Mobile shopping in Vietnam posts strong growth in 2014

The percentage of Vietnamese consumers shopping on mobile devices rose to 45.2% in 2014 from 34.9% in 2013, according to a survey by MasterCard.

Shopping on smartphones is increasingly popular in Vietnam.

The American payment company said Vietnam’s growth rate in smartphone shopping last year was the fifth highest in the Asia-Pacific region.

However Vietnam ranked eighth on the percentage of consumers who have made a purchase using a smartphone.

Overall, consumers from China, India and Taiwan (China) are the most likely to shop using their smartphones, with the percentage of mobile shopping at 70.1%, 62.9% and 62.6% respectively.

Nearly half of respondents across Asia-Pacific cited convenience as the most compelling reason for shopping on their smartphones.

Other reasons include the ability to shop on the go and the growing availability of software that makes it easy to shop online.

The most commonly purchased items among Asia-Pacific shoppers are clothing and accessories, mobile apps and daily deal coupons.

More than one third of consumers in China and the Republic of Korean shop for clothing and accessories on their gadgets, while apps top the list of purchases made by Thai and Vietnamese consumers.

Raj Dhamodharan from MasterCard said growing smartphone ownership is having a massive impact on the way people in Asia-Pacific shop and spend.

According to a recent Consumer Barometer survey by Google, 55% of the Vietnamese population reported using a smartphone, and 43% of consumers were using their mobile devices to conduct product research.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)