Paris (VNA) - From orders fulfilled within hours in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to livestream sales drawing millions of viewers on social media, e-commerce is expanding at breakneck speed and steadily reshaping consumer behaviour in Vietnam.

French daily Le Monde recently reported that Vietnam’s e-commerce revenue approached 26 billion EUR (29.6 billion USD) in 2025, jumping 25% from a year earlier on the heels of a 20% gain in 2024. The sector now commands roughly 11% of total retail sales, cementing Vietnam’s status as one of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic markets.

In major cities, delivery riders ferrying towering stacks of parcels on motorbikes have become ubiquitous. Each morning, thousands of couriers converge on distribution hubs, load between 60 and 80 orders each, and fan out across urban zones. An increasingly efficient logistics backbone means many orders now reach buyers within just a few hours.

The online shopping surge has been turbocharged by mass smartphone adoption. Some 92% of online shoppers in Vietnam use mobile devices to place orders. For swaths of young consumers, buying everything from clothing and cosmetics to home appliances via apps is a daily habit.

The trend is forcing companies to retool their operating models. Scores of retailers are simultaneously expanding brick-and-mortar footprints and digital platforms to keep pace with demand.

Ahmed Wagih, Country Managing Director of L’Oréal Vietnam, said more than half of Vietnamese households now shop online. In the cosmetics segment alone, roughly half of all sales are transacted over the internet.

Experts single out social media as a primary accelerant behind e-commerce’s torrid expansion. Vietnam now counts around 70 million TikTok users and 85 million Facebook users. The fusion of social platforms, livestream selling sessions, and marketplaces like Shopee, TikTok Shop and Lazada has spawned a vibrant shopping ecosystem in which consumers discover products, haggle with sellers and complete purchases inside a single app.

Joëlle de Montgolfier, an expert at consultancy Bain & Company, said Vietnam is entering a “second generation of commerce”, with e-commerce at its core, a trajectory that diverges from the path many Asian markets took in the past, when global retail groups relied heavily on supermarket chains and shopping malls for expansion.

Vietnam’s digital economy authorities forecast the sector can sustain annual growth of about 20% through 2030.

While companies keep a close watch on energy prices and inflation’s bite on household spending, observers see considerable runway ahead, underpinned by a population exceeding 100 million, rapid urbanisation and one of the region’s highest internet penetration rates./.