Christy Balita
Research expert covering the Philippines
E-commerce in the Philippines - statistics & facts
While online shopping in the Philippines became mainstream around the early 2010s, but it was not until a decade later that it really took off. Over the past five years, the nation’s e-commerce market has grown by about 400 percent, making it the second-fastest-growing e-commerce market worldwide. Thanks to increasing internet penetration and improved infrastructure, the potential for online shopping in a country with the highest average daily internet usage in the region remains promising.
The e-commerce market in the Philippines has gone through significant changes over the past five years, with an increasing number of people choosing to shop online. Alongside online marketplaces, social commerce will also continue to contribute to the country's growing online shopping market.
E-commerce landscape in the Philippines
E-commerce has taken the Philippines by storm following the popularity of online shopping channels that replaced traditional retail and cash-dependent trade during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shopee was by far the leading e-commerce platform, holding about half of the total web traffic. The Singaporean marketplace also accounts for half of the total gross merchandise value (GMV) share in 2023. Meanwhile, its closest competitor, Lazada, held 30 percent of the e-commerce GMV. While the highest revenue share for Shopee Philippines was on electronics and accessories, Lazada was popular for its home and living items.“Add to cart”: Key e-commerce trends
Despite the established popularity of these marketplaces, two platforms are slowly challenging their position. Offering affordable fashion online, SHEIN slowly captured the Filipino market since 2016, although app downloads only started booming in 2020. In 2023, its app already bested Lazada to be the second most downloaded shopping app in the Philippines. The newest entrant, Temu, which offers discounted consumer goods, has made it to the ranking. Since it was made available in August 2023, it has already had about 1.33 million downloads. In addition, social media’s strong presence in the Philippines made it easier for embedded marketplaces on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to also gain popularity, thereby contributing to the growing social commerce market.Is cash no longer king?
E-commerce also diversified the payment methods available to the growing share of online shoppers, primarily Millennials. In 2023, mobile wallets such as GCash and PayMaya were the leading payment methods used in e-commerce transactions, followed by card-based payments. Meanwhile, cash-based payments, which are available through “cash-on-delivery” (COD) mode, only accounted for 15 percent of the total share of payments. The country's central bank also reported that in 2023, digital payments had already overtaken cash-based payments in the country. In addition, buy now, pay later (BNPL) schemes also started gaining popularity, with companies such as Klarna and Grab PayLater allowing Filipino consumers to pay for their purchases later.The e-commerce market in the Philippines has gone through significant changes over the past five years, with an increasing number of people choosing to shop online. Alongside online marketplaces, social commerce will also continue to contribute to the country's growing online shopping market.
