In their latest report on the state of e-commerce in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2020, e-commerce aggregator group iPrice Group and analytics company SimilarWeb revealed that three out of four major online marketplaces in the country actually experienced traffic drops in the quarter.

The report dubbed this update as “surprising” considering the view that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is supposed to drive traffic towards e-commerce sites, as customers in many parts of the world are facing some degree of lockdown, forcing them to move their shopping habits online.

Based on an analysis of 50 e-commerce sites in Vietnam, the report revealed the details in the following table:

According to analysts at iPrice Group, there are reasons why this happened:

1. E-commerce marketplaces tend to restrict advertising and promotions during the crisis, and instead choose to promote live streaming and games on their applications. “The goal is to take advantage of the situation to increase customer engagement, and test new features,” the report elaborates.

2. The unpredictable and constantly changing nature of consumer demands during the crisis.

In February or the early days of COVID-19’s appearance in Vietnam, there was a sharp increase of online demands for products such as facemasks (610 per cent) and hand sanitizers (680 per cent), as recorded by iPrice Vietnam.

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By March, when more and more customers are staying at home for self-quarantine, the demand for online grocery increased.

“Unfortunately, these categories were not the primary focus of Vietnam’s e-commerce industry. Among the surveyed top 50 e-commerce websites in Vietnam, only two are specialised in online grocery, and one is specialised in pharmacy. Meanwhile, there are 10 mobile device retailers, nine consumer electronics retailers, and seven fashion retailers,” the report detailed.

Despite the shocking data from February, the report also noted that by mid-March the e-commerce sites have “finally” begun paying more attention to grocery and healthcare products, leading to an average of six per cent increase in traffic.

Advertising and promotion in times of crisis

Marketing and advertising in times of pandemic is a tricky matter as there are several points for marketers to consider, such as sensitivity to the issue.

According to a survey The Marketing Week, as quoted in this contributed post by Shameel Abdulla, 55 per cent of marketers are delaying campaigns or putting them under review.

But there are several steps that businesses can take in order to ensure that campaigns and compassion can go hand-in-hand.

Prantik Mazumdar, Managing Partner at Happy Marketer, spoke in a webinar, “This breakdown has surely forced us to feel the need to pause, think, read, listen, analyse and strategise because marketers usually are always too busy ‘doing’. It is important to look at a macro view and realise every bit count.”

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