E69: Go live or get left behind: inside Vietnam’s e-commerce boom

E-commerce in Vietnam is big, but it's about to get A LOT bigger. Right now, it’s sitting at around 12–15% of total retail. But it’s growing at 2–3x the speed of offline, and the way people buy in Vietnam is changing fast. In this episode, Ian Paynton sits down with Ryan Molloy, CEO of Redfern Digital, to break down what’s actually happening on the ground. 

We get into:

•  Why TikTok Shop has overtaken Shopee in just a couple of years 
•  The shift from search-based shopping to discovery-led buying 
•  Why live streaming has gone from “nice to have” to non-negotiable 
•  What it really takes to launch and scale an e-commerce business here 

We also workshop a real example — what Ryan would do if he had $100K to launch a new brand in Vietnam today.

If you’re thinking about entering Vietnam, or trying to understand where commerce is heading more broadly, this is a useful one. Because Vietnam isn’t just growing fast. In many ways, it’s skipping steps — and rewriting the playbook as it goes.

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This podcast is brought to you by We Create Content, the content marketing agency that builds audiences for global brands in Vietnam. You can follow our host, Ian Paynton, on LinkedIn, and follow the podcast on Instagram, TikTok and X. 

A special thanks to DJ Jase at The Beats Saigon for the soundtrack, and to YOU for listening.