According to the Xendit Ecommerce Payments Momentum Report 2026, Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market reached US$197 billion in 2025 and is on track to approach US$400 billion by 2031. Businesses are chasing that growth across more channels and markets at once, from marketplaces and social commerce to brand.com and cross-border sales. Shoppers have moved with them, and the way they pay varies sharply from one market to the next.
That puts payments at the center of business growth. The checkout now decides whether demand converts to sales and how quickly a business can launch in a new market. The report, produced by Xendit and Cube Asia, draws on a survey of 6000 online shoppers across six markets, a survey of 25 business leaders, Xendit’s platform data and Cube Asia’s research. Three shifts stand out for anyone planning for 2027.
Shift 1: Catering for diverse payments is key, but no two markets pay the same in Southeast Asia
Offering the ways each market prefers to pay keeps shoppers who would otherwise leave at checkout. In the report’s survey, 51 per cent of shoppers in Indonesia, the region’s largest e-commerce market, dropped a purchase in the past three months because their preferred way to pay wasn’t offered.
Cash on delivery is fading across the region, but shoppers haven’t settled on a single replacement, and each market is moving its own way. Indonesian shoppers have moved quickly to e-wallets and QRIS, Bank Indonesia’s national QR standard, yet no single method has won. In the Philippines, payments volume over QR Ph and InstaPay nearly tripled since January 2025 on Xendit’s platform, while cash on delivery is holding on longer than anywhere else in the region. Singapore remains card-led, with 19 per cent of online sales crossing a border, the highest share in the region.
Regional connectivity is gaining even greater traction. Indonesia’s QRIS already works across borders with Thailand’s PromptPay and Malaysia’s DuitNow, so shoppers in one market can pay in another using the apps they already have. Through a single integration with Xendit, businesses can offer each market’s preferred methods, from QR payment rails to cards, easily catering to shoppers’ diverse payment needs and capturing new growth.
Shift 2: Business leaders know payments matter, but few feel their infrastructure is ready
Ninety-two per cent of business leaders surveyed said offering a wide range of payment methods is important or critical to growth, yet only 12 per cent believe their payment infrastructure is ready for the next decade.
Cost and speed explain much of that gap. Acceptance cost tops business leaders’ list of concerns, and many find local payment methods slow to roll out in a new market. Both problems often start behind the checkout, where a local QR or bank transfer payment can pass through several intermediaries before the money reaches the business. Each one adds fees and time. Xendit is licensed in the markets it operates in and connects directly to local payment rails, which cuts out those extra steps.
Shift 3: Fraud and AI agents will raise the bar for payments
As businesses grow, their checkout has to protect revenue as well as capture it, and two factors will test that over the next few years.
Fraud is moving up the agenda quickly. Only 8 per cent of business leaders rank it among their top two payment concerns today, but 48 per cent expect it to be there within five years. Every new market and payment method gives fraudsters more ways in, and cross-border orders are the most likely to be flagged as risky, even when the buyer is genuine. The businesses that tighten their controls without turning away good customers will keep the sales others lose.
At the same time, AI is changing who completes the purchase. Most shoppers in the region already use generative AI to research and compare products, and the first purchases made by AI agents on a shopper’s behalf are likely to arrive in 2027. Agentic commerce needs payments infrastructure that can recognise a verified agent and enforce the limits a shopper has set, such as a spending cap, before money moves. And because an agent leaves no human browsing trail, businesses will need new ways to handle disputes.
Learn what’s in store for Southeast Asian e-commerce payments in 2027
Get your copy of the Xendit Ecommerce Payments Momentum Report for full insight into how shoppers pay in each of six Southeast Asian markets with; learn how you can plan for 2027 and beyond – with various growth strategies and predictions, from cross-border payments to agentic commerce.
