11.11 sale in Vietnam: how brands should run it in 2026
Vietnam's 11.11 sale is losing its pull: Q3 volume is flat. Five ways brands can win back past buyers instead of racing to the deepest discount.
Tường Vi, 31, an office worker in Gia Định ward, Ho Chi Minh City, has stopped staying up until midnight for double-day sales (the “11.11”, “9.9” and “8.8” promotions that Vietnamese marketplaces run on matching dates). She summed it up for VnExpress, a major Vietnamese news site: “Hunting sales feels like saving money, but it turns out to cost more.”
On Oct 13, YouNet ECI, a Vietnamese e-commerce analytics firm, reported that gross merchandise value (GMV, the total value of goods sold) for the first nine months of 2026 reached VND 411,700 billion (YouNet ECI). That figure covers four marketplaces: Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada and Tiki (Doanh nghiệp Hội nhập). According to Tuổi Trẻ, it is up 22% year on year. Shoppers are less excited, yet the market keeps growing. The two facts meet in one place: per YouNet ECI, the growth comes mainly from selling prices, while unit volume is roughly flat (Thời báo Ngân hàng).
Our view at 126Insights: for many sellers, double-day sales have stopped being a growth engine. They now work like a voluntary tax. The shop pays for the discount vouchers and the marketplace fees, and in return gets orders that loyal customers might have placed on an ordinary day. The 11.11 sale in Vietnam is close, which is when many teams lock their promotion budgets. Use it to bring past customers back, and leave the deep-discount race to someone else.
Are Vietnamese shoppers still hunting double-day sales?
Ms. Vi's story is one person's. But she is not alone. In the same VnExpress article, Minh Tân, 38, from Nhiêu Lộc ward, says he “only uses sales to pay for items I've been watching for a while”. Đặng Yên, 30, from Thạnh Mỹ Tây ward, told VnExpress that on 8/8 she placed only 3 orders, where she used to place 9 or 10. She once spent VND 3-5 million per sale event; that month she spent under VND 1.5 million.
Surveys point the same way. In the Q3 survey by YouNet ECI and Buzzmetrics, 74% of buyers rated quality as an important factor, up from 52% the previous quarter (Tri thức via Báo Mới). Price came second at 67% (Tuổi Trẻ). The importance of discounts and promotions fell 7 percentage points from the previous quarter (Thương gia Online).
Don't read this as Vietnamese consumers tightening their belts. The eCCI confidence index rose from 122 to 141, and 58% of respondents rated their current income positively, up from 45% the quarter before (Thương gia Online). Meanwhile VnExpress ran a piece headlined “Consumers are cautious about spending”. The two signals look opposed, but together they are clear: people still spend, but with a plan. They make a list first, wait for the right item, and no longer let a midnight countdown clock pull them into the cart.
GMV is up 22%, so where is the money coming from?
In Q3, GMV hit VND 146,900 billion with 903 million products sold (Báo Pháp luật). Per Tuổi Trẻ, that quarter alone grew 27%. Tuổi Trẻ also reports that over nine months Shopee grew 12% and TikTok Shop 38%, and that in Q3 the GMV gap between the two shrank to VND 4,300 billion. For how Shopee uses entertainment to hold on to buyers, see our earlier piece on shoppertainment (in Vietnamese).
The number worth a closer look is a different one. According to YouNet ECI, GMV has risen every quarter from Q4 2025 to Q3 2026, with selling prices up more than 20% each quarter while the contribution from volume stayed nearly flat (Doanh nghiệp Hội nhập, Thời báo Ngân hàng). In Q4 2025, GMV grew about 22% while volume fell 5%. In Q1 2026, GMV grew 19% and volume fell about 3% (Tri thức via Báo Mới).
“Growth from price” is easily misread as “sellers all raised prices”. The data does not say that. The price figure in these reports may reflect average value per item, and that also rises when buyers move to pricier, better products, which fits the 74% who now value quality. What we can say with more confidence: the market is growing because each item sold is worth more, while the number of items sold is nearly standing still. For a seller, each order brings in more money, but the number of orders is not rising with it.
Which categories are really growing, and which are flat on volume?
FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) is growing on both legs. In Q3 it reached VND 29,400 billion, up 36%, the highest among the large categories. Price contributed 17% and volume 18% (Báo Pháp luật). Buyers are paying more per item and buying more items. YouNet ECI says FMCG could keep growth above 30% in Q4 if it stimulates real demand (Thời báo Ngân hàng).
Fashion and beauty are two large categories, and on GMV alone there is nothing to worry about. In Q3, fashion reached VND 39,300 billion, up 29%. Beauty reached VND 18,900 billion, up 28%. The worry is that volume has stalled in both (Báo Pháp luật). For these two, a deep 11.11 discount can bring in a night of revenue, but it struggles to bring in new buyers.
Think of the phở stall at the end of the alley that raises the price of a bowl while the number of customers stays the same. The till looks healthy, but the moment the stall next door is VND 5,000 cheaper, you learn how loyal your customers really are. Revenue that grows on price is the easiest revenue to lose.
Who pays for deep discounts on double-day sales?
The marketplace does not cover every voucher a customer uses. According to Shopee's seller guide on fee changes for non-Mall shops (Mall is Shopee's tier for official brand stores), effective May 23, 2026, vouchers are co-funded by Shopee and the seller. The co-funding table on that page has two tiers: Shopee 70% and seller 30%, or Shopee 60% and seller 40%. The formula on the page puts the seller's share at 40% of the voucher value, capped at VND 50,000 per product. On total cost, Dân trí wrote on Oct 25 that marketplace fees can reach 35-40% of revenue. In the same article, Nguyễn Mạnh Tấn (Haravan, VECOM, the Vietnam E-commerce Association) said the market is going through a heavy shake-out.
Buyers feel that cost too. According to VnExpress, which carries Ms. Yên's account, buyers report prices creeping up because Shopee and TikTok Shop raised platform fees for some categories. In the same article as Ms. Vi's story, a seller told VnExpress: “Long-time customers know the sale day doesn't cut much, so they're less excited.”
Put these pieces side by side and 126Insights sees a loop. Fees and voucher co-funding eat into margin. Sellers have little room left to discount deeply. The sale day looks much like an ordinary day. Loyal customers stop waiting for it. At that point, running a double-day sale out of habit means paying for a spot on the promotion page, with no growth to show for it. Vietnamese have a saying for this kind of business: “ăn xổi ở thì”, roughly “eat it fresh, live for the moment”. Orders arrive in one night, while profit and customers do not stay.
Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash
Should you run an 11.11 sale in Vietnam?
Yes, if you know what you are buying with it. Rentracks observes that cash flow is “increasingly concentrated in sellers with a brand, operating capability and the ability to create a better shopping experience” (Rentracks). Nguyễn Phương Lâm of YouNet ECI also says a brand's problem is no longer simply raising sales or pushing discounts (Znews).
126Insights suggests this before 11.11:
- Keep your base price stable all year. If the original price keeps moving, every “50% off” label loses its meaning. A stable base price is a promise to loyal customers, much like after-sales promises being part of the product.
- Move deep-discount money into bundles, gifts or offers reserved for people who have bought before. That money goes straight to those most likely to return. The list of past customers should sit in your own hands, in the spirit of not building a sales funnel on rented land.
- Get products onto shoppers' watchlists before Nov 11. Customers like Minh Tân only check out items they have followed for a while, so the real game is played in the weeks before the night itself.
- Track profit per order next to GMV. Count it after marketplace fees, voucher co-funding and operating costs. Pull any product group that loses money per order out of the campaign.
- Split by category. If you sell FMCG, 11.11 is still a good moment to push volume and let customers try new products, since the category is growing in units too. If you sell fashion or beauty, where volume has stalled, deep discounts are likely to eat only into profit.
Have you locked your 11.11 budget? Before you do, open last year's 11.11 order data and count how many of those buyers came back at full price in the following three months. If the number is close to zero, you bought orders last year, but not customers.