Southeast Asian consumers are spending weeks researching products and comparing brands before committing to purchases, even as online retailers across the region record higher conversion rates. According to Criteo’s 2026 Year-End Shopping Decoded report, retail revenue throughout Southeast Asia climbed 21% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2025, despite broadly unchanged website traffic.
Conversion rates rose 20% during the quarter alongside an equivalent 20% increase in sales, with Criteo’s findings indicating that these additional transactions were driven by broadly unchanged visitor numbers buying more frequently. The report also identifies AI assistants as an emerging starting point for product discovery, introducing another channel through which brands can reach consumers during the research phase.
Longer purchase journeys coincide with higher conversions
During the 10 to 12 November Singles’ Day shopping period, Southeast Asian shoppers took an average of 22 days between first viewing a product and completing a purchase. Shoppers in Thailand took the longest, averaging 29 days to buy, followed by Malaysia at 27 days and Indonesia at 26 days. By comparison, purchases made around the Black Friday weekend involved shorter consideration windows, with European shoppers taking an average of 18 days and those in the United States taking 17 days.
Despite these extended research timelines, retailers in Southeast Asia converted a higher proportion of website visits into purchases during Q4 2025. In Singapore, retailer website traffic fell 15% year-on-year, yet conversion rates jumped 39%, lifting sales by 18%. Malaysia emerged as the region’s fastest-growing market, with conversion rates and retail revenue each climbing 34%.
Western markets presented a contrasting picture over the same period. In the United States, retailer website traffic rose 3%, while conversion rates declined 10%. European retailers recorded 6% traffic growth, accompanied by a 2% reduction in conversion rates.
Sukesh Singh, Managing Director (SEA) at Criteo, attributed the longer consideration periods partly to the frequency of promotional events across the region. “Southeast Asian shoppers have a sale to look forward to almost every month, so they’ve learned that a good price will always come around again,” Singh said.
Shoppers compare more brands before committing
For purchases completed during the Singles’ Day period, Southeast Asian shoppers browsed an average of 3.8 brands within a single retailer during the preceding month. That figure was nearly double the average of two brands recorded in both the United States and Europe for purchases measured between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Across multiple retailers, Southeast Asian shoppers evaluated an average of 5.8 brands, indicating that product comparisons frequently extended beyond a single shopping destination. Marketplaces are likely to play an important role in this behaviour, with competing brands readily available for consumers to evaluate on the same platform.
During Q4 2025, online revenue at Southeast Asian marketplace and department store websites increased 41% year-on-year, while online mass-market retailers recorded 36% growth. In contrast, fashion retailers experienced a 21% decline in online revenue.
Separate findings from Criteo’s Spark of Discovery research suggest that Singapore consumers remain receptive to unfamiliar products when search results are relevant and timely. Among shoppers surveyed, 44% identified seeing the right advertisement at the right moment as a leading reason to purchase. To engage these deliberative buyers, Criteo recommends retail media advertising and sponsored marketplace placements to reach consumers already comparing competing products within a particular category.
Singles’ Day drives the strongest sales and customer acquisition
Singles’ Day remained Southeast Asia’s biggest shopping day during Q4 2025, outperforming other major promotional events. On 11 November, sales increased 132% against baseline levels, while order value rose 212% and website traffic climbed 73%. At a country level, Malaysia recorded the region’s highest Singles’ Day sales uplift at 155%, while Singapore experienced the largest increase in order value at 299%.
Across the quarter, the three major double-day sales events generated average uplifts of 89% in sales, 146% in order value and 49% in product page views, comfortably surpassing Black Friday’s respective increases of 38%, 44% and 26%, as well as Cyber Monday’s 35%, 34% and 18%. Significant shopping activity also occurred outside the peak November and December periods. The 9.9 event, for instance, generated an 84% sales uplift, outpacing both 10.10 at 51% and Black Friday at 38%.
Consumers also bought heavily ahead of the main promotional dates, making the eve of each double-day event the second-biggest sales day of its respective month. Sales increased 76% on 10 November and 62% on 11 December, with both eves recording larger uplifts than Black Friday. Spending patterns in Thailand illustrated how consumer expenditure was distributed across several periods, with sales in the country rising 115% during 9.9 and 102% during 12.12, compared with 129% on Singles’ Day.
Demand varied considerably by product category across different events. Health and Beauty recorded a 268% sales increase on 11.11, whereas the 12.12 event saw substantial growth in gifting and home entertainment items, with sales of cosmetic sets climbing 467%, televisions rising 430% and karaoke systems increasing 406%.
Singles’ Day also generated the largest surge in first-time customers, as new buyers reached 2.3 times baseline levels. That 130% increase exceeded the growth recorded during 12.12 at 79%, Black Friday at 49%, 10.10 at 33% and Cyber Monday at 25%. First-time buyers expanded faster than repeat buyers on Singles’ Day, with respective increases of 130% and 106%. Across Q4 as a whole, new customers accounted for approximately 40% of all buyers.
AI assistants introduce another stage of product discovery
Alongside traditional search, social media, retailer websites and marketplaces, Criteo identified conversational AI as another channel influencing how consumers discover products. In September, the company launched its ChatGPT Ads integration across six Southeast Asian markets, providing advertisers with a mechanism to reach shoppers during AI-assisted product discovery. Globally, more than 80% of the traffic generated through these advertisements comes from new customers, according to Criteo, though the company notes that this figure measures traffic driven by the advertising integration rather than completed purchases.
As consumers increasingly turn to AI assistants to research products, Criteo recommends that brands ensure their product details directly address the questions shoppers are likely to ask. Retailer and marketplace platforms remain the usual destinations for completing transactions, making clear, useful product data essential when consumers transition from discovery to purchase.
Criteo advises brands to maintain advertising activity between promotional peaks throughout the remaining 2026 year-end sales, noting that consumers often begin their research weeks before buying. Campaigns should also be active before the main sale day, given the substantial purchasing volumes recorded on the preceding evening. The company further recommends using the performance data from each promotional event to refine product targeting, advertising bids and creative assets for subsequent sales, since shoppers who browse without purchasing during one event may remain prospective buyers for the next.
This iterative approach extends to AI-assisted commerce, where Criteo recommends testing conversational advertising during individual promotional events and using the results to guide subsequent campaigns. Advertisers are also advised to evaluate discovery channels based on their capacity to attract first-time customers. Attributing purchases solely to the final advertisement clicked can understate the contribution of earlier touchpoints, including AI-assisted discovery, distorting how brands assess their overall advertising performance.
The report’s regional findings are based on aggregated Q4 2025 commerce data covering Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The analysis draws on Criteo’s global network of more than 17,000 advertiser clients, with comparisons against the United States and Europe derived from the same global dataset.
