Shopee reigns supreme in SEA E-commerce as TikTok Shop grows fourfold to surpass Lazada

A recently released report on the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia shows that Shopee remained the biggest e-commerce platform in 2023, with 48% of the market share and US$55.1 billion gross merchandise value (GMV); the rapid growth of TikTok Shop has seen it overtake Lazada in second place!

The Momentum Works report “Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2024” shows that the SEA e-commerce market doubled from US$54.2 billion in 2020 to US$114.6 billion in 2023. This report assessed the performance of nine e-commerce platforms: Shopee, Lazada, Tokopedia, TikTok Shop, Bukalapak, Tiki, Blibli, Amazon Singapore, and Temu.

TikTok Shop’s market value in SEA quadrupled to US$16.3 billion in 2023, boosted further by its merger with the Indonesian e-commerce platform Tokopedia in late 2023. This will double TikTok Shop’s SEA market value in 2024.

TikTok Shop powered by Gen Z

The rise of TikTok Shop can be attributed to its innovative marketing strategy. LA Magazine describes this as ‘selling a lifestyle’ to Gen Z users, with its affiliate program turning any TikTok content creator into an affiliate marketer. A viewer can buy a product by simply pressing an orange button on the video they are watching, with the influencer receiving a sale commission.

Shopee is still the e-commerce leader, with a 48% market share across Southeast Asia. At the same time, Lazada’s recent reorganizations have seen it lose approximately US$1 billion in GMV yearly, sliding from a high of US$21.0 billion in 2021 to US$18.8 billion in 2023.

Indonesia remains the region’s biggest market, with US$53.8 billion in e-commerce sales in 2023, while both Thailand and Vietnam had the fastest-growing markets.

Featured Image Credit: Hans Edinger @ Pixabay