Traditional Mid-Autumn lanterns priced at $1.15-1.9 lead online sales in Vietnam

Around 1,300 shops are selling Mid-Autumn lanterns of all types this season across four major e-commerce platforms in Vietnam, including Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada and Tiki, according to data compiled and analyzed by Metric.vn.

During the peak shopping period from August 20 to September 18, or the eighth day of the seventh lunar month through the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, consumers purchased some 231,300 lanterns across the four platforms.

Total sales reached VND11.1 billion ($427,010), down 6.72 percent year on year, indicating that online demand for Mid-Autumn lanterns has shown signs of slowing.

However, traditional designs have accounted for a notable share of the market.

After excluding suspected fake orders and gift products, Metric.vn recorded around VND2.2 billion ($84,640) in sales of traditional lanterns, including star-shaped lanterns, carp-shaped lanterns and paper-and-cellophane lanterns.

As many as 42,900 traditional lanterns were sold by 272 online shops.

As such, traditional lanterns accounted for about 20 percent of total sales in the surveyed Mid-Autumn lantern market.

Within the traditional segment, lanterns priced at VND30,000-50,000 generated the highest sales.

On Shopee, the price segment recorded some VND255.2 million ($9,820) in sales, while TikTok Shop generated around VND294 million ($11,320).

For lanterns priced between VND50,000 and VND75,000 ($1.9-2.8), sales reached some VND349.1 million ($13,410) on Shopee and VND59.6 million ($2,290) on TikTok Shop.

Price, however, was not the only factor driving demand.

Minh Anh, a resident of Nhieu Loc Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, said she ordered a traditional star-shaped lantern online for her child about two weeks ago.

“Traditional lanterns look simple, but I still find them beautiful,” she shared.

“I played with lanterns like these when I was a child, so I wanted to buy one for my child.

“I want my child to know what Mid-Autumn Festival was like when their parents were young.”

Buying traditional lanterns online has become convenient, with a wide range of designs and prices available, Anh said.

Online purchases can also be cheaper than buying lanterns on the street, thanks to discount vouchers offered by e-commerce platforms.

Metric.vn's data also showed that lantern trading activity is concentrated mainly in Vietnam's two largest markets, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.