In May in Guangzhou, the heat wave came not only from the temperature in early summer, but also from the ambitious ambitions of the cross-border e-commerce industry.
On May 22, 2026, the 2026 TikTok Shop Southeast Asia Cross-border E-commerce Annual Summit with the theme of “Acceleration to New Heights” came to an end here.
The summit brought together the platform’s core team, industry experts and more than 1,300 business representatives from all over the country. The online live broadcast attracted more than 2.5 million merchants to watch simultaneously.
When the domestic e-commerce market has entered the “deep water zone” of stock games, countless Chinese merchants eager to grow have set their sights on the other side of the ocean.
Why Southeast Asia?
Why now?
This summit drew a clear “blue ocean gold nugget map” for Chinese brands and cross-border e-commerce.
The blue ocean behind the data: GMV increased by 125% year-on-year, and the Southeast Asian market experienced explosive growth
At the summit, sets of hot data made merchants excited.
Xu Mengqi, general manager of cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia at TikTok Shop, used platform data to break down the three major growth patterns of cross-border merchants and new opportunities in the Southeast Asian market. He also released a lightweight business strategy plan for cross-border merchants to help all cross-border merchants bid farewell to cumbersome operations and achieve efficient and high-quality business growth in Southeast Asia.
He revealed in his sharing that the GMV (gross merchandise volume) of the platform’s cross-border business in Southeast Asia will increase by as much as 125% year-on-year in 2025.
This growth curve is not a flash in the pan, but a continuous rise based on the rapid growth in 2024.
At the 2025 big promotion node, this explosive power is particularly amazing: TikTok Shop Southeast Asia’s cross-border e-commerce GMV increased by 123% year-on-year during the June 6th big promotion, Double 11 increased by 230% year-on-year, and Double 12 achieved an astonishing growth of 270%.
The content-driven transaction model is being deeply verified, with short video GMV increasing by 257% during Double 12.
Xu Mengqi said that the core advantage of domestic businesses is no longer low-price distribution.
Data shows that in the past two years, the unit price of high-quality overseas merchants has increased by 1.2 times, and the ordering cycle of new merchants has been shortened by 15 days.
At present, more than 40% of cross-border merchants in Southeast Asia come from the domestic e-commerce track. With their mature supply chain system and refined operation capabilities, they can fill the gap in local consumption, escape the involution of existing products, and open up new incremental markets.
Southeast Asia not only has a huge market capacity, but its economic vitality cannot be underestimated.
According to IMF forecasts, ASEAN’s economic growth will continue to lead the world in 2026.
Industry reports show that the overall scale of Southeast Asian e-commerce will exceed US$157.6 billion in 2025, but the current e-commerce penetration rate is only 11%. Compared with China’s 25% penetration rate, there is still more than double the room for growth.
For Chinese merchants, this is not only a market for selling goods, but also a fertile commercial ground.
Xu Mengqi said bluntly: “The Southeast Asian market is in a stage of explosive growth, and it is the right time for merchants to go overseas to Southeast Asia.”
Brand overlay content output: the “new narrative” of Lefant, Colorkey, etc. in Southeast Asia
When it came to going overseas in the past, the first reaction of many merchants was often “distributing goods” and “low prices.”
However, many vivid Chinese brand stories are breaking this stereotype. They use real performance to prove that in Southeast Asia, high-quality supply and content operation are king.
At the summit, four benchmark brands, Leftant, Colorkey, Bodiary and Silk, shared their actual overseas experience.
These cases vividly prove that Southeast Asian consumers are no longer satisfied with simple low prices. They are also willing to pay for high-quality, good-looking products at good prices.
Take Lefant as an example. Zheng Zong, its vice president, mentioned in his sharing that the brand accurately captured the life pain points of local young and highly educated elite white-collar workers aged 25 to 35 who “rent a house, have no servants, and pursue technological experience.” They were surprised to find that this group of people have very strong price acceptance, product satisfaction after use, and desire to recommend, with a high repurchase rate. As a result, the brand successfully introduced the sweeping robot to the Malaysian market, achieving double breakthroughs in brand and sales.
Colorkey CFO and General Manager of Overseas Business Department George emphasized that the core of content e-commerce lies in “settling accounts” and “layout”. Ultimately, you need to let local consumers know your brand, and quickly expand your products after gaining trust in your brand. The advantages of your own supply chain are also indispensable. Only by having your own factory can you take over after you have measured it.
Brands cooperate with experts and cooperate with brand self-broadcasting to harvest traffic. This combination of “masters planting grass to divert traffic + self-broadcasting to accumulate and convert” has become the standard for high-end merchants.
In addition, Bodiary and Silk also shared valuable experiences on the brand transformation of white brands and the breakthrough of traditional domestic brands in new markets.
These cases all illustrate a trend: with the help of branding and refined operations, as well as the combination of content marketing, Chinese brands have great potential in Southeast Asia.
Platform’s hard-core assistance: TikTok Shop’s “acceleration” secrets for cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia
If merchants are soldiers charging into battle, then the platform is the solid backing that provides food, weapons and maps.
At the summit, TikTok Shop, a cross-border e-commerce company in Southeast Asia, broke down in detail how to help merchants “accelerate” overseas expansion with one click in 2026.
In response to the tedious pain points of merchants operating in multiple countries, the platform has launched a “two-way interoperability of pallets and content” strategy.
This means that in the future, merchants can realize “one-click product launch in five countries”, “shared inventory in multiple countries” and “real-time translation of live broadcasts in small languages”.
For merchants who are worried about language barriers, the launch of the AI translation function will significantly reduce the cost of cross-border content operations, making “selling global goods in one package” from a dream to a reality.
In addition to traffic and policies, logistics and contract fulfillment infrastructure are also being comprehensively upgraded.
The platform continues to optimize cross-border fulfillment links and improves export tax exemptions and tax rebates, large-scale direct mail, and border warehouse supporting services. Through the “one product, multiple warehouses” model, merchants can choose the most appropriate logistics solution according to their own circumstances and compress the fulfillment cycle to 1-2 days.
In the World Bank’s “Business Environment Maturity Report 2024”, Singapore, Malaysia and other countries ranked among the best. A good business environment coupled with the platform’s complete infrastructure makes overseas business more secure.
The rise of content e-commerce: combination play drives a new engine of consumption
In Southeast Asia, users’ behavioral habits are undergoing profound changes.
The trend of content e-commerce replacing traditional shelf e-commerce platforms is taking place.
Previous media reports showed that Southeast Asian users spend more than 35 hours on TikTok every month on average. This extremely high user stickiness provides fertile ground for content e-commerce.
In 2025, the GMV of TikTok Shop’s self-made short videos by cross-border merchants in Southeast Asia will increase by 127% year-on-year. More and more merchants realize that continuing to produce high-quality self-made short videos can also complete the full-link closed loop of grass planting, traffic drainage and conversion.
In addition, in the content track, self-broadcasting is more worthy of everyone’s focus.
Self-broadcasting is a self-operated position for merchants to directly face consumers. It deeply converts and accumulates users, and better undertakes repeat purchases from the same store. It is a position for sustainable operation that combines quality and efficiency.
Not only that, data shows that in 2025, the number of merchants deploying cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia through TikTok Shop in two or more Southeast Asian countries will increase by 70% year-on-year, and the average annual GMV growth rate will reach 109%, far exceeding that of merchants operating in a single market.
At the same time, the platform’s high-quality self-made content and the scale of expert cooperation have continued to double, and the number of million-dollar goods-delivering experts has soared 2.3 times.
According to predictions from industry authorities, the market coverage of content e-commerce in Southeast Asia will reach 85% of the overall e-commerce market in 2026.
Content e-commerce platforms have become the core consumption scenario for Southeast Asian users, and the consumption path from “watching videos” to “being planted” to “instant ordering” has become mainstream.
In the future content field, merchants need to start their own content cultivation and attract traffic, start self-streaming to achieve in-depth conversion and user retention, plus experts to break through the circle and increase their combined efforts, which will be a more stable and long-lasting content operation strategy, and it is also the core of changing the business growth curve.
From “Made in China” to “Chinese Brand”, from “Products going overseas” to “Brands going overseas”, this is not only an upgrade of the business model, but also a leap in the global vision of Chinese enterprises.
When China’s high-quality supply resonates with Southeast Asia’s booming young consumption power, it will not only stimulate exponential growth in GMV, but also reshape the identity of Chinese brands in the global value chain.
