E-commerce brings more momentum for economic recovery in Southeast Asia

The annual ASEAN Online Sale Day is being held from August 8 to 10, creating an avenue for retailers across various sectors to showcase their offerings and reach out to the larger regional market, China’s Xinhua reported.

Official website of the ASEAN Online Sale Day

Despite the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy of Southeast Asia is showing resilience by a promising e-commerce industry.

This is the second time for ASEAN members to hold the shopping event, which was initiated by Vietnam in 2020 to be a yearly event, and aims to facilitate cross-border e-commerce and to support local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the context of COVID-19.

Flashing ads for sales have been seen several days before the event on the websites and apps of local and cross-border e-commerce players, such as Shopee, Lazada, Zalora and JD.

From groceries, electronics, to educational and hotel services, a variety of products and services across the region can be reached with a click.

The rise of e-commerce has appeared to be the silver lining of the pandemic-stricken economy and is bringing more and more momentum to the economic recovery.

According to a recent report released by Lazada, a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, 52 percent of sellers in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore saw a high level of growth during the first half of 2021, with 70 percent expecting additional growth of more than 10 percent in the third quarter of 2021.

VNA