Once blocked in Vietnam, Facebook is now the basis of a thriving eCommerce industry there.

Although Vietnam was ranked as the smallest B2C eCommerce market in Southeast Asia in terms of sales two years ago, it is now growing at one of the fastest rates in the region, according to a report by Hamburg-based secondary market research company yStats.com, titled “Vietnam B2C eCommerce Market 2015”.

The report says close to 90 per cent of online buyers of fashion products in Vietnam made at least one online purchase via Facebook. The shopping orders of items displayed via this social network are accepted via Facebook messages and phone calls, and paid for mostly by cash on delivery.

“Growing internet and online shopper penetration, as well as increasing online spending per shopper, are driving up online retail sales in Vietnam,” said a spokesperson for yStats.com.

“In the next five years, the Vietnamese B2C eCommerce market is expected to experience strong double-digit growth rates.”

Improvement in the two important infrastructure factors, payment and delivery, could give a further boost to B2C eCommerce in Vietnam, says yStats.com.

“Last year, close to two thirds of eCommerce websites in Vietnam received complaints from online shoppers regarding delivery times. Furthermore, nearly half of internet users who do not yet shop online admitted to not having a credit card to pay in online stores, while cash on delivery was by far the leading payment method among current online shoppers.”