{"id":7775,"date":"2026-10-22T06:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T23:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/?p=7775"},"modified":"2026-10-22T07:44:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T00:44:56","slug":"ecommerce-app-user-acquisition-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/ecommerce-app-user-acquisition-vietnam\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecommerce app user acquisition in Vietnam: app advertising, first-order CPA and web to app"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated in October 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

User acquisition (UA) for an ecommerce app means paying for app advertising to get installs, then moving those people to a first order and a second one. The install is only a middle step. The numbers that decide profit or loss are the cost per first-order buyer (first-order CPA) and the repeat purchase rate.<\/p>\n

This article is for brands doing ecommerce marketing in Vietnam through their own app, or thinking about building one. Advertising inside the marketplaces is covered in our article on marketplace advertising<\/a>, and the general concept of user acquisition<\/a> is in the Adtek glossary.<\/p>\n

Should you build your own ecommerce mobile app when you already sell on marketplaces?<\/h2>\n

Yes and no. According to Q&Me, from May 2025 to April 2026 Shopee held 53% and TikTok Shop 44% of the GMV of the four largest marketplaces in Vietnam ecommerce (The Investor, June 2026<\/a>). Pulling buyers over to your own app costs both ad money and voucher money.<\/p>\n

In return, on a marketplace you keep almost none of the buyer data: Shopee hides customer names, phone numbers and addresses from sellers (see our article on CRM on Shopee<\/a>). In your own shopping app, every order is your first-party data<\/a>, which you can use for push notifications, email and retargeting ads.<\/p>\n

I only recommend building an app when at least 3 of these 4 conditions are true:<\/p>\n

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  1. Customers buy again roughly every 1 to 2 months: cosmetics, mother and baby, food, pet supplies.<\/li>\n
  2. You have a few hundred SKUs or more, enough new products to give customers a reason to come back.<\/li>\n
  3. You already have a customer base from stores, the website or Zalo (Vietnam’s most used messaging app) that you can invite to install the app at low cost.<\/li>\n
  4. You have the budget to support the app for at least 12 months: development, measurement, advertising, vouchers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you sell a few dozen SKUs and customers buy once a year, a website plus marketplace stores is usually enough. What is D2C? D2C (direct to consumer) means a brand sells straight to consumers without going through distributors. Your own app is one D2C channel, and how to weigh it is covered in our article on D2C strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    On the legal side, an app that sells your own goods with an ordering function counts as a “direct business e-commerce platform” under the 2025 E-commerce Law (No. 122\/2025\/QH15, passed by the National Assembly on December 10, 2025), which took effect on July 1, 2026. The app owner must notify the competent authority before operating it (Article 14). The app must publish its pricing, delivery and return policies (Article 11) and keep contract data for at least 3 years (Article 16) (Official Gazette<\/a>). Ecommerce websites and apps whose notification was confirmed before July 1, 2026 can keep using their existing filing until June 30, 2027 (Article 41). Decree 248\/2026\/ND-CP of June 30, 2026 sets out the details of the law (Ministry of Industry and Trade, July 2026, in Vietnamese<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    Metrics for measuring ecommerce app advertising<\/h2>\n

    Getting more app downloads is not the goal yet. A shopping app is measured by orders, not installs. Seven metrics to check every week:<\/p>\n