How can cross-border e-commerce businesses Prepare for the festive season?

Faster, better, and cheaper. This is the mindset adopted by many consumers in this age. With the global pandemic shaking up retail patterns, perhaps for good, more businesses in Malaysia are crossing borders to reach a wider audience seeking engaging e-commerce experiences.

According to a study by Market Research Future, the global e-commerce payment market is forecast to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.22% between 2025 and 20351. This is likely bolstered by the increasing use of the Internet and smartphones, a strong emerging working class, and tech-savvy millennials and Gen Zs looking for cross-border digitalised experiences. 

For companies, this presents opportunities in consumer touchpoints, even as travel restrictions continue.

What is cross-border e-commerce?

Cross-border e-commerce is the online sale of goods across international borders. It can be between a brand and consumer (B2C) or between two businesses (B2B). Such e-commerce activities can be conducted via the company’s own website or a third-party selling platform such as eBay or Amazon.

What opportunities are there for festive e-commerce? 

For exporters looking to expand their customer base by crossing borders, engaging in e-commerce with consumers in a high-growth region can open your business to a large, ready pool of consumers waiting to be tapped. In a digitally connected country like Malaysia, opportunities abound through shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

Due to the increased popularity of such festive sales, cross-border e-commerce is now as enticing as ever. 

How to prep for Malaysia’s festive calendar

To prepare for Malaysia's festive shopping seasons, getting acquainted with key dates well in advance is a baseline requirement for success. Early preparation allows you to build a marketing strategy that capitalises on hot-topic dates while leaving enough room to pivot as trending products emerge closer to the events. This foresight is particularly effective when you begin aligning your inventory and retail management strategy with the fixed dates of the 2026 Malaysian holiday calendar, ensuring your e-commerce business is ready when the surge begins.

Chinese New Year

CNY shopping typically dominates the first two months of the year. While the festive season traditionally falls between January and February, the exact dates shift annually according to the lunar calendar. This movement requires businesses to be agile with their promotional timelines to capture early-bird spenders.

Shoppers usually spend the preceding months hunting for new clothes and home decor. As family reunions approach, a secondary surge in grocery and gift shopping occurs just before the festivities. Data from Shopee Malaysia highlights the scale of this demand, showing an over 3,000%2 YoY rise in search volume for festive treats like cookies, snacks, and hampers, while home decor searches increased by over 1,700%3. 

If you’re looking to get ahead of this festive sale period in 2026, ensure your e-commerce platform highlights gift sets and home essentials at least six weeks before the first day of the New Year.

Hari Raya

Raya shopping remains a massive driver for international e-commerce in the region. Hari Raya Puasa and Hari Raya Haji take place roughly two months apart, shifting through March and April in 2026 according to the Hijri calendar. 

In the weeks leading up to Eid, consumer conversations focus heavily on culinary needs and fashion. An IPOS survey found that food and beverage topics accounted for 42.9% of discussions, while shopping accounted for a significant 17.5% share of the kueh4. Interestingly, travel-related searches also spike5 as people plan their return to their hometowns. This price-conscious mindset is echoed by a 2025 Milieu survey on shopper behaviour, which revealed that 78% of respondents view price as the top priority, with 65% citing discounts as their primary purchase driver6. 

For a successful holiday season, focus your marketing on value-for-money bundles and early-bird promotions to secure loyalty before the peak travel rush begins.

Deepavali

The Festival of Lights is a five-day event held between October and November, according to the Hindu lunisolar calendar. 

During this festive sale, consumers actively seek promotions on major household purchases while maintaining a steady appetite for traditional snacks and festive hampers. This tradition of renewal often extends to personal investments, where gold remained exceptionally popular in 2025 despite recent 30% to 40% price increases7, as younger generations increasingly view it as a lifestyle accessory rather than just a traditional investment. 

If you are a stockist for accessories or high-end gifts, positioning your products as modern lifestyle essentials can help capture this demographic. In 2026, you can try creating a themed e-commerce experience that celebrates the triumph of light over darkness and can further resonate with this audience's values.

Christmas

The year-end holiday season is the largest shopping period of the year. During this time, shoppers move online in droves to find presents for everyone from family members to professional colleagues. This period is the primary Christmas shopping season, when gifting is the primary driver of consumer spending.

Discounts are historically at their highest in December. To satisfy this high demand for value, retailers typically lean into aggressive pricing strategies, a trend evidenced by Adobe for Business, which reported that price cuts on consumer electronics can reach 30%8, a significant jump from the 5% average seen in earlier months. 

However, e-commerce activity often slows in the week immediately before the 25th of December9 as buyers become wary of delivery timelines. To avoid losing out, clearly display your holiday shipping cut-off date to reassure customers their gifts will arrive before the gifting window closes.

Mega sales and month-month sales

While month-month sales occur regularly, the events from 9.9 through to 12.12 are known as 'Mega Sales' due to their extreme popularity. These dates represent a high-growth shopping season for Christmas and year-end inventory clearance, where shoppers secure deals on off-peak items.

The sheer scale of this volume is best demonstrated by performance data from major regional players; for instance, Lazada reported a nearly 30% YoY growth in Average Order Value (AOV)10 during the 2025 9.9 Mega Sale, with top regional sellers seeing growth exceeding 49 times YoY11. In Malaysia, shoppers notably used these sales to purchase bag accessories (247% growth) and women’s winter clothing (1,054% growth) for outbound travel12. 

The regional trending product range during these events highlights a diverse appetite across Southeast Asia:

• Curated bag accessories: Modern fandoms are driving demand for "open-top" tote charms and functional rolling bag attachments, particularly those featuring viral character IPs.
• Instant photography: Retro-style hybrid cameras like the Instax Mini Evo and manual rangefinders remain a top gift choice for Gen Z, paired with high-fidelity film bundles.
• Hobbyist 3D printing: High-speed desktop models such as the Bambu Lab P2S are becoming mainstream as home workshops expand.
• Handheld gaming consoles: Devices like the Steam Deck OLED and ROG Ally X have seen massive growth as mobile PC gaming dominates the e-commerce tech space.
• Elevated men’s tailoring: "Sport Smarts" and boxy silhouettes are replacing traditional formalwear, with a focus on luxury-fabric rugby polos and oversized knitwear.
• Idol merchandise: Fandom-driven fashion, including modular tech-wear and "Balloon Silhouette" garments inspired by K-Pop concepts, is seeing exponential growth.
• Outbound travel apparel: Malaysia leads the demand for women's fall/winter clothing, specifically lightweight leather moto jackets and funnel-neck coats for those travelling to cooler climates.

To win during these e-commerce peaks, ensure your e-commerce platform can handle high traffic and that your promotional strategy targets trending niches like consumer electronics and niche fandom merchandise.

How to engage in cross-border e-commerce during the festive season

With many holidays scheduled throughout the year, business owners are preparing for the shopping rush. The rise in ad spending during such festive seasons can also be daunting, as companies compete to capture consumers' attention worldwide. However, there are a few solutions:

1. Automate your process

The holiday season can be chaotic and fast. As the holiday season approaches, companies that are understaffed or unprepared can be thrown off by seemingly minor things such as preparing invoices and purchase orders, or struggling with order fulfillment. 

Use software such as EasyShip or Shippo to automate as many of these tasks as possible to speed up the workflow. 

2. Optimize your site

Website crashes during big sales are far from unheard of, and businesses lose sales every year because of them. It not only hits SMEs, but even big firms struggle with the same issue. According to CNBC, for every hour that the website is down, retailers lose an average of 4% of a day’s sales.

To prevent this, have your web developer fix any bugs before the start of the festive season and ensure the infrastructure is robust enough to withstand an influx of visitors at any time.

3. Develop a year-long marketing plan

Festive periods almost never change, so eke out the marketing plan early. Think about the types of online deals and promotions, and theme marketing communications to match the festive season. Content marketing is also the best way to reach customers these days, so customize the brand’s messaging with these copywriting tips.

Start by identifying the best marketing channels with good return on investment (ROI), the right time to schedule promotions and the best pricing strategy to make a profit.

4. Ops planning for export

Effective operations planning is the mechanical heart of order fulfilment, ensuring your e-commerce business remains resilient under the weight of holiday-season demand.

One of the most effective ways to safeguard your inventory is by implementing the "Double-Wall" rule for packaging. By using a second layer of corrugated cardboard for delicate items, you ensure that fragile gifts—ranging from consumer electronics to glass decor—can withstand the high-volume handling common during a global festive sale.

Peak-period shipping also often creates logistical bottlenecks. Being transparent with your shoppers regarding these potential delays helps to reinforce their trust and build long-term customer loyalty. Before a customer reaches the checkout on your e-commerce platform, clearly define your “Order By” date on all promotion and product pages. 

Remember that while domestic shipping or deliveries to Singapore might be significantly faster due to proximity, shipping to the United States or other long-haul destinations requires a much wider buffer.

Peak season customer experience

The goal of international e-commerce during the holiday season is to ensure a seamless shopping experience with minimal hiccups, encouraging shoppers to return long after the decorations are taken down. A "fire and forget" approach to shipping often leads to customer anxiety; instead, focus on proactive engagement through the following checklist:

• Proactive tracking: Use real-time notifications to inform customers where their gift is, so they don't have to ask.
• On-demand delivery (ODD): Allow recipients to redirect packages to lockers or neighbours. This is a vital feature during the "Balik Kampung" travel rush when many Malaysians are away from their primary residences.
• Returns buffer: Plan for a 20–30% increase in returns throughout the shopping season, from Christmas into January. Ensure your policy is clear, and your reverse logistics are ready to handle the influx.
• Gifting options: Offer complimentary gift-wrapping or personalised notes at checkout to enhance the Christmas shopping experience.
• Clear cut-offs: Explicitly state the cut-off date for shipping out CNY or Christmas orders on your homepage banner to manage expectations and reduce last-minute support tickets.

Why cross-border e-commerce is the future

The way and reason consumers shop online has fundamentally shifted. As more look towards their smartphones for retail therapy or daily essentials, businesses should start to implement a strong cross-border e-commerce strategy to ride this wave.

With the rise of social commerce and AI-driven discovery in Malaysia, shopper expectations have shifted toward personalised, high-speed digital experiences. This evolution requires brands to offer more than just a storefront; they must provide flexible payments and seamless service to increase the lifetime value of their customers.

However, this also means that businesses must now learn to tackle rising customer demands for transparency and real-time tracking. Therefore, the future and sustainability of strong e-commerce business also lies in having a strong cross-border strategy that can withstand the complexities and challenges of shifting consumer expectations.

Cross-border e-commerce will continue to grow as a fundamental pillar of the local digital economy. In the same parallel, the Malaysian government has implemented various initiatives under Budget 2026, such as the MATRADE Market Development Grant and tax incentives for digital adoption, to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) optimize their operations and strengthen their presence in the regional market.