Last October 21–23, 2025, Kevin Lao, Head of Business Operations, of Aeroworx Corporation, joined fellow Philippine delegates at the Lazada-Alibaba E-commerce Executive Education Program held at Alibaba Group headquarters in Hangzhou.
Through three days of immersive tours, lectures, and discussions, the program provided participants with a firsthand look at the future of Southeast Asian e-commerce — and the innovations already shaping China’s digital economy that much of the region has yet to fully adopt.
DAY 1 - Tour: Alibaba Museum | Lecture: Consumer Behavior, Crossborder Marketplaces through 1688 and Aliexpress
The first day started with a tour of the Alibaba Museum. Being inside the campus and walking through what Alibaba has actually built over the years makes the numbers feel a lot more real. The group learned that Alibaba Group pulled in $133 billion USD in revenue in 2024, while Shopee's parent company Sea Ltd sits at $17 billion. And yet Shopee is the one dominating SEA. That gap says a lot about how fragmented Alibaba's attention is across its many business units — Lazada being just one of them.
Walking through the museum also surfaced Alibaba's six core values, principles like "customers first, employees second, shareholders third," "change is the only constant," and "today's best performance is tomorrow's baseline." Kevin noted they weren't too far off from what we already live by here at Aeroworx through I-STEP: Integrity, Self-Discipline, Teamwork, Entrepreneurial Spirit, and Passion for Excellence. Different language, same DNA — which honestly made the whole experience feel a bit more grounding than intimidating.
The Lazada team then walked us through a detailed consumer behavior analysis for the Philippine market. Several findings were eye-opening:
- 3rd - YOUNGEST E-COMMERCE USERS IN SEA
- 2nd - LOWEST MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD INCOME IN SEA
- 64% - OF PH SHOPPERS ARE FROM TIER 2 CITIES & BEYOND
That 64% from Tier 2 and provincial areas is a massive untapped opportunity — but it comes with an important consideration: spending capacity and brand awareness must still be factored in before scaling into those segments.
Lazada's consumer behavior data painted a clear picture of the Filipino online shopper, and several findings hit close to home:
- PH consumers tolerate longer delivery times IF shipping is free, validating our free shipping vs. discount strategy
- Price comparison is the #1 pre-purchase behavior online, a key reason Shopee is winning with stronger voucher support and ShopeePay flexibility
- Younger PH consumers are less brand-loyal and prefer lesser-known brands with higher discounts over familiar names with minimal promos
- Despite this, consumers still prefer better quality + higher price over moderate quality at a low price, the solution is community-building and USP clarity
Day 2 - Tour: Wensan Future Science Technology Experience Center, Global Cross Border E-commerce InnovationService Center | Lecture: Building an E-commerce brand from scratch, Live Selling best practices in China
Day 2 was the part of the trip Kevin described as feeling most like a glimpse into the future. The day began at the Wensan Future Science Technology Experience Center, essentially a live showcase of technologies already being integrated into everyday life and commerce in China. One key insight he brought back was that many of the trends shaping China’s e-commerce and tech landscape today typically make their way into Southeast Asia within the next two to three years. More than just a tour, the visit served as a firsthand look at what businesses in the region may soon need to adapt to.
Global Cross-Border E-commerce Innovation Service Center
A government-backed hub that supports Chinese sellers with resources ranging from supplier matching to e-commerce performance support. What caught Kevin's attention most was the fully built-out livestream studio sitting right inside the facility. It wasn't a concept room. People were using it.
Global Cross-Border E-commerce Innovation Service Center
A government-backed hub that supports Chinese sellers with resources ranging from supplier matching to e-commerce performance support. What caught Kevin's attention most was the fully built-out livestream studio sitting right inside the facility. It wasn't a concept room. People were using it.
LIVESTREAM TIP FROM THE HOMIE LIVE CEO
If your team is going live every day, the script has to change — same content kills retention. Two mechanics that are actually working in China: watch streaks (tune in for X consecutive sessions and earn a reward or discount) and mid-session lucky draws to keep people from bouncing before the session ends. These are structured retention tools, not gimmicks.
The most strategically valuable lecture of the day came from the CEO of Rest, who shared how they built a cross-border brand from China to the US market.
Building a Cross-Border Brand (CEO of Rest)
The most strategically valuable lecture of the day came from the CEO of Rest, who shared how they built a cross-border brand from China to the US market.
The CEO of Rest shared that their strategy began with building a Shopify storefront before ever touching a marketplace like Amazon, a harder road upfront, but one that paid off by reducing long-term platform dependency. Despite not being the cheapest in their category, they're now the #1 brand on Amazon in their space, because they chose to invest in awareness over price wars. What's equally striking is how they allocated their initial $500K capital: $400K went straight into hiring sleep doctors to understand consumer sleep patterns, leaving only $100K for marketing. Their philosophy was simple, product is king, and marketing is just operational once you have the right product. To keep costs lean, they built a fully digital, no-office team across Asia, hiring on a project basis to access top talent without the overhead. Their operational order never wavered: R&D first, market research second, marketing last.
Day 3 - Lecture: Performance Marketing in China, AI Tools available and used in China
The dominant theme of Day 3 was AI, not as a future concept, but as an operational reality. In China, AI is already embedded in daily business functions, from creating marketing collateral and handling customer service to powering livestream commerce. AI hosts are not necessarily more engaging than humans; instead, they enable efficiency at scale, especially in livestream sessions that run for 8 to 24 hours daily, where AI covers off-peak hours while human hosts take peak slots. The central message from Alibaba’s AI sessions was clear: AI is no longer something companies are planning to adopt in China, it is already fully integrated into how operations run.
This same model extends beyond livestreaming into customer service, where AI handles high-volume inquiries and humans step in for more complex cases. It reflects a broader pattern of smart task allocation that teams are starting to study and potentially replicate in their own operations.
Two other trends also stood out: the rise of low-price, high-frequency purchasing behavior on platforms like Taobao and TikTok Shop (buy cheap, buy often), and JD.com’s pilot of 12-hour cross-border delivery. As delivery timelines continue to shrink, local distributors are likely to feel increasing pressure. It’s not an immediate disruption yet—but it is clearly on the horizon.