A survey of 6,000 shoppers combined with proprietary data reveals regional platforms accelerated to 33% growth in the first quarter of 2026; cross-border buying reaches US$23 to US$24 billion a year; Singapore leads the region's cross-border shift at 19%.

• Southeast Asia's ecommerce market reached US$197 billion in 2025, up from about US$3 billion in 2012, and is forecast to approach US$400 billion by 2031 as online penetration passes 35% of total retail.
• Southeast Asia's top three ecommerce platforms grew a combined 33% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, lifting quarterly merchandise value to US$39 billion from US$29 billion after a slower 2024 and early 2025.
• Cross-border buying reached an estimated US$23 to US$24 billion a year and is projected to grow 11% to 19% annually through 2030. Singapore leads the region at 19% of online sales.
• Domestic QR and real-time payment rails are increasingly connected across borders, but operating across them remains complex. One in three business leaders surveyed cited cross-border payments and regulatory complexity as a future pain point.

SINGAPORE, 15 OCTOBER 2026 - Southeast Asia's online market reached US$197 billion in 2025 and is forecast to approach US$400 billion by 2031, roughly doubling in six years, according to the Xendit Ecommerce Payments Momentum Report 2026, published today by payments infrastructure company Xendit with ecommerce intelligence firm Cube.

Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop, the region's three largest ecommerce platforms, grew a combined 33% year on year in the first quarter of 2026 after a slower 2024 and early 2025. Their quarterly net merchandise value rose to US$39 billion from US$29 billion. Roughly a quarter of all retail spending in Southeast Asia now takes place online, against about 35% in China and 10% in India.

Cash-on-delivery, once the default for online shopping in Southeast Asia, has fallen from about half of ecommerce transactions in 2019 to well under a third today. Between 27% and 45% of shoppers in each market say they use it much less than a year ago. The report expects it to drop below 25% of regional ecommerce value in 2027.

Nazim Ali, President of Xendit, shared: "Southeast Asia is growing exponentially, and cash no longer dominates consumer transactions. But what replaces it looks different in every market - each market has its own payments acceptance landscape - and that makes payments harder to get right just as they matter more to growth. As Southeast Asia's ecommerce market heads towards US$400 billion, the gains will go to businesses that recognize payments as a business enabler."

Singapore leads the region's cross-border shift

Singapore has the highest cross-border ecommerce share of the six markets at 19%, ahead of Thailand (15%), Vietnam (14%), Malaysia (12%), the Philippines (9%) and Indonesia (6%). Across the region, consumers buy an estimated US$23 to US$24 billion a year from overseassellers, about 10% of online sales. Cube projects this to grow 11% to 19% a year through 2030, depending on how regulation evolves.

Businesses already feel the pressure: one in three business leaders surveyed cited cross-border payments and regulatory complexity as a future pain point, from reconciling multiple acquirers to keeping pace with shifting rules.

Six markets, a multitude of ways to pay

Singapore remains the region's most card-reliant market, with cards behind an estimated 60% of online purchases. E-wallets (33%) and bank transfers (35%) are growing but have yet to displace them. Elsewhere, preferences diverge. In Indonesia, 70% of shoppers rely on e-wallets for at least half their online purchases, and in Thailand, 61% do the same with account-to-account transfers. Malaysia leads the region in digital adoption at more than 80%, GCash dominates in the Philippines, and VietQR is Vietnam's fastest-growing payment rail, with transaction value up 151% in 2025.

Checkout friction is just as local. Singapore is the only market where too many steps is the top reason shoppers abandon a purchase (26%). In Indonesia, where four e-wallets split the market, the top reason is an unavailable payment method (51%), as it is in the Philippines (41%) and Malaysia (31%). Security worries lead in Vietnam (42%) and Thailand (33%). A checkout built for one market will likely lose sales in the next.

Businesses say payment choice matters, but few feel ready

Among business leaders surveyed, 92% say offering a wide range of payment methods is important or critical to growth, yet only 12% believe their payment infrastructure is ready for the next decade. Acceptance cost is the top concern today, ranked in the top two by 68%, and slow rollout of local payment methods when entering new markets is also among their top three.

Behind the checkout, a local QR or account-to-account payment often passes through a payment service provider and its acquirer before reaching the national scheme, and each step adds time and cost. More businesses are now looking for set-ups that connect more directly to local payment rails.

Fraud is set to climb the agenda: 8% rank it a top-two concern now, rising to 48% when they look five years ahead.

AI is moving from recommending to buying

More than half of Southeast Asian shoppers surveyed (53%) already use generative AI during product discovery, and 78% use it to research and compare, ahead of search engines and review sites. The report expects the region to see its first purchases completed by an AI agent on a shopper's behalf in 2027. Making that work will rely on a control layer that verifies the agent and enforces the consumer's mandate, including spending limits and merchant scope, before money moves.

Access the full report here.

Methodology

The report draws on a survey of 6,000 online shoppers, 1,000 each in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam; Cube Tradewinds ecommerce market intelligence; Xendit platform transaction data from January 2025 to April 2026; a Xendit survey of 25 business leaders; and merchant interviews. Financial figures are in US dollars at period-average exchange rates. Business leader survey findings are directional given the sample size, and Xendit transaction data reflects activity on the Xendit platform rather than total market volumes.

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About Xendit

Xendit is the financial technology platform built for businesses that move fast without missing a beat. By delivering a single, unified solution for payment acceptance, payouts, treasury and financial services that fuel growth, Xendit removes the operational complexity that slows companies down, replacing fragmented local integrations with one intelligent infrastructure layer.

Xendit serves businesses of all sizes, from high-growth startups to global enterprises, processing high-volume transactions across Southeast Asia and beyond - Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Greater China - with more markets on its global expansion roadmap. Xendit is the preferred payment infrastructure partner for some of the world's top brands, including the region's leading Traveloka and XLSMART.

About Cube

The leading market data and insights provider for ecommerce in Southeast Asia and beyond.

• Reliable and granular market intelligence backed by more than a million data points every week, covering leading ecommerce platforms including Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop and Tokopedia
• 80+ specialist team members across Southeast Asia, serving leading brands, retailers, investors and enterprises across Asia, Europe and the United States
• Proprietary market data, custom research and strategic insights that help businesses understand market size, category dynamics, competitive performance and emerging ecommerce trends