Comscore Snapshots: online retail in the Asia-Pacific region

We include websites and mobile apps that provide retail services such as apparel, consumer electronics, home furnishing, fragrance and cosmetics and sports/outdoor. Examples include Amazon and Alibaba.

When we looked at online retail back in January 2021, it appeared that in some markets – namely China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan - its reach contracted year-on-year from market to market. In others – Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan – its reach expanded. Now, ten months later, we see that the reach increased year-on-year in nearly all markets, as a further sign that Covid-related disruptions are pushing consumers online. (See table below.)

Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, October 2021, Asia-Pacific region. (N.B. desktop only for all markets except India, Indonesia and Malaysia which include mobile.)

The Asia-Pacific region is perhaps unique in terms of the dynamism of its online enterprises, particularly its retail sector. In almost all markets, many entities have managed to reach at least 1% of online consumers; a smaller – but still significant - proportion of these entities have reached over 5%. Whether the region can sustain such fragmented market, or whether it will lead to a phase of consolidation remains to be seen.

Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, Oct 2021, Asia-Pacific region. (N.B. desktop only for all markets except India, Indonesia and Malaysia which include mobile.)

Thanks to the size of the top sites and the ingenuity of their founders, the Asia-Pacific region is home to ecommerce entities whose reach stretches far beyond their home country. Alibaba is one such entity, as is Shopee, which was launched in 2015 and who now ranks first in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, Oct 2021, Asia-Pacific region.