eCommerce app growth takes off across APAC, but playbook differs by market

Ecommerce apps are gaining ground across APAC, with Singapore recording a 67% year-on-year (YoY) jump in installs in the first half of 2026. But beyond the headline growth, markets across the region are taking markedly different paths, with Indonesia leading on engagement and Malaysia relying more heavily on paid acquisition.

According to Adjust's "The shopping app insights report: 2026 edition", Singapore recorded the biggest increase in eCommerce app installs among the markets highlighted, ahead of the US at 49%, Vietnam at 42%, India at 37% and Indonesia at 36%.

Elsewhere in APAC, installs rose 16% in the Philippines, 14% in Malaysia and 12% in South Korea.

The gains stand out against a relatively modest global increase. eCommerce app installs rose 2% YoY globally in H1 2026, while sessions increased 0.3%. Looking specifically at the shopping app subvertical, however, sessions grew 15% globally, with shopping apps accounting for 72% of all eCommerce app installs during the period.

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Singapore's growth was also reflected in usage. eCommerce app sessions increased 58% YoY, making it the second-fastest-growing market globally on the measure, behind Indonesia at 62%.

For Indonesia, the gap between install and session growth is notable. While installs rose 36%, sessions grew almost twice as fast, suggesting that growth in the country's app ecosystem is not simply coming from bringing more users into apps, but from existing and newly acquired users generating significantly more activity.

Singapore similarly saw strong movement across both metrics, putting it among the region's strongest markets for both acquisition and engagement.

Malaysia stands out on paid acquisition

Malaysia's numbers tell a different story. The market recorded a 14% increase in eCommerce app installs, but its more striking figure was a paid-to-organic install ratio of 1.11, the highest of any market tracked by Adjust. That means Malaysia generated more paid installs than organic installs during the period, placing it well above the global ratio of 0.72.

The global paid-to-organic ratio itself rose 26% from 2025 and 47% from 2024, pointing to a growing role for paid media in eCommerce app acquisition. Shopping apps recorded an even higher global ratio of 0.76.

Malaysia's position becomes more interesting when compared with its regional neighbours. Vietnam recorded 42% install growth, but its paid-to-organic ratio fell 54% to 0.89. The Philippines also saw its ratio decline 34% to 0.73.

In other words, rapid app growth across APAC does not necessarily mean greater dependence on paid acquisition.

Vietnam is a particularly notable counterexample. Its installs grew almost as quickly as Singapore's, yet its reliance on paid acquisition fell sharply. Malaysia, meanwhile, saw more modest install growth but had the highest paid-to-organic ratio in the markets tracked.

The contrast gives marketers in the region different questions to consider. In Malaysia, the challenge may be whether paid acquisition is translating into users who continue to engage, while markets such as Vietnam may be finding more room to grow through organic or other acquisition routes.

The report also found that several Southeast Asian markets, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, reduced the number of advertising partners they worked with during H1 2026. This points towards marketers becoming more selective about where acquisition budgets are going as competition for users increases.

More activity, shorter sessions

Despite the growth in installs and sessions, APAC shoppers are spending less time in individual eCommerce app sessions. Average session length across APAC fell 11% to 9.98 minutes in H1 2026, compared with a 7% decline globally to 10.32 minutes.

At a global level, marketplace and classifieds apps continued to record the longest sessions at 12.52 minutes, followed by deal discovery apps at 11.09 minutes and shopping apps at 7.93 minutes.

The decline in session length comes alongside growth in overall session volumes, suggesting that app engagement is becoming more frequent even as individual visits become shorter.

Singapore's early engagement metrics were relatively strong. Users recorded 1.45 sessions per user on the day of installation, while day-one retention stood at 16%. Japan ranked ahead of Singapore among the APAC markets highlighted, with 1.51 sessions per user on install day and 17% day-one retention. That gives Singapore a strong position across the early app funnel, with the market seeing sharp install growth while also maintaining relatively high levels of early engagement and retention.

The pressure is increasingly moving towards the quality of that growth. As paid acquisition takes a larger share of eCommerce app installs, marketers have more reason to look beyond download volumes and assess whether acquisition is bringing in users who return, engage and ultimately convert.

This is particularly relevant as shoppers move between different discovery and purchasing channels. Adjust's report noted the continued rise of social commerce, live commerce, omnichannel shopping and AI-assisted discovery, giving consumers more ways to encounter products before reaching a retailer or marketplace app.

Across APAC, the result is a market that is still expanding, but not uniformly. Singapore is leading the region's install growth, Indonesia is turning app growth into stronger engagement, Vietnam is growing rapidly while reducing its reliance on paid acquisition, and Malaysia is putting more weight behind paid installs. The numbers suggest that the next phase of eCommerce app growth will be less about who can generate the most downloads and more about which markets and acquisition strategies can turn that growth into sustained customer value.

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