Ria Money Transfer and Wise each forged global payment partnerships, and Singapore and Malaysia linked their payment systems.

The etailer is taking a more aggressive approach after imposing surcharges in Australia and Singapore.

Countries mentioned: China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand. Key companies: AirAsia, Gojek, Grab, WeChat. Essential stats: This year, retail sales will reach $970.83 billion across the six major economies we track in Southeast Asia. But only 4.6% of those sales—or $45.07 billion—will transact via ecommerce.

By contrast, far fewer internet users in Italy (37%), Spain (36%), and Japan (30%) are comfortable with apparel by way of thrift stores, consignment shops, and other resellers. More like this:. Report: US Generation Z Shopping Behaviors. Article: Q&A: thredUP talks about resale as the future for retail brands. Article: H&M challenged with merging affordable fashion and expensive tech.

Singles’ Day, the online shopping festival invented by Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba and held on November 11, is widely known in the West. Now, a series of similar “double-digit” shopping festivals from digital powerhouses Lazada and Shopee are driving ecommerce growth in Southeast Asia.

Splitit partnered with UAE-based BNPL provider tabby, and Singapore-based fintech Fave launched its BNPL service in Singapore and Malaysia as global appetite for installment lending services increases.

It also plans to stop accepting Visa credit cards in the UK and imposed a 0.5% surcharge on Visa credit cards in Australia and Singapore. Card fees on ecommerce purchases tend to be higher because they carry a greater risk of fraud. And as one of the biggest online retailers in the world, Amazon pays billions of dollars’ worth of fees each year.

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.

Facebook and Google announced they were funding two trans-Pacific cables connecting the US West Coast to Singapore and Indonesia. Amazon and Meta contractor Edge Cable Holdings USA applied to operate a submarine cable linking the Philippines to California, after China Mobile (CMI) bowed out of the project.