What does a website for the Vietnam market need?

A website for the Vietnam market needs natural Vietnamese written for local readers, pages that load fast on a phone, Zalo as a contact option, and the payment methods Vietnamese customers use, such as bank transfer by QR code and e-wallets. If you sell online, you also need to follow Vietnam's rules for e-commerce websites, which were updated in 2026.

Why does the Vietnamese need to be written natively?

Vietnamese readers notice a machine translation in the first sentence. Natural Vietnamese uses the right form of address (usually "bạn" on a website), full and correct diacritics, and a tone that is warm but polite. Big promises such as "số 1" or "uy tín nhất" are common in Vietnamese marketing, but clear facts tend to build more trust.

It also matters for search. People search in Vietnamese, for example "thiết kế website" rather than "web design", so each page needs its Vietnamese search phrase in the title, the first paragraph and the meta description. Many English terms, such as SEO, website and landing page, are used as they are.

Check that your fonts support every Vietnamese character. Some fonts display stacked diacritics, as in "ượ" or "ễ", poorly, or switch to a different font for those letters.

Why do mobile speed and hosting matter?

Many Vietnamese customers browse, compare and buy on their phones, often on mobile data. A page heavy with large images, video and scripts feels slow. Aim for a mobile Lighthouse score of 95 or higher, compress your images and serve the site from a content delivery network (CDN) with servers in or near Vietnam.

International connections matter too. Vietnam's internet traffic to the rest of the world runs through a small number of undersea cables, which have had outages in recent years. A site that is cached on servers close to your customers keeps loading more reliably when that happens.

Why should you offer Zalo?

Zalo is the messaging app many Vietnamese customers use every day, for personal chats and for contacting businesses. A "Chat on Zalo" button, or a link to your Zalo Official Account (Zalo OA, the business version), lets customers reach you the way they already prefer. Make sure someone replies quickly, in Vietnamese.

Keep your phone number visible and clickable as well, and add Facebook Messenger if your customers know you through your fanpage.

Which payment methods do Vietnamese customers expect?

If you sell or take bookings online, consider offering:

• Bank transfer by QR code (VietQR), which Vietnamese banking apps can scan
• E-wallets such as MoMo, ZaloPay and ShopeePay
• Payment gateways such as VNPay, which combine cards, QR codes and banking apps
• Cash on delivery for physical products
• International cards for foreign customers and guests

Show prices in Vietnamese dong in the local format, such as 1.500.000 ₫, and make clear whether VAT is included.

Which local details make a difference?

• Phone numbers in the +84 format, clickable on mobile
• Dates written as day/month/year
• Address forms that follow the current administrative units. Since July 1, 2025, Vietnam has two levels of local government (province and ward or commune), so a district field may no longer fit
• A complete Google Business Profile, plus listings on the maps and platforms your customers use
• Testing in Cốc Cốc, a Vietnamese browser with its own search engine, as well as in Chrome and Safari
• Photos and examples that Vietnamese customers recognize

Which rules apply to websites in Vietnam?

Vietnam regulates certain types of websites, and the details depend on what your site does. This is a general overview, not legal advice. Check the current rules with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Bộ Công Thương) or a local lawyer before you launch.

• Websites that sell goods or services. Under the earlier rules (Decree 52/2013/ND-CP, as amended), a business website that sold online had to notify the Ministry of Industry and Trade through its portal, online.gov.vn, and then show the ministry's badge on the site. Websites where others sell, such as marketplaces, had to register. Vietnam's new Law on E-commerce and its implementing decree took effect on July 1, 2026 and update these rules.
• Websites that publish general news or information. A company website that presents your own business generally does not need a license. A site that gathers and publishes general information from other sources may need one under Decree 147/2024/ND-CP.
• Personal data. Contact forms, newsletters, analytics and cookies all collect personal data, which Vietnam's data protection rules cover. A clear privacy policy in Vietnamese, and consent where it is required, are a sensible start.

Do foreign businesses need anything else?

If you serve Vietnamese customers alongside other markets, give the Vietnamese version its own pages and URL, written for Vietnamese readers rather than translated. We explain how in multilingual websites. It also helps AI assistants answer in Vietnamese, as we describe in how to show up in ChatGPT.

What we do

Atelier ATTENTION designs and builds websites for Vietnamese customers from our offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, written natively in Vietnamese and fast on mobile. See our website design service.