Vietnamese shoppers are favoring digital channels and social commerce for his or her Tet buying, leveraging e-commerce platforms, social media, and messaging apps, to find merchandise, collect data, and make purchases.
This pattern underscores the profound shift in client buying habits fueled by the rise of the digital financial system, in accordance to a brand new client research by market analysis company Determination Lab.
Tet, Vietnam’s lunar new yr, is the nation’s largest cultural and financial interval within the yr. Whereas the vacation is historically centered on giving and togetherness, client conduct has advanced far past a mere pre-holiday buying rush.
Spending now stretches throughout an prolonged interval, rising within the days main as much as Tet as shoppers put together for celebration and gifting, then rebounds strongly afterwards as they shift from rewarding others to rewarding themselves. This evolving spending sample creates distinct alternatives for manufacturers all through the complete Tet season.
The Determination Lab research, produced in collaboration with Meta, polled greater than 800 shoppers in Vietnam to know their buying habits and preferences throughout Tet season. It discovered that digital-first behaviors dominate the buying journey.
For retail merchandise particularly, social media and e-commerce platforms are the first sources of product consciousness, analysis, and buy. Notably, a model’s official web page on e-commerce platforms like ShopeeMall and LazMall is essentially the most used channel for product discovery (49%), product consideration and data gathering (54%), and ultimate buy (44%).
Outcomes range for well being and sweetness (H&B) merchandise. Throughout discovery, 40% self-search for data on-line or contact sellers through messaging apps. Through the consideration part, 58% collect further data by straight contacting the vendor by way of messaging apps, or by looking for data on social media posts. For ultimate buy, buyers usually full the transaction straight with the vendor by way of messaging apps like Fb Messenger, or Zalo.
The recognition of social media platforms and messaging apps throughout the invention and consideration part underscores the rising affect of digital ecosystems in shaping client selections throughout the acquisition journey. This affect is concentrated inside a handful of channels.
Amongst Tet buyers, 27% mentioned that Meta’s Household of Apps (FOA), comprising Fb, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, was the one channel that they used to buy a retail product most just lately. For H&B merchandise, this determine rises to 53%.
Altering spending patterns and cost preferences
Vietnamese client spending accelerates through the Tet season, with a number of key tendencies and shifts rising over the previous years. 2024 knowledge from Visa reveal that worldwide expenditure is rising twice as quick as home spending, a rise which is attributed to rising abroad journey and a powerful progress in cross-border e-commerce.
Vietnamese shoppers are additionally rising extra assured in on-line buying, even for historically bodily interaction-heavy classes like insurance coverage, transport, and lodging. These areas have been the highest three classes for e-commerce transactions final yr.
Cost strategies used are additionally altering. Between January and February 2024, 64% of Visa card transactions in Vietnam have been contactless, reflecting rising acceptance of contactless funds. In accordance to Visa’s Client Cost Attitudes 2023 research, at the very least 74% of Vietnamese shoppers steadily use contactless funds, significantly cellular wallets, for meals and eating, buying, and comfort retailer purchases.
An rising variety of shoppers are additionally utilizing their bank cards domestically. A separate research that greater than half (55%) of the Vietnamese shoppers polled most popular utilizing their bank cards when buying in Vietnam due to rewards, miles and cashback provides.
Vietnamese shoppers embrace AI
The Determination Lab research additionally reveals rising client adoption of AI instruments all through the acquisition journey. Of the shoppers polled, 20% use AI to seek for buying data, and 18% to search out places, reflecting elevated reliance of AI for data retrieval and real-time help.
Moreover, 13% use AI to trace spending and finances planning, highlighting AI’s rising position as a real-time private monetary administration device.
However AI adoption in Vietnam extends nicely past buying. A separate research by Determination Lab reveals that 78% of shoppers have used at the very least one AI platform prior to now three months, and 33% at the moment are integrating AI into their each day routines.
Vietnamese customers principally use AI for work and training functions, leisure, and each day routines. Prime purposes embody getting updates and data (37%), studying new expertise (34%), and translating content material (33%). When requested about their most important motivations for utilizing AI, shoppers most frequently cites saving time (67%), simplifying studying (60%), boosting creativity (51%), and bettering accuracy (48%).
Although client AI utilization in Vietnam is led by international leaders ChatGPT (81%), Gemini (51%) and Meta AI (36%), homegrown platform AI Hay ranks second in customers satisfaction. This underscores the relevance of native AI options tailor-made to Vietnamese customers’ wants and context.
Vietnam’s booming e-commerce market
Complete e-commerce transaction worth in Southeast Asia reached US$100 billion in 2024. Vietnam accounted for US$25 billion of this, making it one of many fastest-growing e-commerce markets within the area and inserting it among the many prime ten globally with over 60 million web shoppers, in accordance to Lai Viet Anh, deputy director common of the Vietnam’s Division of E-commerce and Digital Financial system.
Progress continues into 2025, with gross sales throughout the nation’s 4 main e-commerce platforms, specifically Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, and TikTok Store, rising practically 42% year-over-year (YoY) in H1 2025 to achieve VND 202.3 trillion (US$7.8 billion). Complete gross sales quantity additionally elevated, rising 25.4% YoY to 1.9 billion merchandise.
Inside this market, social commerce subset is increasing quickly, with “shoppertainment” gaining specific momentum. This mannequin blends video content material with real-time buying, making the buying course of extra interactive and fulfilling, which in flip enhance gross sales and buyer loyalty.
Among the many Vietnam’s largest e-commerce platforms, TikTok Store, a number one shoppertainment channel within the nation, led in progress with a 69% YoY surge in income. The platform additionally noticed its market share enhance from 29% to 39%, additional underscoring the rising affect of shoppertainment.
Featured picture: Edited by Fintech Information Singapore, primarily based on picture by mohammadhridoy12 and ganzevayna1 through Freepik
