Online shops withdraw en masse: A fierce purge

More than 80,000 online shops left e-commerce platforms in the first half of 2025 alone. Although industry revenue is still growing strongly, this withdrawal shows an increasingly fierce purge amid a wave of unequal competition with genuine stores and big brands.

Fierce competition, many small shops "exhausted"

According to the latest report from the smart data platform Metric.vn, more than 80,000 online shops left the platform due to a stop in generating orders, in just the first 6 months of 2025, a surprising number when the revenue of the entire e-commerce industry still increased strongly, reaching more than 202,000 billion VND (an increase of nearly 42% compared to the same period in 2024).

“Every month I lose several million VND in advertising costs, while orders are unstable, and there are months when I don’t have enough money to import new products,” Ms. Huong, an online cosmetics seller in Hanoi , shared about the reason for having to stop her business after more than 2 years in the profession.

Tens of thousands of online shops leave the market: A fierce purge.

Ms. Huong’s case is not an isolated one. A survey of some e-commerce sales communities shows that the wave of stopping online sales is spreading among small traders and sellers. The main reasons are rising advertising costs, platform changes in display policies, and increasingly large e-commerce platform discounts.

According to Ms. Van Anh, who used to be a fashion seller on Shopee and TikTok Shop, at first she could reach customers naturally thanks to the free distribution algorithm, but now to have her products displayed widely, she has to run heavy advertising. "Without a marketing budget, you can't sell products," Ms. Van Anh said.

Statistics from Metric.vn show that the average advertising cost on TikTok Shop in the second quarter of 2025 increased by more than 30% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the conversion rate is not proportional to the spending level, causing advertising effectiveness to decrease.

Genuine stores grow strongly

Ms. Nho Dinh, CEO of Metric.vn, said that this is the result of a natural elimination process, not reflecting the lack of attractiveness of e-commerce platforms but showing that the market is leaning towards large, professional online shops.

Small online shops that lack strategy and a solid operational foundation will find it difficult to survive. Meanwhile, big brands are taking advantage of the current period to boost growth thanks to strong capital and deep understanding of data.

In addition, there is a trend of shifting to genuine stores (also known as mall shops), contributing up to 29% of revenue on Shopee and TikTok Shop. This reflects the new consumer trend that prioritizes prestige and brand guarantees.

In just the first 6 months of 2025, more than 80,000 online shops left the platform.

While small shops retreated, mall shops recorded significant growth. TikTok Shop stood out when it increased revenue by 69%, increasing its market share from 29% to 39% in just 6 months.

Shopee still leads the market share with 58%, but the growth rate is only 16%, much lower than the same period. Meanwhile, Lazada and Tiki witnessed a clear loss of steam, with revenue decreasing by 48% and 63%, respectively.

Mr. Hoang Ninh, Deputy Director of the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy, Ministry of Industry and Trade , affirmed that genuine stores that are highly appreciated by consumers, have appropriate business strategies, good quality products, clear origins and good customer care services still generate orders, and even grow. On the contrary, stores that do not ensure quality or have not found a direction or business strategy according to the rules will have difficulty competing and face the risk of being eliminated from the market.

Mr. Hoang Ninh added that in order to support businesses in the fiercely competitive e-commerce environment, the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy has implemented a number of support solutions including: urgently completing the legal framework such as proposing to develop the Law on E-commerce; submitting for promulgation the National E-commerce Development Program for the period 2026-2030 to increase information transparency, clearly defining the rights, responsibilities and obligations of relevant entities; at the same time, creating conditions to strengthen the supervision of e-commerce platforms, contributing to promoting digital retail transformation in the coming period.

vov.vn

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/shop-online-o-at-rut-lui-cuoc-thanh-loc-khoc-liet-post649995.html