What Southeast Asia’s Video Commerce Surge Reveals About E-Commerce Leverage

The Southeast Asian e-commerce market is surpassing US$185 billion in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in 2025, outpacing many global peers in growth velocity. The e-Conomy SEA 2025 report from Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company highlights a 16% year-on-year GMV increase fueled largely by the explosive rise of video commerce. But the story isn’t just growth — it’s how video commerce acts as a low-cost, scalable lever reshaping seller-consumer dynamics. Video commerce enables vendors to build trust and reach without linear marketing spend, turning content into a compounding sales engine.

Contrary to the traditional view that e-commerce growth relies mostly on broad marketplace expansion and big advertising budgets, the video commerce trend flips this approach. While many still allocate hefty budgets on platform ads, Southeast Asian sellers are increasingly leveraging video platforms, growing active seller participation 80% year-on-year to over 3 million storefronts. This shift reflects a strategic repositioning of the core constraint in e-commerce from customer acquisition costs to content-driven engagement and distribution. It’s a fresh form of leverage that operators and technologists should reconsider. See more on how retail media networks are shifting marketing models in the region here.

Video Commerce: Unlocking Scale by Redefining Customer Reach

Video commerce’s 2.5X GMV growth over two years isn’t just a numbers game—it’s a system-level change. Unlike conventional banner ads or sponsored listings that scale linearly with spend, video commerce amplifies reach through creative, engaging formats that build trust and drive impulsive, low-cost purchases. The 33% revenue growth from 2023 to 2024, and an estimated further 18% in 2025, demonstrate accelerated monetisation without proportional ad cost increases.

In comparison, marketplaces in established markets like China allocate roughly 7% of GMV to ads. Southeast Asian platforms deploy only about 2%, indicating vast untapped potential in digital ad monetisation. Yet video commerce itself forms a parallel channel that reduces dependency on paid ads, as creators and sellers collaboratively generate authentic content. This mechanism fundamentally lowers acquisition costs and enhances retention—effects well known in ecosystem plays like OpenAI’s ChatGPT user growth strategies, where organic network effects trump paid channels (source).

Non-Grocery Dominance and Emerging Grocery Potential

The SEA non-grocery e-commerce segment, accounting for US$161 billion GMV in 2025, benefits immensely from video commerce’s leverage of brand trust and product discovery. Sellers utilize video not only to convert but also to diversify their digital presence across diversified platforms — a strategic move away from reliance on search or paid acquisition funnels, akin to why salespeople underuse LinkedIn profiles despite high closing potential (see analysis).

Meanwhile, online grocery GMV grows rapidly but remains a smaller share at US$24 billion in 2025, reflecting different purchase behaviors less suited to influencer-driven video formats. The differing constraints in grocery versus non-grocery segments highlight why blanket digital strategies fail—segment-specific leverage emerges by matching video engagement to buyer psychology.

Retail Media Networks: The Underused Goldmine

A quieter but equally profound leverage mechanism lies in Retail Media Networks (RMNs) growing towards a US$3 billion market. Southeast Asian marketplaces aggregate vast first-party data while maintaining privacy compliance, enabling brands to convert high-intent customers directly at purchase. RMNs shift marketing from costly brand awareness to precision conversion-focused spend, offering a compounding advantage as consumer data quality improves.

This trend dovetails with the rise of video commerce, creating a feedback loop where video content primes purchase intent, and RMNs efficiently capture value at checkout. The region’s retail ad share at 2% GMV is low compared to mature markets, indicating space for exponential ad leverage growth as ecosystem sophistication matures. For wider context on how organizational design impacts operational growth, this explains leverage in execution.

The New Constraint and the Future of SEA E-Commerce

The critical constraint is no longer traffic volume or simple ad spend, but the ability to embed purchasing trust and intent directly into scalable, content-driven experiences. By repositioning the problem from acquisition saturation to content leverage, Southeast Asian sellers bypass major cost traps carefully described in tech layoffs when structural leverage fails (source).

This means companies that invest early in video collaboration ecosystems and first-party data integration will compound returns with less incremental spend. The geographic advantage in Southeast Asia’s young, mobile-first populations accelerating video adoption creates durable scale barriers for late movers. Other emerging markets should study this model to leapfrog costly linear growth phases.

“Leverage in e-commerce now lives in content trust and data precision, not just traffic volume.”

Related Tools & Resources

As businesses in Southeast Asia pivot towards video commerce, having the right analytics can make all the difference. Tools like Centripe provide essential e-commerce analytics that enable sellers to track their performance, understand consumer behavior, and ultimately optimize their strategies. By leveraging data effectively, you can harness the insights necessary for capitalizing on the video commerce boom. Learn more about Centripe →

Full Transparency: Some links in this article are affiliate partnerships. If you find value in the tools we recommend and decide to try them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools that align with the strategic thinking we share here. Think of it as supporting independent business analysis while discovering leverage in your own operations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is driving the growth of e-commerce in Southeast Asia?

The growth is primarily driven by video commerce, which enables an 80% year-on-year increase in active seller participation, reaching over 3 million storefronts, and contributes to a 16% GMV growth, reaching $185 billion in 2025.

How does video commerce differ from traditional e-commerce marketing?

Video commerce leverages engaging and creative video content to build trust and drive impulsive purchases at lower costs, unlike traditional linear advertising which relies heavily on broad marketplace expansion and high advertising budgets.

What is the role of Retail Media Networks in Southeast Asian e-commerce?

Retail Media Networks (RMNs) form a $3 billion market in Southeast Asia, using first-party data to enable brands to convert high-intent customers efficiently, shifting marketing spend from broad brand awareness to precise conversion-focused campaigns.

How much is Southeast Asia expected to spend on digital advertising as a percentage of GMV?

Southeast Asian platforms currently spend about 2% of GMV on ads, which is significantly lower than mature markets such as China that spend around 7%, indicating potential for growth in digital ad monetization.

What are the differences in e-commerce trends between grocery and non-grocery sectors in Southeast Asia?

Non-grocery e-commerce dominates with $161 billion GMV in 2025 fueled by video commerce, while grocery e-commerce, at $24 billion, grows more slowly due to different purchase behaviors less suited to influencer-driven video content.

Why is content leverage considered the new constraint in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce?

The main constraint has shifted from traffic volume and ad spend to embedding purchasing trust and intent via scalable, content-driven experiences, enabling sellers to reduce acquisition costs and increase retention.

How does Southeast Asia’s young, mobile-first population impact e-commerce growth?

The young, mobile-first population accelerates video adoption and creates durable scale barriers for late movers, allowing early investors in video commerce and first-party data ecosystems to compound returns with less incremental spend.