Singles' Day drives 130% growth in first-time buyers across SEA

Southeast Asian retailers recorded a 130% increase in first-time buyers during Singles’ Day 2025, making the shopping event the strongest customer acquisition opportunity of the year-end sale season, according to Criteo.

The finding comes from the commerce intelligence platform's 2026 Year-End Shopping Decoded report, which examines shopping behaviour across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam during Q4 2025.

First-time buyers on Singles’ Day reached 2.3 times baseline levels, outpacing other major shopping events including 12.12 (+79%), Black Friday (+49%), 10.10 (+33%) and Cyber Monday (+25%).

New buyers also grew faster than repeat buyers during Singles’ Day, increasing 130% compared with 106% respectively. Across the fourth quarter, first-time buyers accounted for approximately 40% of all shoppers.

The findings point to the importance of major promotional events not only in driving immediate sales but also in bringing new customers into retailers’ ecosystems.

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Singles’ Day was also Southeast Asia’s biggest shopping day of Q4, with sales increasing 132% against baseline, while order value rose 212% and traffic climbed 73%.

Malaysia recorded the region’s strongest sales uplift at 155%, while Singapore saw the largest increase in order value at 299%.

Shoppers compare more brands before purchasing

Beyond customer acquisition, Criteo found that Southeast Asian shoppers spent an average of 22 days researching a product before purchasing around Singles’ Day, between 10 and 12 November.

During the month preceding the event, shoppers browsed an average of 3.8 brands on a single retailer’s website. Across retailers, the average increased to 5.8 brands, suggesting that consumers were comparing options across multiple shopping destinations before committing to a purchase.

Despite the extended consideration period, shoppers were more likely to complete purchases once they reached retailer websites. Q4 retail revenue increased 21% year-on-year, while sales rose 20%, even as traffic remained broadly flat. Conversion rates also increased 20%.

Marketplaces and department store websites were among the beneficiaries of this behaviour, recording 41% growth in online revenue during Q4. Online mass-market retailers followed with 36% growth, while fashion retailers saw online revenue decline 21%.

“Southeast Asian shoppers have a sale to look forward to almost every month, so they’ve learned that a good price will always come around again,” said Sukesh Singh, managing director for SEA at Criteo.

“That frees them to take their time choosing which brand to buy, and more of that research now starts with a question to an AI assistant. Brands should make sure their product listings answer the questions shoppers will actually ask and treat each sale as a chance to test conversational ads and scale what works. In AI-assisted commerce, the brand that’s easiest to understand is the one that gets recommended.”

Double days outperform Black Friday

The report further highlighted Southeast Asian shoppers’ preference for double-day promotions over Western retail shopping occasions.

Across Q4 2025, double-day events generated average increases of 89% in sales, 146% in order value and 49% in product page views. This compared with respective increases of 38%, 44% and 26% for Black Friday, and 35%, 34% and 18% for Cyber Monday.

The shopping season also began earlier than the main promotional dates. The eve of each double day ranked as the second-biggest sales day of its respective month, with sales on 10 November rising 76% and 11 December increasing 62% against baseline.

Looking ahead to this year’s year-end shopping season, Criteo is encouraging brands to build visibility throughout the consideration period rather than concentrating their investments on peak sale days.

The company recommends maintaining a presence across marketplaces, retailer websites, the open web and emerging discovery channels such as AI assistants. It also advises brands to use each promotional event to test creative, refine targeting and re-engage shoppers who browsed but did not purchase.

Criteo added that brands should assess discovery channels based on their ability to attract new customers, rather than relying solely on last-click attribution.

The report draws on aggregated commerce data from Criteo’s network of more than 17,000 advertiser clients.

AI as a part of discovery

The findings come as AI assistants become another channel through which consumers discover and research products before visiting retailer websites.

Criteo itself has launched its ChatGPT Ads integration across six Southeast Asian markets in September 2026. Globally, more than 80% of traffic driven by these ads comes from new customers, according to the company.

The findings are consistent with broader trends in AI-driven shopping. Google, Temasek and Bain & Company’s e-Conomy SEA report found that 93% of consumers trust AI as part of their purchasing journeys, while 69% use AI to compare complex purchases, such as electronics.

Separately, a study by AI-native consultancy Entermind found that 43% of surveyed Malaysian AI users turned to AI assistants before search engines, while 41% had made a purchase or financial decision primarily based on AI-generated information or recommendations. 

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