Sail across the blue ocean of electricity, the spring breeze in the Southeast Asian market
On June 29, Lianlian International announced the completion of the Indonesian payment license layout; on June 14, Coral Cross-border and Best International announced that they would simultaneously launch a dedicated line service solution in Malaysia, providing a one-stop cross-border integrated supply chain for cross-border e-commerce sellers And fund collection services... Behind the busyness of digital services to the sea is the accelerated release of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market.
At present, the pattern of mature cross-border e-commerce markets such as Europe and the United States tends to be stable, and Southeast Asia, which has high growth potential, has become an important target market for the diversified layout of many Chinese cross-border e-commerce export enterprises.
Incremental dividends of hundreds of billions of dollars
"At present, Southeast Asia has become the third largest export destination for China's cross-border e-commerce. In terms of country markets, Vietnam ranks third in China's cross-border e-commerce export market after the United States and Japan." Chen Hongna, associate researcher of the Research Department, said that ASEAN is China's largest trading partner, and cross-border e-commerce B2B accounts for more than 70% of China's total cross-border e-commerce business. The digital transformation of trade provides an important opportunity for the development of bilateral cross-border e-commerce business. support.
In addition to the existing scale, the billion-dollar increase in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market is opening up a larger space for imagination.
According to a report released by Google, Temasek and Bain in 2021, the size of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market will double in four years, from $120 billion in 2021 to $234 billion in 2025. The local e-commerce market will lead the global growth. E-Conamy, a research institute, predicts that in 2022, five Southeast Asian countries will be included in the top ten e-commerce growth rates in the world.
The expected GDP growth rate higher than the global average and the big leap in the scale of the digital economy have laid a solid foundation for the continued expansion of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market. The demographic dividend is a key factor. At the beginning of 2022, the combined population of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will reach approximately 600 million, and the population structure is young, and the market growth potential led by young consumers is extremely considerable.
The contrast between the huge number of online shoppers and the low penetration rate of e-commerce (the proportion of e-commerce transactions in total retail sales) also contains market potential to be tapped. According to Zheng Min, chairman of Yibang Power, in 2021, Southeast Asia will add 30 million online shoppers, while the local e-commerce penetration rate is only 5%. Comparing with mature e-commerce markets such as China (31%) and the United States (21.3%), the penetration rate of e-commerce in Southeast Asia has room for a 4-6 times increase.
The favorable RCEP policy also brings new opportunities. Chen Hongna said that when RCEP came into effect, the tariffs on some products such as carpets and apples exported from China to Vietnam, and organic chemicals and products exported to Thailand were immediately reduced to zero, and the tariffs on other products will be gradually reduced after the transition period. The substantial benefits such as tariff reduction and customs clearance efficiency improvement brought about by the effective implementation of RCEP will further increase the attention of enterprises to the cross-border e-commerce market in Southeast Asia.
In fact, the surging Southeast Asian e-commerce market has already made many overseas companies taste the sweetness. According to a recent survey by Ebang Think Tank on 196 Chinese cross-border e-commerce export companies, in 2021, 80% of the respondents' sales in the Southeast Asian market will increase by more than 40% year-on-year; about 7% of the respondents' sales in the Southeast Asian market will be year-on-year. Achieve more than 100% growth. In the survey, 50% of the companies' sales in Southeast Asia have accounted for more than 1/3 of their total sales in overseas markets, and 15.8% of companies regard Southeast Asia as the largest target market for cross-border e-commerce exports.
Joyful consumption pays for "face value"
The Southeast Asian market, which pays attention to cost-effectiveness, has an increasing demand for Chinese products, and the local demand for beauty, luggage, and clothing continues to grow, which are sub-categories that cross-border e-commerce companies can focus on.
According to a survey by Ebang Think Tank, in 2021, 80% of the companies surveyed will have a year-on-year increase in the market share of cross-border e-commerce export products in Southeast Asia. Among the companies interviewed, products such as beauty and personal care, shoes, bags and clothing accessories account for more than 30%, which are the preferred categories for cross-border e-commerce exports. more than 20%.
In 2021, among the cross-border hot-selling categories on various sites of the mainstream e-commerce platform Shopee in Southeast Asia, 3C electronics, home life, fashion accessories, beauty and health care, women's clothing and luggage will be the most sought after by Southeast Asian consumers. It can be seen that local consumers are more willing to pay for "face value".
Judging from the practice of overseas enterprises, Singapore and Malaysia are the most popular markets with a large number of Chinese, more mature markets and strong spending power. In the survey of Ebang Think Tank, 52.43% and 48.11% of the interviewed companies have entered these two markets respectively. In addition, the Philippines and Indonesia, where the e-commerce market is growing rapidly, are also potential markets for Chinese companies.
In terms of channel selection, Zheng Min reminded that the cross-border e-commerce market in Southeast Asia is in a period of traffic dividends, and the popularity of local shopping on social media is close to that of e-commerce platforms. As predicted by Indian venture capital media The Ken, in the next five years, the market share of social e-commerce will account for 60% to 80% of the total e-commerce market in Southeast Asia.