THE Philippines ranked first in retail e-commerce growth in 2022 among Southeast Asian countries, posting a 25.9-percent growth, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report.
The ADB report, published in November 2023 with the title “E-Commerce Evolution in Asia and the Pacific: Opportunities and Challenges,” noted that although the e-commerce ecosystem in the Southeast Asian subregion is still “nascent,” the market has been growing rapidly and outpaces the rest of its Asian neighboring countries.
Citing a 2022 report by Cramer-Flood, ADB said the subregion’s growth of 20.6 percent in retail e-commerce in 2022 “stands out” among all other economies and regions globally.
In addition, it noted that only four economies reported faster growth rates than the combined figure of Southeast Asia. Two of these, however, still belong in the subregion, namely, the Philippines and Indonesia, ADB said.
“The Philippines, on the other hand, ranks first in retail e-commerce growth in 2022, posting 25.9-percent growth.
Five economies within the region—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam—will rank among the top 10 markets worldwide measured by retail e-commerce sales growth by the end of 2022,” ADB noted as it cited the 2022 Cramer-Flood report.
he multilateral institution pointed out that the subregion’s rapid growth is “largely driven” by a spike in digital consumers since the pandemic began.
In fact, ADB said according to Meta, Facebook estimates that since the start of the pandemic, 70 million people in Southeast Asia have become digital consumers, with about 30 million joining those ranks from 2020 to 2021 alone.
Further, a 2021 Google report noted that the aggregate internet penetration in Southeast Asia grew to 75 percent by the end of 2021, ADB said.
“In 2022, there were about 516.5 million internet users in Southeast Asia alone,” ADB noted, citing Statista.
Meanwhile, in terms of retail spending, ADB noted that Singapore continues to pose the highest per capita e-commerce spending at $772.25 per capita in 2022, from only $389.8 per capita in 2019 or pre-COVID 19 pandemic.
This, ADB noted, is almost three times the e-commerce spending in Thailand, which is at $273.4 per capita. Meanwhile, exponential growth from prepandemic levels is seen in Malaysia, whose spending per capita increased from $112 in 2019 to $200 per capita in 2022.
For Indonesia, its spending per capita soared from $66 per capita in 2019 to $207 per capita in 2021 while the Philippines, at $60.3 per capita and Viet Nam, posting $153 per capita, lagged in 2022, the ADB report noted