Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) said it racked up more than $5 billion in transactions in the first hour of its annual 'Singles' Day' sales blitz on Friday - a third more than in the first hour of last year's spree.

 Instead of opening e-commerce floors in the old way, some businesses have tried new solutions to develop online sales to avoid repeating the same mistakes made by their predecessors.

 VietNamNet Bridge – With the number of internet users and online shopping websites in the country skyrocketing, e-commerce is expected to boom this year.

 The Vietnam e-Business Index (EBI) 2015 report has revealed great disparity in e-commerce development among localities, particularly in big cities including Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi.

 VietNamNet Bridge – This year online shopping, particularly shopping through Facebook, has been very popular in Vietnam, especially among office employees.

 The second "Online Friday," also known as "Online Shopping Day 2015," will likely record sales worth 25 million USD, according to Vietnam E-Commerce and Information Technology Agency.

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 VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Industry and Trade is setting up strict regulations on e-commerce to prevent trade fraud, but businesses say this would cause serious problems for them.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Online goods distributors have noted that the highest revenue growth rates do not come from Hanoi and HCM City, but from smaller cities and provinces.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency and the Vietnam E-commerce Association on November 10 launched the websites of the “Online Shopping Day 2014” program

VietNamNet Bridge – Forty-five per cent of Vietnamese smartphone owners used their device during their last purchase, the highest rate in the region, according to a recent study carried out by Internet giant Google.

The growth of connected device ownership is causing a boom in the online retail sector, with the number of people making online purchases spiking in the last two years in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam.

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 Nearly 60 percent of Internet users in the European Union (EU) had online shopping experience for the past year, according to a survey published on Tuesday by the bloc's statistics office Eurostat.