Delegates at the Vietnam Cross-Border E-commerce Forum — known as VOIEF 2026 and convened in Hanoi — took up the question of how digital transformation is reshaping customs practices. Trade ministry figures put Vietnam's online retail economy at roughly $31 billion for 2025, a total that positions the country ninth or better globally and third across Southeast Asia.
Cross-border e-commerce activity conducted through digital trade channels reached a combined import-export valuation of roughly $4.45 billion, with outbound transactions climbing 78 per cent — a figure that, despite its pace, represents only a modest share of the country's overall trade volume. Online export volumes climbing 78 per cent through 2025 prompted authorities to revise digital infrastructure arrangements and simplify customs handling for goods traded across borders via e-commerce platforms.
At a presentation covered by local media, Tran Thuy Tien — representing the Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA), which operates under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) — put forward the view that cross-border e-commerce channels offer Vietnamese businesses a more direct path to overseas consumers, bypassing the added costs and delays that tend to come with conventional export routes. Online commerce in that market topped $31 billion, even as cross-border trade conducted through digital platforms remained relatively narrow in scope.
Tien put Vietnam's online export sector at roughly $2 billion for 2025, a figure that sits against a worldwide cross-border e-commerce landscape forecast to reach $791.5 billion across that same period. Navigating overseas market rules, tracking goods through supply chains, settling cross-border payments, and clearing customs were identified as active obstacles for businesses operating internationally.
Evaluating the online export landscape across product categories, market destinations, and available support mechanisms was put forward as a priority by Trịnh Thị Thu Hiền, who holds a deputy director post within the Import-Export Department at the MoIT. Vietnam's export mix spans a wide range of categories — fresh and processed food, clothing, shoes, industrial equipment, and consumer electronics — though data indicate that a portion of this trade moves through conventional distribution channels rather than newer ones.
Platform-based trade in goods sold through e-commerce channels covers only a narrow slice of product categories, leaving the overall export volumes generated by these digital marketplaces relatively modest in scale. Hien added that online export businesses gravitate toward neighbouring markets, with farther-flung destinations posing greater logistical hurdles — particularly around freight constraints and the customs or regulatory requirements of receiving countries.
Traders operating across borders were urged to gather thorough, up-to-date knowledge of their target markets — covering the rules governing imports, exports, and e-commerce transactions in those jurisdictions — rather than depending solely on guidance from local authorities.
Under the updated Customs Law, goods moving through e-commerce platforms would fall under a more precisely defined set of legal rules. Expanding e-commerce activity and the arrival of varied commercial formats had together generated demand for tailored customs procedures, according to Nguyen Thu Huyen, who serves as deputy head of the NV4 team within the Customs Management Supervision Division.
Under the earlier framework, online marketplace shipments fell within general customs procedures tied to how they were transported, with no dedicated channel set aside for digital retail transactions specifically. Goods moving through e-commerce platforms fall within the scope of Article 16a, which sets out that customs formalities and oversight apply to both inbound and outbound shipments handled via those channels.
Under incoming rules, cross-border trade conducted through e-commerce platforms will require those on the Vietnamese side — whether businesses or private individuals — to complete digital identity verification and authentication procedures. Those overseeing platform operations will bear the obligation of linking into the customs authority's digital infrastructure for e-commerce data handling whenever such procedures are carried out.
Those required to submit product details to customs include the operators running e-commerce platforms, businesses managing bonded warehouses, freight carriers along with their appointed agents, and any other parties — whether organisations or private individuals — whose activities connect them to goods moving through those platforms.
Among the measures put forward were digital identity tools, the sharing of data held by platforms, and early notification of shipment details — all aimed at strengthening how risk is evaluated for those moving goods across borders. Work on building a platform for digital identity verification and cross-agency data sharing is under way at the customs authority, Huyen noted.
Planned to bridge government bodies — among them the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Security — the platform would also draw in e-commerce operators, allowing all parties to access a shared infrastructure rather than running parallel processes independently. A platform built around cross-border freight management will shift documentation away from paper toward digital workflows, drawing on shipment data collected ahead of arrival and routing it forward until clearance is formally issued.
Built on an open architecture, the platform is designed to share and receive data with both domestic government networks and international counterparts. Pre-shipment data on cargo, the authority noted, would give inspectors a window to evaluate risk before consignments reach the border, with the prospect of fewer hands-on checks and quicker processing times as a result. Among its stated aims, the platform looks to bring greater openness to customs workflows while driving down the overhead tied to warehousing and border-processing fees.
