$72 Billion Lost Annually at Checkout Across Asia’s E-commerce Sector

Vietnam’s e-commerce sector is growing at one of the fastest rates in Southeast Asia, but many businesses are losing customers at the final step of the transaction: the checkout.

Asia now contributes 62.6% to global e-commerce growth, according to Nielsen IQ, cementing the region’s role as the world’s primary engine of digital trade. Yet Payoneer’s latest research highlights a striking paradox: as businesses scale online, more revenue is  being lost at checkout before transactions are completed.

Across Asia-Pacific, businesses lose an estimated $72 billion annually due to checkout inefficiencies, from abandoned transactions to fragmented payment flows and hidden transaction costs. In Vietnam, this challenge is becoming increasingly relevant as companies shift toward direct-to-customer (DTC) models and expand into cross-border trade.

The hidden cost of checkout leakage

For many Vietnamese businesses, moving toward independent webstores is a strategic response to rising marketplace fees and the need for greater control over customer relationships.

However, owning the channel is only part of the equation. Converting demand into completed transactions is where many businesses face losses. This is often referred to as checkout leakage: the revenue that disappears between a customer deciding to buy and the payment being successfully completed or settled.  It typically results from three types of friction:

Cart abandonment. Customers may exit at the payment stage due to failed authorizations, limited payment options, or unexpected costs at the final step. Each abandoned cart represents not only lost revenue but wasted marketing spend.

Transaction fees. Currency conversion can quietly reduce margins on cross-border transactions. At scale, these small deductions add up to a meaningful drag on profitability.

Settlement delays. When funds take days or weeks to clear, businesses face cash-flow gaps that affect inventory purchases, advertising cycles, and supplier payments.

As customer acquisition costs continue to rise, businesses should broaden their focus from just attracting more traffic to capturing more value from existing demand.

According to Payoneer’s research, small or mid-sized DTC businesses generating $2-5 million annually could recover approximately $20,000 per year by optimizing checkout performance alone. For many businesses, that amount can offset key operational expenses such as advertising, software subscriptions, or supplier payments.

Checkout as a growth lever

Traditionally, checkout has been treated as a back-end technical function. Today, it is emerging as a direct driver of conversion rates, margins and cash-flow performance. Solutions like Payoneer Checkout, which is provided by Stripe Inc., are designed to address these inefficiencies by enabling a more integrated payment flow across markets and currencies.

By allowing businesses to collect, hold, and redeploy funds within a single ecosystem, this approach reduces reliance on external intermediaries and minimizes repeated currency conversions.

The impact is measurable. Optimized payment infrastructure can achieve conversion rates of up to 95%, increasing the proportion of completed transactions without additional marketing spend. Checkout also integrates seamlessly with major e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento, allowing businesses to deploy improvements without rebuilding their existing systems.

For Vietnamese exporters generating $10-20 million in annual cross-border revenue, this can translate into $120,000-$150,000 in recoverable value per year, alongside a 10-15% improvement in EBITDA, according to Payoneer’s report.

“Checkout is where businesses either capture or lose value,” said Nagesh Devata, SVP of APAC at Payoneer. “With customer acquisition costs rising, DTC brands can’t afford friction at the final step. When payment infrastructure is optimized, businesses can recover more value from existing demand without increasing marketing spend”.

Why payment infrastructure is becoming a strategic priority for Vietnam

Payment infrastructure is no longer just an operational consideration. It is becoming a strategic and regulatory priority.

The release of Payoneer’s findings aligns with the implementation of Vietnam’s updated E-Commerce Law and the National E-Commerce Master Plan, which bring payment providers more formally into the regulatory framework and place greater emphasis on transparency, consumer protection, and compliance.

As Vietnam strengthens its position in global digital trade, businesses that address checkout inefficiencies will not only recover lost revenue but also build a stronger operational foundation for sustainable cross-border growth.

By Vietnam Business Forum