Tokopedia, Sea Group ranked among top retail firms in SEA by GMV in 2020

Indonesian ecommerce giant Tokopedia and Singapore-based tech major Sea Group are ranked first and third respectively among the top retail companies in Southeast Asia, according to the latest report by research firm Euromonitor International.

Based on the firm’s analysis, which includes tracking statistics and discussions with trade players, Tokopedia recorded close to US$11.7 billion in gross merchandize value (GMV) in 2020, while Sea Group, who owns Shopee, received US$8.7 billion in GMV.

Shopee actually reported a GMV of US$35.4 billion in its 2020 financial statement, but Euromonitor told Tech in Asia that the number in its report excludes Shopee’s customer-to-customer and business-to-business transactions and its sales in Taiwan.

Seven & I Holdings, the owner of convenience store chain 7-Eleven, came in second place with a GMV of US$11.5 billion in the region.

The Euromonitor report further forecasted that retail ecommerce sales in Asia Pacific would nearly double and reach US$2 trillion in 2025.

Retail ecommerce sales in nine major Southeast Asian countries, excluding East Timor and Brunei, may reach US$143.7 billion, the firm told Tech in Asia. That figure is lower than Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company’s prediction in its e-Conomy SEA Report last year which stated that ecommerce could reach US$172 billion in the same time span. Part of the difference may be chalked up to the exclusion of C2C and B2B transactions and sales of motor vehicles in the Euromonitor report.

With the rise of ecommerce, Euromonitor stated that 44% of businesses in the Asia Pacific may receive orders via online methods in 2025. The number may even be higher in Indonesia and Singapore, which may see 47.9% and 57.5% of businesses receive online orders, respectively.

Euromonitor research analyst Quan Yao Peh pointed out that the rise of livestreaming and social commerce via Instagram and chat apps like WhatsApp and Viber may support that trend.