The total number of visits to online shopping apps in Vietnam reached 12.7 billion in the first six months of the year, the highest ever figure.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed consumer shopping behaviour, prompting retailers to embrace online commerce to keep up with new trends.

Overseas e-commerce companies Lazada and Shopee may lose their positions in Vietnam if they keep demonstrating limitations in protecting consumers from low-quality and fake goods.

The "money burning" race in the local e-commerce scene is not over yet, with all Big Four competitors scampering to gain a larger market share.

Three out of four of the largest e-commerce sites saw the numbers of visits decreasing in Q1, a time when experts predicted would see a boom as the COVID-19 epidemic reached its peak.

As Vietnamese are now favoring ‘contactless purchases’ in Covid-19, online sales have increased rapidly.

While Amazon has had to recruit 100,000 more workers to satisfy orders, at Vietnam’s marketplaces, purchases remain weak except for face masks and hand sanitizers.

Shopee and Lazada have successfully controlled most of the Southeast Asian market. But in Vietnam, Tiki, Sendo and The Gioi Di Dong are preventing them from doing so.

Sellers hiking the prices of face masks and hand sanitiser on some e-commerce websites have been fined.

More than 30,000 stores have been closed on online shopping sites including Shopee, Tiki, and Lazada due to overcharging.

Tiki and Sendo may be in talks over a potential merger to break the dominance of Shopee and Lazada and their foreign backers.

Successfully calling for capital from international investors, e-commerce firms are nevertheless taking losses.

The year-end online shopping frenzy has kicked off with giant local and foreign players like Lazada, Tiki, Sendo, and Shopee rolling out promotions since the middle of last month.

E-commerce development is improving, but state management in this field is facing many difficulties because the legal framework cannot cover all e-commerce activities.

Singaporean investors are continuing to pour capital into e-logistics firms to tap into the fast-growing market in Vietnam.

The Internet boom, a young labor force and the strong development of e-commerce all help Vietnamese businesses access foreign markets, especially now that many next-generation FTAs have been signed.

A workshop organized in HCM City, attracting representatives of 200 SMEs, in late September was held to help Vietnamese SMEs boost exports through transnational e-commerce, as well as help Vietnamese enterprises connect with Singaporean ones.

Despite non-stop spending, Lazada remains overwhelmed by local platforms Sendo and Mobile World, in addition to other players Shopee and Tiki.

Each e-commerce platform needs to spend millions of US dollars to gain a single per cent of market share from competitors, showing just how serious the competition is.