Like many regions around the world, Southeast Asia experienced an ecommerce boom in 2020, as various pandemic-driven social lockdowns encouraged more shopping from home. According to our estimates, ecommerce grew by 35.2% collectively in the region last year, and our newest forecast projects 14.3% growth this year. However, traditional retail is still overwhelmingly dominant.
Like many regions around the world, Southeast Asia experienced an ecommerce boom in 2020, as various pandemic-driven social lockdowns encouraged more shopping from home. According to our estimates, ecommerce grew by 35.2% collectively in the region last year, and our newest forecast projects 14.3% growth this year. However, traditional retail is still overwhelmingly dominant.
Though virtually unknown outside of China, a new crop of local direct-to-consumer brands are making a name for themselves at home—and even outperforming some of the major foreign players.
The top back-to-school ecommerce platforms
On today's episode, we discuss how Prime Day performed versus last year, what kind of a halo effect took place, and whether Amazon was able to capture the back-to-school spending. We then talk about augmented reality's ability to help shoppers, what WhatsApp Shops might look like, and how many folks said social media content resulted in them buying products. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.
Back to class: US back-to-school ecommerce sales will grow more than 13% this year, even after last year’s spike, increasing their share of total back-to-school sales this season.
Livestreaming is poised to be a major driver of growth for social commerce as the capabilities expand and improve. For marketers that are ready to dip their toes in the livestreaming waters, here’s how to incorporate the practice into social commerce strategies today:
The small-business-centric point-of-sale solution can push PayPal further into in-store payments and help it court more small sellers—though it’ll face competition from players like Square and Stripe.
Zoom webinars no more: Three-quarters of brand marketers say they're back to in-person experiential marketing, but events are unlikely to look the same as they did in 2019 as more marketers embrace hybrid in-person and virtual models.
Shopify Unite: At its annual developers conference, Shopify unveiled a flurry of updates to its merchant platform, offering sellers more ways to customize their online storefronts. The ability to create unique brand experiences is a key differentiator between Shopify and Amazon.
Walmart gets in on loyalty: Its partnership with cash-back platform Ibotta is likely an attempt to keep customers shopping online so it can continue to grow its digital ad business.
Sellers have more freedom to customize their online stores with new design and payment tools, which can help Shopify maintain its seller base after the pandemic subsides and ecommerce growth normalizes.