How to cope with peak marketplace surges in Southeast Asia : an e-commerce fulfilment perspective

“We have a very vibrant e-commerce landscape in Southeast Asia (SEA). There’s always something keeping sellers – and us – busy and on the ball!” says Krissy Villafuerte, Country Sales Manager Philippines, DHL Fulfillment Network. Krissy is referring here to the fast-moving sales ecosystem in which marketplaces are the main routes-to-market, the predominant three being Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop. This is a trend set to grow, as suggested by research from Momentum Asia.

Another growing sales channel is live streaming. Consumers can avail of special campaigns, publicized by influencers, within dedicated windows of time and often with attractive discounts.

Consumers regularly visit these platforms not just to purchase a particular product, but also to browse for deals: these sites offer regular promotions, with two key hooks being:

• ‘Double-digit days’: discounts occur on 1st January (1.1), 2nd February (2.2.) etc.
• ‘Pay day sales’: end-of-month discounts to coincide with pay days

“Alongside the strong value propositions offered by marketplaces, sellers are rewarded based on delivery‑related performance metrics such as the ‘Fast Handover Rate,’” explains Krissy. “This measures how quickly orders are handed over to last mile providers and directly impacts brand and product visibility on the marketplace. At the same time, seller reputation is influenced by fulfillment quality — including proper packing, fewer breakages, and effective returns handling. With same‑day or next‑day handover becoming standard, sellers and their logistics partners must balance speed with execution quality to stay competitive.”

Any mechanism that attracts sales is good news for sellers. The upbeat feel of the marketplaces and the discounts they offer consumers can be a great way for brands to become known initially and then grow their customer base.

There are challenges for sellers, however. The sales landscape essentially to their being multiple miniature ‘peak seasons’, with sometimes several occurring in a month. Afizz Adlan, Country Sales Manager Malaysia and Singapore, DHL Fulfillment Network, takes up the story: “Sellers need to carefully prepare and predict sales, and make sure they fulfill orders to tight timeframes. They don’t want shipments to be late or broken, or incur penalties by not meeting a marketplace’s Fast Handover Rate. The boost influencers can bring during live streaming events can give brands considerable uplift but again there are very tight cutoff times that a seller can’t miss. All in all, it can be daunting!”

Taking an omnichannel approach – by establishing your own webshop and also selling through retail distribution – can bring welcome diversification to the market base for sellers. It can also mean you are not at the mercy of the cuts that marketplaces take, and can control your own margins. “We encourage more brands to consider these two sometimes-overlooked channels,” says Afizz.

“Sellers really need to get all pieces of the logistics puzzle right, not just some of them,” cautions Krissy, who outlines the key questions to consider:

• How quickly and accurately are your orders fulfilled?
• Can you warehouse your stock in multiple locations so that it is as close to your consumers as possible?
• Can you track orders and monitor inventory levels by location and by SKU?
• Can you scale up to meet promotions and then scale down again when these are over?
• Can your 3PL support sales from your marketplaces, from your webshop and from retail?
• Can your 3PL deliver internationally?

At DHL Fulfillment Network, we meet all these criteria. As a professional logistics provider built on the backbone of the global DHL Supply Chain network, we have global reach and also expertise at local level right across SEA. “Our people and resource planning are key,” says Afizz. “Because we support a diverse range of industries – from cosmetics to consumer goods to tech – and geographies, we need to have the best people in place and be able to adapt.”

This goes hand in hand with the technology we use. All customers access our Advanced Analytics as standard, in which they can monitor stock levels by SKU in all locations, helping them make data-driven decisions and stay on top of double-digit days and other promotions.

Afizz tells us of the partnership between DHL Fulfillment Network and a major player in the skincare and supplements industry in Malaysia. “Our partnership thrives thanks to communication. This is a large company, with multiple SKUs, a broad customer base and healthy sales growth. We are in regular communication with them, adapting inventory levels flexibly, and responding to the forecasts and heads-up they give us when they are running promotions, which they do regularly. They are also an example of a seller that is embracing an omnichannel approach, and are now selling and fulfilling sales via their own webshop, alongside marketplaces.”

Our services extend to handling bulky goods, monitoring and tracking items under warranty both at goods in and goods out, and the increasing use of air-conditioned warehouses to protect goods when temperatures are high. “These are examples of why we have earnt a reputation as a premium service provider,” explains Afizz.

Krissy provides a telling analogy: “The seller and their 3PL need to be like a swan: serene on the surface but with legs swimming hard under the water to keep everything moving!” She encourages companies in SEA to lean into their 3PL partnership: “Let logistics be a growth driver for you: wow your customers with speedy and reliable delivery and keep them coming back for more!”