Southeast Asia’s live commerce boom enters its harder second act

Southeast Asia's e-commerce landscape is shifting from search-driven shopping to live commerce experiences. By 2025, live commerce gross merchandise value across major platforms like Shopee, TikTok Shop, and Lazada had reached $49.7 billion, nearly doubling from the previous year. This trend is expected to continue, with the segment projected to hit $77.9 billion by the end of 2026.

Live commerce's growth represents a significant transformation in the region's online retail economy. It has become a major sales engine, accounting for 37% of platform e-commerce gross merchandise value in the first half of 2026, up from 20% in 2024. This shift is particularly impactful in mobile-first markets with price-sensitive consumers and high social media usage.

Live commerce allows sellers, creators, and brands to showcase products in real-time, answer questions, and facilitate purchases through limited-time offers and platform vouchers. This format has become a daily operating channel for many brands, especially in categories like beauty, fashion, household goods, and fast-moving consumer products. However, its effectiveness varies depending on the product type and execution quality.

While live commerce's short-term returns remain attractive, the market expects these gains to become more competitive as more brands adopt similar strategies. The next frontier is "brandformance," which focuses on building long-term consumer preference through content. Companies that leverage content to explain product benefits in specific cultural or regional contexts are likely to gain a competitive edge in the fragmented Southeast Asian market.

The emergence of AI-driven live commerce presents both opportunities and challenges. AI can reduce the cost of executing live streams by up to 25% while maintaining 80% of human-generated GMV. While this lowers barriers for smaller sellers, it also threatens to standardize the live commerce experience, making it harder for brands to differentiate themselves based solely on operational capabilities.

The key to future success will lie in creating content that cannot be easily replicated by AI, such as culturally relevant product explanations and unique brand stories.