The era of cross-border e-commerce has arrived. Following the strong rise of China, the future Southeast Asian e-commerce market is seen by many sellers as the “next shining star”. The e-commerce market has a large space and an amazing growth rate.
1. Huge consumption potential
Singapore has long entered the ranks of developed countries, and the middle class in other parts of Southeast Asia is also rising rapidly. If the per capita GDP of US$4,000 is used as an indicator of moving towards a consumer society, Thailand and Indonesia are the fastest growing countries, and Vietnam has a population under 30 years old, accounting for 60%, with huge potential consumption power. In addition, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines are characterized by high demographic dividends, a large number of young working populations, and a high penetration rate of smartphones, which has accelerated the Internet behavior of residents in these countries to skip the PC side and directly develop towards the mobile side.
2. The fastest growing region of the Internet
In 2018, the Southeast Asia E-commerce Report jointly released by Google and Temasek showed that Southeast Asia is the fastest growing region in the world for the Internet. By 2020, the number of Internet users will reach 480 million, close to 80% of the current total population of Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia has a very prominent number advantage in terms of Internet users. By January 2018, Southeast Asia was already the third largest region in the world in terms of the number of Internet users, second only to East Asia and South Asia.
In the next five years, there will be 120,000 new Internet users every day, and nearly 3.8 million users will be generated in the Southeast Asian market every month, making Southeast Asia the fastest growing Internet market in the world between 2015 and 2020. In terms of the length of time spent on the Internet, Southeast Asians spend more time on mobile Internet than any other region in the world. Southeast Asians spend an average of 3.6 hours a day on mobile Internet, with Thais ranking first at an average of 4.2 hours a day, followed by Indonesians, who spend an average of 3.9 hours a day. In comparison, consumers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan spend an average of only 2 hours, 1.8 hours, and 1 hour a day on mobile Internet. The number of Internet users and the average length of time spent on the Internet in Southeast Asia show that the region has ample room for development in Internet use, laying a good Internet foundation for Chinese sellers to carry out export business in Southeast Asia.
3. The e-commerce market is in its bonus period
Currently, the Southeast Asian market is dominated by Lazada and Shopee e-commerce platforms, but the shopping habits of Southeast Asians are not completely controlled by e-commerce platforms, which gives independent sites an opportunity to enter, allowing platforms and independent sites to coexist in Southeast Asia and both are in an upward development stage. At present, many Chinese sellers who are fearless have entered the Southeast Asian market, and they will inevitably encounter many problems, such as after-sales service, payment methods, logistics problems, language barriers, religious beliefs… However, as e-commerce giants continue to increase investment and the e-commerce market order is gradually improved, the Southeast Asian e-commerce market will have great potential in the next few years.