E-Commerce Trends in Vietnam 2026

Here's something that frustrates fintech founders: 70% of Vietnamese e-commerce transactions still happen with cash on delivery (COD). In 2026. In a country where digital payments are supposedly booming.

But there's nuance here that matters. COD isn't holding back e-commerce. It's actually *enabling* it. The logistics infrastructure around COD has become so efficient that it's a competitive advantage, not a limitation. Companies like Giao Hàng Nhanh and J&T Express have turned same-day and next-day delivery into table stakes. When you can deliver a product to someone's door by tomorrow afternoon and let them pay in cash, friction disappears.

The real shift is *who's handling the money*. Fintech platforms like Zalopay and Momo have become de facto payment processors for merchants, even in COD transactions. They're building merchant dashboards, offering working capital, and essentially becoming embedded infrastructure. It's less visible than a flashy payment feature, but it's reshaping the backend entirely.

The Inventory Liquidation Economy

Here's the dirty secret nobody discusses: Vietnam's e-commerce is increasingly powered by inventory liquidation and flash sales.

During Vietnam's major shopping seasons—Tet (lunar new year), National Day, and the increasingly important "Double 11" campaigns—discount depths have reached 50-70% on major categories. This isn't sustainable for healthy margins, but platforms and vendors play a numbers game: move volume, generate customer data, and lock in loyalty.

Shopee's Super Sale events and Lazada's Big Sale campaigns have trained consumers to wait for these events. A vendor told me they make 40% of their yearly profit during 3-4 concentrated sale periods. The rest of the year? They're either break-even or losing slightly.

What's emerging now, though, is personalized flash sales. Using AI and consumer data, platforms are moving away from broad "everyone gets 50% off" campaigns and shifting to targeted deals. A 28-year-old woman in Hanoi might see a different discount on the same product compared to a 35-year-old man in Ho Chi Minh City. It's more efficient, and margins are improving.

The Logistics Sorting Problem

Vietnam's last-mile delivery is incredible—until it isn't. Here's what vendors are quietly dealing with: urban areas are oversaturated with delivery infrastructure, leading to inefficient routing and cost compression.

A package from Hanoi to District 1, Ho Chi Minh City might pass through 5-6 different logistics hubs. Each hop costs money. Each hop risks damage. And yet, consumer expectations are for next-day delivery at prices that barely cover fuel.

Smart vendors are now consolidating orders regionally. Instead of shipping one order south, they batch 50-100 orders and send them together, then use local couriers for final-mile delivery. Margins improve. Speed stays roughly the same. This is still niche, but it's growing, especially among high-volume sellers.

The Expertise Vacuum

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most Vietnamese e-commerce vendors still optimize like it's 2018. They focus on product photography and keywords, but they're not doing cohort analysis, CLV optimization, or sophisticated churn prediction. They're leaving money on the table.

Platforms are starting to fill this gap. Shopee introduced "Seller Center Insights" and Lazada built their own analytics suite. But these tools are basic compared to what Shopify or Amazon sellers get. There's a massive opportunity for third-party tools that bridge this gap—helping Vietnamese vendors understand customer lifetime value, predict demand, and optimize their operations.

The Idflow Angle

Speaking of tools, the vendors who are winning right now share one trait: they're ruthless about operations. Whether it's through inventory management, order routing, or customer segmentation, they're applying technology to remove friction. Platforms like Idflow are filling a real need here, helping businesses manage complexity across multiple channels and inventory systems. It's not glamorous, but it's where the real margin improvements are happening.

What's Actually Changing in 2026

The platforms are consolidating. Profitability is shifting from transaction volume to operational efficiency. And social commerce isn't the future anymore—it's the present. The vendors who'll thrive are the ones who stop thinking of it as a trend and start treating it as their primary sales channel.

Vietnam's e-commerce story isn't about whether it will continue growing. It clearly will. The story is about who'll capture the margins, and right now, that advantage goes to people who understand the operational complexity beneath the surface.