Hanoi, March 17 -- A wave of fee increases by major e-commerce platforms is driving tens of thousands of merchants away from online marketplaces, sparking concerns about the survival prospects of smaller sellers amid intensifying competition in the digital retail sector.

Sellers exit as costs climb

A quick report from data analytics platform Metric shows the number of active sellers across Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada and Tiki has dropped to just over 602,000, marking a year-on-year decline of more than 7%. Nearly 48,000 sellers exited the market over the past year alone.

Metric noted that mall shops represent slightly above 2% of sellers on Shopee and TikTok Shop but contributed more than 30% of total revenue last year. While overall s...