E-commerce now contributes to a record 36% of global FMCG growth, making it crucial for retailers and brand owners to understand and unlock the channel as it becomes more prevalent. As such, Kantar Worldpanel projections show that by 2025, online FMCG will be a USD 170 billion-dollar business, and hold a 10% total market share—up from 4.6% in 2016. South Korea and China will continue to lead the way and Asia in general remains at the cutting edge of online adoption.

Global growth of E-commerce will mainly come from the US, which the market share in E-commerce will increase from 1.5% in 2017 to 8% in 2025 representing a $90 billion US dollar business. This can be attributed to the promising rollout of click-and-collect, delivery and subscription models. 

In terms of absolute value growth, the top six contributors are all leading power economies, led by China and the US. The other top performing countries are South Korea, the UK, Japan and France. Last year, value increased by 52% in China, 41% in South Korea, 8% in the UK, 7% in France and 5% in Japan and in the US.

In Vietnam, e-commerce channel has evolved thanks to booming internet usage and smartphone ownership along with massive investment of key retail players, and now takes 0.5% of the FMCG market in 4 key urban cities of Vietnam. The percentage of e-commerce shoppers grew from 5.4% to 8.8% of urban 4 cities population in the last year alone, and an online trip size is at triple value of an offline basket.

David Anjoubault – General Manager of Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam commented: “Although the size of Vietnam e-commerce market is still small compared to other formats, it holds a strong potential because the value growth of e-commerce within FMCG is up to 69%, which makes Vietnam become one of the countries with the highest e-commerce growth rate in the world. It’s now the critical time for investors to enter this promising market, while current retail giants should gradually move their offer online & take advantage of their brand equity with omni-channels strategy, to be successful and to defend their current position. On the whole, consumer trust and high logistics cost for delivery model are major challenges that need to be addressed by businesses in order to move Vietnam e-commerce forward”.

South Korea and China will continue to lead the way and Asia in general remains at the cutting edge of online adoption. Vietnam e-commerce specifically, is expected to expand from 0.5% to 2.2% share in 2025 coupled with the rise of digitization.