Last week, we shared 5 of the 10 predictions for Southeast Asia 2026 in a preview to MWX Insights Session 2, which took place on 8 Jan 2026:
Here is the full list:
- TikTok Shop catches up with Shopee in parcel volume
- Shopee’s defence puts more focus on instant delivery
- Customer loyalty, LTV and margin are being redefined — driven by Chinese competition
- AI reshapes organisations before products
- China–Southeast Asia collaboration is shifting from supply chain transfer to operating model exchange
- Ecommerce logistics war is over, with clear winners
- Most ecommerce skill or capability becomes commoditised
- More AI agent teams will appear in Singapore, few will succeed
- Stablecoin adoption in cross border commerce still elusive
- Chaotic streets are not the major impediment for Robotaxis adoption in SEA
Predictions, for us, are a clarity exercise. It is meant to analyse the trends that might shape the region’s digital commerce, retail and technology-driven transformation – and give us some clarity to prepare for the different scenarios that might happen throughout the new year.
To derive this year’s predictions, we dived into the data and insights collected through our 10 immersions, more than 400 expert interviews, as well as 200+ published reports and article – all done in 2025 alone!
During the MWX Insights Session 2 last week, we went through five out of the 10 predictions in detail. We have also included the remaining 5 in the deck prepared for the session:
We will come back to review these predictions towards the end of the year, as we did in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. We will also sharing a review of the 12 ecommerce predictions we published in June 2025 as part of the Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2025 report in this year’s edition of the same report.
Stay tuned!
