South-east Asia’s e-commerce boom remains an “untapped” opportunity for intra-Asia trade, as investments pour into improving cumbersome cross-border logistics. South-east Asia’s digital retail market grew by a massive 85% last year, with 70 million more consumers shopping online since the pandemic began. For Asia to buy more within Asia, the Asean bloc could investigate preferential tax treaties for its nations, given it has one of the fastest-growing incomes, driven by a large middle-class growth in Indonesia. The logistics sector is best placed to render support to e-commerce businesses to unlock the potential of the large, untapped e-commerce market within Asia.
Land, air, and sea freight are all prepping for more e-com volumes, too. Given the lack of belly space on passenger flights within the region, both road and sea volumes have reportedly seen an uptick in e-commerce shipments. In turn, more air freighters have been deployed to serve the intra-Asia market, most recently with Alibaba logistics-unit Cainiao adding direct flights between China and East Malaysia. The fast-growing logistics player has also ramped-up cross-border operations ahead of China’s famous Double 11 shopping festival next month.