Statistics compiled by Metric show that total sales across Vietnam’s four major e-commerce platforms reached VND429.7 trillion ($16.3 billion) in 2025, surging 34.75% from the previous year.
Mordor Intelligence forecasts that Vietnam’s e-commerce market will reach around $33.6 billion in 2026. One of the drivers is the continued rise of “video commerce,” with livestreaming and key opinion leaders, or KOLs, on major commerce platforms continuing to stimulate consumer spending.
As social media and e-commerce platforms increasingly become enormous online marketplaces, Ha Hong Viet, director of Sellator Media and Strategy JSC, said celebrities and influencers selling agricultural products or other goods are not merely selling a product’s functions and quality. In effect, they are also selling the public’s trust and attention.
“In other words, celebrities sell products through their own ‘halo effect,’” he said. Consumers, meanwhile, buy on trust and, fearing they may miss an opportunity, often skip the process of verifying a product.
Capitalizing on shoppers’ tendency to place orders within seconds, some celebrities misrepresent product origins to deceive customers and reap substantial profits. Indian buffalo meat being “transformed” into an expensive northwestern specialty, or lower-priced Lai Chau ginseng being sold under the prestigious Ngoc Linh name, are telling examples.
To restore order to the market and promote sustainable development, Viet said authorities and social media platforms need to strengthen controls over product quality and origins. Faster and more effective channels should also be established to receive and handle consumer complaints.
In an environment where consumers often make purchases based heavily on emotion, trust can collapse just as quickly once dishonesty is uncovered. The consequences do not stop with the seller, but can also hurt producers and thousands of farmers who are doing business legitimately, he warned.
According to Nguyen Dang Sinh, chairman of the Vietnam Association for Anti-Counterfeiting and Trademark Protection (VATAP), many large-scale cases involving unsafe food, counterfeit goods and imitation products had already been exposed well before the recent incidents. These cases show that post-market inspections by authorities remain inadequate.
He said Vietnam’s agricultural sector introduced a traceability system for agricultural, forestry and fisheries products from July 1, designed to make product origins transparent from the place of production all the way to the dining table.
Vietnam also has stringent regulations governing product quality, labeling and traceability, as well as the responsibilities of e-commerce sellers, livestreamers, KOLs and KOCs in product advertising. These provide the legal basis for authorities to strengthen market inspections and oversight.
Yet in a market where consumers can buy agricultural products with just a few clicks, Sinh said authorities must step up post-market inspections rather than allow oversight to weaken. As responsibilities and powers are decentralized to local authorities, adequate staffing and funding must also follow.
