Hanoi (VNA) – Online shopping willstill be booming this year, even if the COVID-19 pandemic is over, experts havesaid.

The digital economy saw massive growth inSoutheast Asia last year, driven by the rise of e-commerce, according to arecent report by e-commerce platform Lazada.

The regional e-commerce market reported a24-fold increase over the last six years, from 5 billion USD in 2015 to 120 billionUSD in 2021. It is forecast to reach 234 billion USD in 2025.

The Vietnamese market is also expected toquadruple to 39 billion USD by 2025 from 13 billion USD last year.

The pandemic has triggered major changes incustomers’ behaviour and shopping habits, the report cited, as 58 percent ofsurveyed Vietnamese said they will continue shopping on online marketplacesbecause it is convenient. This habit is likely to sustain in the future as 53percent of the respondents indicated that online shopping has become a part oftheir life.

Dang Hoang Hai, Director of the Vietnam e-Commerceand Digital Economy Agency (iDEA), said e-commerce has been a criticaldistribution channel, maintaining supply chains and boosting sales ofagricultural products, particularly during the severe resurgence of COVID-19.

Sales on e-commerce sites reached 13 billionUSD last year, up 16 percent against 2020, making Vietnam one of the top threeSoutheast Asian countries with the highest growth in online retail sales.

There has been a booming demand for e-commercesince the outset of the pandemic, said Nguyen Ngoc Dung, President of theVietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM). More than 70 percent of the Vietnamesepopulation have access to the Internet; nearly 50 percent went shopping onlineand 53 percent use e-wallets and adopt digital payments, he noted.

James Song, CEO of Lazada Thailand andVietnam, said COVID-19 waves have brought about major changes in customers’behaviour and shaped new trends. Five key trends in 2021 are likely to continuehaving profound impacts on e-commerce ecosystem this year, namely socialcommerce, User Generated Content (UCG), personalised customer experience,digital payment, and multi-channel shopping, he said.

Though shoppers are returning to physicalstores, there is no sign of decline in online shopping, said Tracey Ryan O’Connor,Vice President of Qubit Group, in fact, the trend keeps growing constantly.

Even if the pandemic comes to an end, onlineshopping will continue to thrive further as it has become a habit of consumers,she said./.