Introduction
The e-commerce market in Southeast Asia was worth US$10.9 billion in 2017 and will reach US$88.1 billion by 2025, based on the latest report released by Google and Singapore sovereign fund, Temasek.

Source: e-Conomy SEA Spotlight 2017, Google/ Temasek
Methodology
Millions of data points were screened daily for the time period of 1st Jan to 30th Jun 2018, also commonly identified as Spring/Summer season for Southeast Asia. Interfaced with Omnilytics data analytics solution, we attribute the measure of bestsellers based on sell-out rate, replenishment rate, discount rate and discount depth on the data collected.
Market x Category Segments
This report analysed data extracted from ten of the largest e-retailers across Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, namely Zalora, ASOS, H&M, Berrybenka, NEXT, Shein, Forever 21, Topshop, Zara and Fashion Valet, and for key Spring/Summer 2018 categories of Women’s Tops, Dresses and Shoes.
Data Size
The number of SKUs ranged from at least 14,723 SKUs for Fashion Valet to the most at 414,838 SKUs for Zalora.
Executive Summary
This season’s bestsellers mainly derived from Zalora, ASOS, NEXT and H&M, out of the pool of the top ten largest e-retailers in Southeast Asia, with a combined sell-out rate of 63% on average from the period of 1st Jan to 30th Jun 2018.
Micro Trending
A few trends have had extended lifecycle from Fall/Holiday season, namely Floral Embroidery, Cold Shoulders and White Trainers, while new trends spotted this season:
Prints – fruit designs were popular, mostly represented in cami tops and dresses, while floral print remained evident.
Smocked tops and maxi dresses – consumers’ favourites as these are effortless to style from day to evening, with ruched and button front details.
Sliders and espadrilles – returned to the season this year in a big way, but in a less dramatic interpretation across our Southeast Asia e-retailers, as compared to the glam and embellished versions hyped by the media/influencers.
Colours in Perspective
While the application of seasonal bold colours gained prominence and hype, Black, White and Blue remain a staple favourite, commanding the most width across assortments amongst our ten e-retailers.
Markdown Activations
The most common discount range identified for the key three categories analysed, namely Women’s Tops, Dresses and Shoes, fell in the bracket of 40% – 50%, showing palatable markdown activations, less aggressive than the second half of the year where major discounting would be driven by Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Singles’ Day.
Having said that, this Spring/Summer was certainly not short of happenings. In addition to newness launch, a string of key events also took place – special campaigns over Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and International Women’s Day, as well as festive promotions over Lunar New Year and EID.
Fast fashion retailers are also known to apply different markdown strategies, across categories. Retailers such as Berrybenka and Forever 21 launched very aggressive markdowns to drive sales with over 60% of SKUs on average 50% off. ASOS also had large numbers of SKUs on discount but at modest 30% – 34% off.
Zalora was championing Tops with the least discounting but more aggressive on Dresses and Shoes. Meanwhile, Fashion Valet had the least number of SKUs on discount, which could signal a successful assortment for the season.