In 2025, Southeast Asia’s cross-border e-commerce market will usher in explosive growth.
The annual GMV of TikTok Shop’s cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia soared by 125% year-on-year. The GMV of the Double 12 promotion increased by 270% year-on-year. The unit price of high-quality overseas merchants increased by nearly 1.2 times in the second year.
In the current fierce global economic competition, this market has become a certain wealth trend in the eyes of domestic businesses.
Domestic businesses have many natural advantages in moving to Southeast Asia.
First, aesthetic interoperability and pallet similarity make Chinese products popular in Southeast Asia.
Categories such as home furnishing, beauty, 3C, and clothing have become popular locally, and merchants can directly reuse domestically proven models.
In terms of supply chain, the rapid response capability brought about by domestic industry accumulation is a crushing advantage.
Take 3C digital new products as an example. It only takes a few days from product selection to shipment. The same quality has lower costs and faster delivery. Many products can only be produced in China.
In addition, more than ten years of domestic e-commerce operation experience also allows new merchants to get started faster.
The proportion of new merchants’ domestic trade increased to 40%, and the average order delivery cycle was shortened by 15 days.
The consumption potential of the Southeast Asian market cannot be underestimated.
Of the nearly 700 million people in the region, more than 50% are young people under the age of 30. Industrial relocation has led to an increase in income and a rapid increase in consumer desire.
However, local retail is still dominated by traditional offline stores, and the e-commerce penetration rate is only 11%. There is a huge gap between supply and demand, and we are on the eve of an outbreak of consumption.
Ordinary people can also seize opportunities with the help of TikTok Shop.
The threshold of the platform is extremely low, there are no high registration fees or annual fees, and you can open a store with a business license.
TikTok in Southeast Asia has 460 million monthly active users, and products can reach a large number of potential buyers through content.
This year, TikTok Shop launched III major strategic adjustments to release dividends: in terms of lowering the threshold, it has optimized entry incentives and opened up high-priced items such as second-hand luxury goods and jewelry; in terms of improving efficiency, it supports one-click product listing at multiple sites, and will soon launch automatic distribution, smart pricing, and multi-language translation functions; in terms of stabilizing infrastructure, it will improve logistics links and border warehouses, optimize the after-sales system, and enhance consumer trust.
The dividends of the times are flowing to Southeast Asia, and TikTok Shop has become the key to opening this new market.
Both experienced merchants and ordinary people can find their own opportunities in this blue ocean and start a new journey of cross-border e-commerce.
