Visa sees over 50 per cent jump in online purchases in Vietnam over the past year

“Online shopping continues to grow in popularity in Vietnam. We have seen 19 per cent of our payment volume from Vietnamese cardholders coming from e-commerce. As the internet and smartphone become an integral part of daily life for Vietnamese, there will be a growing trend where consumers spend more time and money shopping online,” said Sean Preston, Visa’s country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

“This positive growth is not only good for online retailers – it points towards the health of the economy overall. Overall, the growth in electronic payments contributes to economic activity by reducing transaction costs and improving efficiency in the flow of goods and service,” Preston added.

Visa Debit cards account for 39 per cent of Visa’s online transactions in Vietnam. In addition, the use of Visa Debit cards for online transactions by Vietnamese Visa cardholders is growing at 67 per cent year-on-year, according to Visa.

Debit cards allow consumers to pay directly with funds from their bank deposit account for goods and services – from monthly bills to online purchases to everyday spending on items such as groceries, petrol or food.

“At Visa, we also believe it is important to provide consumers with peace of mind when it comes to shopping online. Visa introduced Verified by Visa (VbV), a free, online service designed to make internet transactions safer by authenticating the cardholder’s identity at the time of purchase,” said Preston.

“Visa uses multiple layers of security and fraud protection, and VbV provides a seamless additional layer of security for participating e-commerce merchants,” he emphasised.

“At Visa we are committed to work with our local bank clients and merchants to help cardholders understand how their cards work so they can make informed decisions on how to best manage their money. As card usage grows with increased income, the retail environment will also become more dynamic,” Preston noted.

Visa Inc. connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments.

The company operates one of the world's most advanced processing networks- VisaNet - that is capable of handling more than 56,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants.