Data from CBRE Vietnam also showed the number of visitors to shopping centres decreased by about 80 per cent in both HCM City and Hanoi because of the pandemic.

But although direct shopping revenue dropped, e-commerce and online shopping helped save many retail businesses.

CBRE also reported a strong competition between veteran e-commerce platforms and new players at the end of last month.

During the pandemic, Tiki reached a record of 4,000 orders per minute, SpeedL and Saigon Co.op also soared in the online sales segment.

Ride-hailing platform Grab also quickly launched its GrabMart service to serve the online shopping needs of customers at home./.VNA