Korean brands leverage offline stores to capture Vietnam's e-commerce boom
Vietnamese consumers try Korean products at 2026 Korea Festival at Parc Mall in Ho Chi Minh City / Courtesy of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency
As e-commerce rapidly transforms retail across Southeast Asia, Korean brands are using hands-on offline experiences in Vietnam to drive digital sales.
Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) hosted its 2026 Korea Festival at Parc Mall in Ho Chi Minh City from Sept. 16-22, bringing 80 Korean companies together for product sales, market testing and cultural experiences.
The event featured Korean beauty products, food and household goods, along with tastings linked to KOTRA’s Seoul Food exhibition, live commerce, Chuseok cultural activities and K-pop performances.
Among participating companies were 48 domestic firms with limited overseas experience and 10 companies new to exporting, KOTRA said, with local vendors helping them test products and gauge Vietnamese consumers’ responses.
KOTRA said it will follow the in-person event with an online promotion on Shopee Vietnam from Oct. 3-5, extending the campaign from mall counters to one of Southeast Asia’s major e-commerce platforms.
The online campaign will feature 87 companies, including domestic firms, first-time exporters and companies already operating in Vietnam, with homepage exposure, daily flash sales and exclusive discount vouchers from Shopee Vietnam.
The push comes as Vietnam’s retail and service sales revenue grew 9.2 percent in 2025 from a year earlier, while major e-commerce transaction value rose 34.8 percent, according to figures cited by KOTRA.
KOTRA said Korean exports to Vietnam of plastic household goods, instant noodles and color cosmetics posted average annual growth of 43.2 percent, 19.1 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively, from 2023 through 2025.
Koo Bon-kyung, head of KOTRA’s Southeast Asia and Oceania regional headquarters, said Vietnamese consumers are increasingly experiencing products in person before making purchases online.
“We will do our best to support Korean consumer-goods companies on the ground so they can test market potential and successfully establish themselves in Vietnamese distribution channels,” Koo said.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.