According to the survey, Vietnam’s cashless payment rate increased by 55% of respondents who chose to pay by scanning QR code

In 2020, due to the blockade of COVID-19, many People’s Daily consumption activities will shift from offline to online. Online shopping and electronic wallet businesses, which used to be mainly targeted at the young generation, will also gain support from more consumer groups of age groups around the world.

Vietnam is one of the few countries to have done well in the 2020 outbreak, and its economy is still growing by 1.8% under the new coronavirus. Its e-commerce market, like other Southeast Asian countries, has seen a rapid increase in the outbreak.




Vietnam is moving towards a digital economy, with e-commerce seen as an important part of the trend. However, cash payments are still common in Vietnam. To change this habit, National Bank of Viet Nam is working with its cashless payment ecosystem partners on measures and services to improve the customer experience.

According to the results of the Visa/Clear Q2 2020 survey, the cashless payment rate in Vietnam is on the rise.

According to the results of the study, about half of the respondents said their use of advanced payment methods has increased. QR code payments (55 percent) led the way, followed by electronic wallet payments (51 percent) and contactless transactions (50 percent).

Users also increased their use of other forms of transaction, such as online payments, credit cards and contactless cards, up by almost 50 per cent.




The main reasons users chose to go cashless were: preventing the risk of theft (58%) and reducing the risk of infection (58%). In addition, convenient payment and financial monitoring are also advantages.

Many people believe that cashless payments can make it easier to identify illegal transactions, provide greater security in transactions, and build an efficient society.

Nowadays, especially in the big cities, there is a very clear trend that some people no longer carry large amounts of cash, but use other advanced payment methods instead of withdrawing cash from their wallets.




Respondents said the main reasons they don’t carry cash are to use more cards (68%) and to use contactless payments (59%). Equally important is the growing number of places that accept cashless payments.

Vietnamese visa officers say the trend toward digital payments is common everywhere, not just in central areas. Similar to the previous data, people use cashless payment the most in note payments. A whopping 69 percent of respondents believe that future electricity, water and Internet bills could be cashless.



According to the World Bank’s Vietnam Development Report 2019, e-commerce in Southeast Asia is expected to grow rapidly and reach $102 billion by 2025.

Vietnam is the third largest e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, behind Indonesia (USD 12.2 billion in 2018) and Thailand (USD 3 billion in 2018) and will continue to move forward. Vietnam’s e-commerce market grew from 400 million U.S. dollars in 2015 to 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2018.

In terms of payment, only 10% of online purchases are cashless in Vietnam, far lower than Indonesia and Malaysia, meaning that 90% of online purchases are paid in cash, and 51% of online sales are paid digitally, which is the average level in Southeast Asia.

Although Vietnam has many advantages, such as a high consumer Internet use index and smartphone penetration, the number of users participating in online shopping is still limited, said a representative of Nielsen Vietnam, a market research firm. This is because there are still many obstacles in the field of e-commerce in Vietnam, as consumers cannot guarantee the quality of products and services; The credibility degree of information obtained through e-commerce websites is not high; User experience is incomplete; Most importantly, consumers do not trust e-commerce platforms enough (many consumers want to see products before they buy them).

The epidemic has had a major impact on the trends of digital transformation in Vietnam and around the world, with e-commerce booming, cashless payments increasing, and online meetings becoming a new habit.

From January 2020 to January 2021, the global market witnessed strong growth in purchasing power, with the number of Vietnamese consumers using payment cards increasing by 35% and contactless payments by more than 200%.

With the development of local telecommunications technology and the popularity of mobile payment services, perhaps by the end of the two-year pilot project, Vietnam will have largely entered a “cashless society” and the lifestyle of the local people will also have a more convenient transformation.

In the development process of Vietnam, mobile payment development opportunities and challenges coexist. The growing popularity of mobile payments presents challenges as well as opportunities for banks, retailers and mobile operators.

The main reference for this article is ICTNews