从“冲滩登陆”到“深耕主场”：一批长期主义者在东南亚迎来“聚变时刻”

This article breaks down the latest growth opportunities and actionable playbooks for Southeast Asia cross-border e-commerce, serving as a practical reference for general readers interested in entering or learning about the regional overseas market.

1. Solid market fundamentals: Southeast Asia will remain a core high-growth market for cross-border business through 2026. Local consumer demand is shifting from basic necessities to quality, brands, and shopping experience. The transaction volume of online branded goods in the region is projected to hit roughly $40 billion in 2025 and grow to $150 billion by 2030, with 90% of consumers willing to pay a premium for branded products. As a core sales channel, TikTok Shop registered $23 billion in incremental GMV in 2025, representing over 100% year-over-year growth, with highly visible long-term upside.

2. Favorable entry terms for new sellers: First-time sellers with zero prior experience can open a store in as fast as 3 business days with no invitation code required. Completing onboarding tasks unlocks thousands of discount vouchers to accelerate initial store growth. The platform also offers end-to-end incentives spanning traffic, logistics, and content operations: for example, merchants using local fulfillment can receive up to $3,000 in product subsidies or ad credits, while accounts meeting in-house livestream performance targets also qualify for ad credit rewards.

3. Replicable operational best practices: Instead of chasing short-term viral sales spikes, sellers should prioritize profit margins, repeat purchases, and brand recognition. A viable long-term path to stable returns is to first penetrate a single national market, partner with well-matched local creators, stock local inventory to improve fulfillment experience, and leverage peak shopping campaigns in the second half of the year—including 9.9, 11.11, and 12.12—to scale, rather than pursuing quick, unsustainable wins.

Southeast Asia is now in a prime window of brand development dividends, making it a core market for Chinese brands pursuing long-term overseas growth. Brands can leverage TikTok Shop’s channel capabilities to build local market presence and capture price premiums.

1. Clear consumer trends and user profiles: As local income levels and brand awareness rise, consumer demand is shifting from basic functional needs to quality, brand value, and experience. 90% of surveyed consumers are willing to pay a premium for branded goods, and roughly 30% will pay an extra 10-30% for authentic product guarantees. Niche categories such as repair and soothing skincare are showing early signs of high growth, with strong consumer acceptance of efficacy-focused products tailored to pan-Asian demographics.

2. Proven channel-building playbooks from leading brands: For example, premium skincare brand Comfy first prioritized penetrating the Singapore and Malaysian markets, building a tiered creator collaboration SOP covering trial livestreams, creator screening, product promotion, performance review, and long-term co-creation. By stocking inventory in local warehouses, the brand achieved 2-3 day delivery fulfillment, and was able to price products higher than in the domestic Chinese market to capture larger margins. After establishing a foothold in core markets, brands can replicate proven playbooks across multiple markets via platform tools, launch localized products such as lighter-texture skincare adapted to local preferences, and run supply chain traceability livestreams to demonstrate manufacturing capabilities and strengthen brand recognition.

3. Substantial brand support programs: Established brands are eligible to join the "100 Million Express" program, which offers up to $15,000 in monthly product subsidies and $10,000 in ad credits to lower new market entry costs.

Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce has moved past the early phase of short-term traffic testing and entered a stage of long-term operational growth. As the region’s core e-commerce channel, TikTok Shop has rolled out end-to-end support policies for sellers at all development stages, making it a high-certainty incremental market at present.

1. Clear consumer demand opportunities: Local consumption patterns are shifting toward quality and branded goods. Over the past year, average order value for high-quality merchants on the platform grew by 120%. Consumers are willing to pay premiums for quality products with authenticity guarantees, leaving ample room for branded product growth.

2. Tiered policies supporting sellers at all stages: New sellers with zero experience can open a store in as fast as 3 business days with no invitation code, and unlock thousands of discount vouchers by completing onboarding tasks to accelerate cold start. Merchants from industrial belts qualify for 1-on-1 onboarding support, with select verticals such as phone cases and screen protectors eligible for up to 120 days of commission-free operations, plus additional vouchers and ad credits. Mature sellers can join the "100 Million Express" program to receive up to $15,000 in monthly product subsidies and $10,000 in ad credits. On the logistics front, the "Ship from Malaysia to Singapore" policy allows sellers to serve the Singapore market using Malaysian inventory, with up to $3,000 in subsidies, while accounts meeting in-house livestream targets can earn up to $780 in ad credits.

3. Clear operational guidance: Sellers should abandon the short-term, fast-cash playbook of chasing one-off viral orders. Instead, they should build a tiered creator collaboration system, stock inventory in local warehouses to improve fulfillment, use creator livestreams for customer acquisition and in-house livestreams for retention, fully penetrate a single market before expanding to others, and capture growth during the second half of the year’s major shopping festivals.

The rising brand-focused wave in Southeast Asian e-commerce creates clear product development directions and new incremental business opportunities for Chinese supply chain factories. Factories can leverage platform support policies to connect with brand demand, enter the cross-border track, and secure long-term order volume.

1. Clear product design and manufacturing priorities: Local consumer demand has shifted from basic necessities to quality, brand value, and experience. Pan-Asian consumers show high acceptance of efficacy-focused products: for example, there is unmet demand for repair and soothing skincare products, and local climate conditions lead consumers to prefer light, fresh product textures. Consumers are willing to pay a 10-30% premium for authentic, clearly efficacious products, creating healthy profit margins for high-quality offerings.

2. Diversified business opportunities: TikTok Shop recorded $23 billion in incremental GMV in 2025, doubling year-over-year. The platform runs dedicated support programs for industrial belt merchants, including on-site 1-on-1 onboarding support, up to 120 days of commission-free access for select consumer verticals, plus ad credits and voucher support. As brands increasingly run supply chain traceability livestreams, factories can serve as supply chain hosts for overseas creator visits, turning production strength into consumer trust and driving product sales.

3. Digital operation takeaways: Factories can support brand clients by coordinating local warehouse stocking to enable 2-3 day nearby fulfillment and improve customer experience, align with brands’ livestream content needs, gradually build direct-to-consumer operational capabilities, and expand across multiple markets alongside client brands starting from a single regional foothold.

Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce is entering a stage of long-term operational cultivation and coordinated multi-market brand development. Cross-border merchants at different operational stages face clear pain points, creating room for service providers to refine solutions around core merchant needs and expand business alongside industry growth.

1. Clear industry trends: The transaction volume of online branded goods in Southeast Asia is projected to reach $150 billion by 2030. Core channel TikTok Shop doubled its GMV year-over-year in 2025. Merchant operating logic is shifting from short-term traffic arbitrage to long-term brand building, and from single-market penetration to coordinated multi-market expansion, with livestreaming and short video content emerging as core growth levers.

2. Clear client pain points: First-time sellers with no experience struggle with unfamiliar onboarding processes and lack of cold-start methodologies. Growth-stage merchants face high local fulfillment costs, difficulty accessing creator resources, low multi-market operational efficiency, and insufficient content production capabilities. Mature brands need support with localized product adaptation, creator matrix building, user mindshare development, and multi-market expansion.

3. Clear service opportunities: Service providers can build offerings around merchant needs including onboarding agency services, local warehousing and logistics coordination, creator resource matchmaking, livestream operation coaching, multi-market content localization, in-house livestream team building, and major campaign operation support. They can also help merchants fully access available platform incentives such as product subsidies and ad credits to improve operational certainty.

Merchant operating logic in Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce has fundamentally shifted, from short-term, opportunistic traffic testing to long-term, committed market cultivation. Platforms need to upgrade their service systems around merchants’ end-to-end needs, align with long-term operation directions, and achieve coordinated growth between the platform and its merchant base.

1. Clear core merchant demands: Merchants at all stages seek lower entry barriers, end-to-end support policies, lower cross-market operational costs, smoother logistics and fulfillment support, more precise traffic support, and ultimately, predictable long-term growth.

2. Proven mature operation references: TikTok Shop has rolled out tiered support for merchants at all stages: zero-experience new sellers can open stores in as fast as 3 days with no invitation code, paired with new-seller discount vouchers; industrial belt merchants receive 1-on-1 onboarding support, with select verticals eligible for up to 120 days of commission-free access; mature brands qualify for the high-value product subsidies and ad credits under the "100 Million Express" program. On the logistics side, the "Ship from Malaysia to Singapore" policy lowers the barrier to local fulfillment; on the product feature side, tools such as cross-store customer service integration for multi-store operators and cross-market short video publishing reduce multi-market operational friction; on the traffic side, the platform prioritizes support for merchant-run in-house livestreams.

3. Merchant recruitment and risk control directions: Platforms can time recruitment drives around the second half of the year’s major shopping campaigns—9.9, 11.11, and 12.12—using campaign success cases to attract new merchants. They should guide merchants toward long-term brand-focused operation paths, mitigate compliance risks associated with short-term arbitrage behavior, and drive overall GMV growth by supporting both supply development and content ecosystem growth.

Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce is undergoing a stage shift from opportunistic traffic capture to deep, committed local market operation. Long-term operational logic is gradually replacing short-term traffic arbitrage, giving rise to new industry dynamics and noteworthy business model research samples.

1. Prominent new industry trends: Southeast Asia’s consumption structure is shifting markedly, with consumer demand moving from basic necessities to quality, brand value, and experience. The region’s online branded goods transaction volume is estimated at roughly $40 billion in 2025, and is projected to reach $150 billion by 2030, with around 90% of consumers willing to pay a premium for branded goods, making brand development the core trend for regional e-commerce. Core channel TikTok Shop added $23 billion in GMV in 2025, representing over 100% year-over-year growth, positioning it as a key driver of the brand-focused wave.

2. Emerging business models with research value: Leading merchants have developed a long-term growth path of "single market penetration – cross-market playbook replication – content-driven mindshare building": they first build a solid foundation in a core market via tiered creator collaboration, local warehouse fulfillment, and a model that uses creator livestreams for acquisition and in-house livestreams for retention, then expand across markets via platform tools, turning content assets into long-term brand mindshare to pursue predictable growth driven by profits and repeat purchases rather than one-off viral sales spikes.

3. New characteristics of platform ecosystems: The role of platforms is shifting from traffic allocator to end-to-end operational enabler. Platforms are rolling out tiered support for merchants at different development stages, building connected end-to-end support across multi-market operation, logistics, and traffic access, and driving the regional e-commerce sector to shift from traffic-driven growth to brand value-driven growth.