Vietnam's E-commerce Evolution: Key Takeaways from Metub's Ho Chi Minh City Event

*This article is adapted from *Momentum Works

In May 2024, senior leaders of Metub – Vietnam’s largest creator network and MCN – participated in Momentum Works Immersion: Live Commerce in Hangzhou, together with MCNs, enablers, brands and platforms from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and India.

It was a fruitful trip not only for learning, but also with partnerships in AI, supply chain, brands and operations being established. When some of these partners decided to pay a return visit to explore further, Momentum Works and Metub teams decided to create an event for a broader audience.

Hence “Winning in Vietnam: the most vibrant ecommerce market in Southeast Asia” was held in Ho Chi Minh City on 23 Aug 2024 at Metub office. We had initially planned 100 seats, but the event was oversubscribed with more than 160 people eventually showing up, covering various parts of the ecommerce ecosystem.

Interestingly, during the same week, we also met with at least 3 other different groups of ecommerce executives from Hangzhou in Ho Chi Minh City. A local partner joked to us “Half of Hangzhou is in Ho Chi Minh City!”

Anyway, here are a few highlights of the event:

• Nhi Nguyen, Metub’s Director of strategic planning, shared his observations on the similarities and differences between China and Vietnam ecommerce ecosystems. Nhi has spent 10 years working with various parts of Vietnam’s ecommerce scene, and his biggest takeaway is that while China’s ecosystem is much more mature than Vietnam’s, live commerce is an area where Vietnam is closing the gap quickly, providing an ideal ground to build and test brands;
• Wayne Luo, head of cross border investments at InCapital, made a macro but detailed benchmark between economic developments of China and Vietnam after each country’s respective reform and opening up process. He also summarised four key reasons why brand building for Vietnam’s market is very much worthwhile for entrepreneurs and investors;
• Of course, brand building is a complex enterprise, involving consumer insights, product innovation, supply chain and (online & offline) channel building. Calvin Zhang, Hebe Beauty’s head of Vietnam, shared how Hebe built a matrix of brands for the region’s myriad customer segments and channels, and how it markets all these brands and make them really accessible to consumers in Vietnam and beyond;
• Generative AI has been used by almost all players across the ecommerce system, and many are not aware about the exact legal risks they are exposed to. Regulators in Vietnam and other countries are making references with the European Commission when making their respective GenAI regulatory frameworks. Sarah Zhu and Matt Ma, partners of KinDing Law, shared a while paper with practical tips for ecommerce brands, enablers and other operators to avoid legal risks, starting from establishing traceability of AI generated product images and videos;
• Interestingly, generating such videos is the exact expertise of Topview.AI, a Hangzhou-based company focused on video AI and digital humans. Denny Deng, Partner & Head of Data, shared some of the observations from empirical results of digital human live streaming in Southeast Asia. For brands in this region, the ROI of digital humans can be 1.5x that of human hosts in non-peak hours;
• Sherry Zhao, Country Manager of Alibaba Cloud Vietnam, shared precisely how Alibaba Cloud has enabled low latency, precise recommendation etc. to increase the customer experience, therefore GMV and conversion of Taobao Live.

Before the networking, Hung Tran, COO of Metub, joined a panel discussion on the trends of ecommerce and live commerce with fellow speakers. One of his key observations is the increased efficiency requirements for every player, from cost efficiency to stay competitive amid rising platform take rates, to operational efficiency because of requirements such as faster deliveries.

Momentum Works CEO Jianggan Li concluded the session with a sharing called “Crystal ball: How Southeast Asia’s ecommerce landscape will evolve into 2025” which puts the current numbers, trends, platform competitive dynamics and Vietnam’s macro economy in perspective.

We have been impressed by the level of enthusiasm and the desire to establish business relationships of the participants. The whole objective of the Momentum Works Immersions series is to foster not just practical learning, but also tangible business opportunities across different cultures.

We will host more such events across Southeast Asia and other emerging markets in the coming months – and why not join us in Hangzhou itself at Momentum Works’s next Immersion: ecommerce and live commerce this October!

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