Spire addresses cross-border e-commerce challenges across SEA at GSCC’s webinar series

Spire was honored to participate in the second webinar series organized by Global Supply Chain Council (GSCC) as a guest speaker. The webinar was held on 20 December, 2017 in Hong Kong. Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Spire Research and Consulting group shared his insights on cross-border e-commerce challenges and trends for payment and logistics transactions across Southeast Asia.

In his presentation, Bahar shared his insights on potential of cross-border e-commerce transactions in South-East Asia, with a focus on challenges involving payment and logistics issues.

Bahar mentioned that the e-commerce market represents potential for growth due to the rise in internet users across ASEAN-6 countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines) as of 2016. Product purchases (in millions) were highest for Vietnam (33.26), the Philippines (30.34) and Indonesia (24.74) with clothing, accessories as well as footwear amongst the top 5 products purchased.

Cross-border e-commerce market transactions in ASEAN-6 countries account for a projected 37.58% growth (from 2018-2019); higher than the forecasted global average. Despite projected growth, challenges remain. These include customs clearance issues, expensive international shipping, poor transport infrastructure, warehouse readiness, the lack of a single payment system, insufficient clarity on returns policies, delivery process or payment procedure, to name a few.

Nonetheless, some methods can be adopted to overcome these hurdles such as a single integrated platform to simplify international transactions, reduce shipping cost by increasing number of local transhipment warehouses as well as greater focus on enhancing the last mile delivery industry.

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