion to $4.3 billion in online shopping revenue.  

Cashing in on e-commerce platforms

A VECITA survey of 781 online shoppers in 2013 indicated that 61 percent of them purchased items via e-commerce websites, 51 percent through group-buying websites, 45 percent by means of social forums, 19 percent by way of e-marketplace websites, and six percent via mobile applications.

Over 41 percent of the online shoppers were managers/office workers, of which around 59 percent were women and 41 percent men.

They were described as those who do not have much time for traditional shops due to the official working time but do have time to access the Internet.

This group was followed by students with 37 percent and those directly involved in business and production activities, accounting for seven percent.

The popular online products were clothes, shoes and cosmetics, making up 62 percent. The second most popular categories were technology products (35 percent), followed by household products (32 percent), and air tickets (25 percent).

Cash was a major payment method in online transactions with 74 percent of respondents opting for it, while 41 percent of the answerers transferred via banks, 11 percent used bank accounts, nine percent resorted to mobile/game cards, and only 8 percent used electronic wallets.

The survey results showed that five percent of online purchasers were very satisfied, 29 percent were satisfied, 62 percent felt neutral, and four percent were dissatisfied.

The obstacles of online shopping to respondents were the quality of products or services worse than advertised (77 percent), prices not lower than buying from traditional shops (40 percent), unprofessional logistic services (38 percent), afraid of personal privacy disclosure (31 percent), and complicated online order procedures (29 percent).

Along with the obstacles of online purchase, results of the survey also indicated the reasons why people did not purchase online: the difficulties in examining product quality, the features of products were not as advertised (59 percent), buying in stores was easier and faster (45 percent), a lack of trust in sellers (41 percent), the absence of enough information to make purchase decisions (38 percent), failure to have credit cards or other payable cards (37 percent).

However, among the 781 respondents, 88 percent said they will continue to purchase items online in the future and the 12 remaining percent will go back to conventional shopping.

The VECITA report revealed that currently, 10 most popular sites frequented by Internet users are Vatgia.com, Alibaba.com, Ecna.vn, 5giay.vn,123mua.vn, Enbac.com, Chodientu.vn, muaban.net, Rongbay.com, and Ebay.vn.