Thailand driving e-commerce growth

Thailand has emerged as Southeast Asia's e-commerce growth engine amid regional market share consolidation.

The country has become the standout performer in Southeast Asia's e-commerce landscape, posting the region's fastest growth and reinforcing its position as a key battleground for platform dominance, according to "Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2026: Growth without equilibrium – How top platforms reshape the entire ecosystem", a new report released by Singapore-based research firm Momentum Works.

In 2025, Thailand's e-commerce market surged 51.8% year-on-year to US$35.5 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), significantly outpacing regional peers and signalling a structural acceleration in digital consumption.

This growth places Thailand among the most dynamic markets in the region, driven by rising adoption of content commerce, improved logistics infrastructure, and increasingly aggressive competition among major platforms.

The Thai market is now firmly controlled by the region's dominant trio --Shopee, TikTok Shop and Lazada -- reflecting a broader shift towards platform consolidation.

Across Southeast Asia, these three players collectively command 98.8% of total e-commerce GMV, leaving limited room for local or niche marketplaces to scale.

Within this structure, Shopee continues to lead, maintaining more than 50% market share in most markets, including Thailand, while TikTok Shop is rapidly closing the gap, leveraging its content-driven model to accelerate user engagement and transaction volume.

Lazada, meanwhile, is repositioning itself in Thailand with a more premium, brand-led strategy, focusing on higher average order value rather than volume-driven growth.

Thailand's rapid expansion also reflects a deeper shift in e-commerce behaviour, says the report.

"Content commerce", including livestreaming and short-form video, has moved from a marketing tool to core infrastructure, now accounting for a significant share of transactions. This trend is particularly pronounced in Thailand, where social commerce adoption is among the highest in the region.

Southeast Asia's e-commerce sector grew 22.8% year-on-year to copy57.6 billion in 2025, entering what analysts describe as a "control phase" -- a period in which platforms prioritise profitability, operational efficiency, and demand generation over aggressive geographic expansion.

Despite Thailand's momentum, Indonesia remains the region's largest market, contributing 37% of total GMV, though its growth slowed sharply to just 2.2% amid structural adjustments and platform integration moves.

This contrast highlights a shifting regional dynamic: while scale still sits with Indonesia, growth leadership is increasingly moving towards markets like Thailand and Malaysia.

The broader implication is clear -- Southeast Asia's e-commerce race is no longer about land grab, but about market share consolidation within high-growth pockets, with Thailand emerging as one of the most strategically important arenas for the region's platform giants, says the report.

Source: Bangkokpost