How culture drives e-commerce at Lunar New Year in Singapore

In Singapore’s crowded and bustling Chinatown, long queues snake around market corners. Shoppers leave with silk shirts, lanterns, lucky charms, trays of sweets and kilos of mandarin oranges – traditions that now move as easily through shopping carts as they do through market stalls. “In Cantonese, the word for mandarin orange sounds like gold,” says Zi Min Foo, a Singapore-based Communications Manager at DHL. “Gifting them is a traditional wish for prosperity.”

The Lunar New Year is celebrated across much of East and Southeast Asia, including China, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea, and lasts 15 days. It marks the peak of the peak season in Asia Pacific – but commercial acceleration begins weeks earlier. Across the region, which accounts for roughly 60% of global retail e-commerce revenue according to our regional market data, factories boost output before holiday shutdowns. Retailers also increase inventories by as much as 30% to meet demand for festive hampers, clothing, footwear and electronics. During this peak, our Asia-Pacific network projections show more than 12 million parcels moving through the region, each one racing toward a reunion dinner table.

Lunar New Year is not the only pressure point in the region’s calendar. Shopping festivals such as 11.11 (Singles’ Day) and 12.12 shortly before Christmas create peaks within the peak. Our operational data reveals that these "Double Days" can send shipping volumes as much as three to five times above the daily baseline. For logistics teams, volatility is not an exception – it is the operating model.

At Singapore Changi Airport, that volatility becomes choreography. Inside our DHL Express South Asia Hub, operations run 24/7. On busy days, hundreds of metric tons of cargo move through the facility, with systems capable of processing up to 24,400 shipments per hour. Parcels are scanned, sorted and loaded within tight departure windows, often in under 60 minutes before their next flight across the Asia-Pacific network.

But speed alone does not explain resilience. “Our team members come from many different nationalities and that enriches us,” says Duty Manager Zi Ming Teio. “During Lunar New Year, some celebrate while others step in. At Christmas, the roles reverse.” In a region defined by overlapping cultural calendars, flexibility is part of the operational DNA. This "As One" philosophy ensures that even during a 300% volume spike, the 24/7 engine never skips a beat.

If the airport hub is about speed and coordination, the warehouse is about precision and control. The choreography at Changi is mirrored at our DHL Supply Chain Infineon warehouse – part of the 230,000 m² of capacity we manage in Singapore. The facility feels less like storage space and more like a controlled ecosystem built for peak performance.

At the helm is Joyce Yee, Senior Director of Operations. She walks the warehouse floor with the confidence of someone who knows every corner of the operation. “We have 100% inventory accuracy here,” she says, as an 11-meter-high automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) hums overhead. Robotic shuttles move across towering racks, lifting bins and delivering them within seconds. Nearby, an autonomous vehicle, the first of its kind in Singapore’s supply chain, glides silently past, transporting materials between floors.

Even the sounds here are rhythmic. The steady hum of a "crumple machine" fills the air as it converts kraft paper into a protective void-fill. Joyce explains that this ensures even the most delicate festive gifts remain secure on their journey to the reunion table. 

Technology provides the framework for operations here, but culture provides the heartbeat. During a lunch break, the high-tech focus shifts to a lived experience. Teio and his colleagues gather for yusheng, a vibrant “prosperity salad” of colorful ingredients, including red and yellow, that perfectly match our brand colors.

Standing together, they perform a ritual of collective ambition: tossing the ingredients high with chopsticks while shouting a rhythmic “Huat ah!” for prosperity and “Boleh!” – the Malay phrase for “Can do!” It is a moment when our "As One" philosophy becomes tangible.

The intensity in Singapore echoes across the region, from the Tết holiday in Vietnam to the Lantern Festival that closes the 15-day celebration. As evening falls on Jurong Lake Gardens, colorful lanterns reflect against the water and a massive, illuminated horse marks 2026 as the Year of the Fire Horse. This specific combination of animal and element occurs only once every 60 years, symbolizing a year of exceptional speed and soaring spirit – a fitting tribute to the millions of our couriers and sorters working behind the scenes around the world.

In Singapore, e-commerce hasn't replaced culture; it has become its primary vehicle. Behind every automated scan and every whirring shuttle is a person ensuring that a Hongbao (red envelope for cash gift) or a festive hamper arrives in time for the reunion. In this digital age, our "As One" spirit proves that while technology provides the speed, it is our people who deliver the hope and tradition that define the season.