COVID-19 pandemic sets Vietnamese consumers, retailers on path to digital: study

Data shows tremendous acceleration in digital forms of retail and consumption in Vietnam, according to the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes study released on Friday.

The study was prepared in August-September 2020, with 7,526 consumers surveyed in Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

Social distancing and work-from-home arrangements made 2020 a year of upheavals for many Vietnamese consumers, rearranging commerce with immediate effect and far-reaching implications for the future of retail.

With consumers spending more time at home than ever before, Southeast Asia has seen a remarkable shift away from physical stores with years of e-commerce adoption compressed into a span of several months.

The shift has been a boon to home delivery as 87 percent of Vietnamese respondents now use this service – including 82 percent who tried it for the first time amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Almost six in every ten delivery orders now go to a home address, a 20-fold increase from before the pandemic.

“Consumers have acquired a taste for the convenience of online shopping – and the more online payments they make, the more they find it is safe and hassle-free,” Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa country manager for Vietnam and Laos, was quoted as saying in a press release.

“This will most certainly push businesses to develop digital capabilities and wade deeper into e-commerce.”

The world is moving away from the clear-cut distinction of physical and digital, and toward a retail experience leveraging the best of both worlds, with social media integration and digitally-enhanced offerings even at physical outlets, according to a report by McKinsey & Company.

The vast majority (77 percent) of Vietnamese consumers are currently aware of shopping through social networks.

Awareness and adoption are by far the strongest among consumers aged 18-23, who have embraced social commerce as a useful feature of platforms they spend a lot of time on anyway.

Retailers are now taking business to consumers’ homes through social networks.

Forty-one percent of Vietnamese businesses were tapping into social commerce in 2020 to meet consumer expectations, the Vietnam E-commerce Association found.

As the favored channel to consume digital content, social media platforms are ideal for brands and merchants to engage vast audiences on a more personal level.

Not only can retailers generate leads through targeted advertising, they can also provide the essential personal touch along with promotions calibrated to individual needs.

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