E-commerce saw massive growth in Southeast Asia last year, with the regional market showing a 24-fold increase in sales during the last six years to $120 billion in 2021 (from $5 billion in 2015). It is forecast to reach $234 billion by 2025, according to a report from e-commerce platform Lazada.Within Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese market is expected to quadruple to $39 billion by 2025 from $13 billion last year.New Habits for a New EraThe pandemic got consumers shopping online, with about 58 percent saying that they expect to continue shopping on online marketplaces, even as retail opens. Currently, more than 70 percent of the Vietnamese population have access to the Internet; nearly 50 percent go shopping online and 53 percent use e-wallets and adopt digital payments, said Nguyễn Ngọc Dũng, president of the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM).Around 52 percent of people surveyed by Lazada said online shopping is now part of their lives. Yes, they will shop in stores. However they won’t be abandoning e-commerce.Though shoppers are returning to physical stores, there is no sign of decline in online shopping, said Tracey Ryan O’Connor, Vice President of Qubit Group, adding that in fact, the trend keeps growing constantly.Sales on e-commerce sites reached $13 billion last year, up 16 percent against 2020, making Vietnam one of the top three Southeast Asian countries with the highest growth in online retail sales.Five key trends in 2021 are likely to continue having profound impacts on the e-commerce ecosystem this year, namely social commerce, User Generated Content (UCG), personalized customer experience, digital payment, and multi-channel shopping, said James Dong, CEO of Lazada Thailand and Vietnam.Even if the pandemic comes to an end, online shopping will continue to thrive further as it has become a habit of consumers, said Ms. O’Connor.Southeast Asia Ecommerce ForecastIf you looking for ecommerce growth, than take a look at Southeast AsiaEcommerce sales in Southeast Asia will total $89.67 billion in 2022, an increase of $15.31 billion over last year. By next year, the region will cross the $100 billion mark, a significant jump from the $37.22 billion seen in 2019.Southeast Asia’s growth is highlighted, given that most other geographies will see only moderate increases this year. The region’s 20.6% expansion in 2022 will be the highest in the world. Latin America will be the only other region that will crack the 20% threshold this year.Only four countries in the world will produce faster growth rates than Southeast Asia’s combined figure, and two of them—the Philippines and Indonesia—are in the region.Five countries within the region—the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand—will rank among the top 10 markets measured by retail ecommerce sales growth.