HKFEC Supports Retail Show Australia 2026 (RSA’26) in Melbourne – Leading Cross-Border Panel on Winning APAC

The Retail Show Australia 2026 (RSA’26) was successfully held from 22–24 September 2026 at MCEC, Melbourne, bringing together Australia’s retail leaders, tech innovators and e-commerce ecosystem partners. The Hong Kong Federation of E-Commerce (HKFEC) was proud to participate as a Supporting Organization.

As part of our cross-border mission, HKFEC was invited to curate and lead a flagship panel on regional expansion.

Panel Highlight: From Local to Regional: Winning Cross-Border E-Commerce in APAC

Moderated by Joseph Yuen, Chairman of HKFEC, the 45-minute session was delivered as a three-leader strategic conversation:

• Hong Kong / China lens – market & technology (content, livestreaming, AI) – Joseph Yuen
• Australia lens – destination market trust, compliance & customer expectations – Gareth Lewis, CEO, NORA Network – National Online Retailers Association
• ASEAN lens – regional expansion, market sequencing & partnerships – Tack Soon (TS) Chung, Secretary General, Malaysia Cross Border E-Commerce Association

Key Takeaways

1. APAC is not one market. It is one opportunity expressed through many different behaviours.
APAC e-commerce at US$4.86 trillion in 2026, forecast to reach US$7.47 trillion by 2031. Winning requires understanding very different payment habits, logistics realities, regulations and platform ecosystems.

2. In the new commerce model, content is the storefront.
China remains the world’s most advanced digital-commerce environment: US$1.9 trillion online retail sales (26.1% of retail) in 2025, livestream e-commerce GMV above US$900 billion, cross-border trade ~US$400 billion with 140M cross-border shoppers in H1 2026. The journey is now “watch, engage, trust, buy, share and repurchase.”

3. Hong Kong’s role as a trusted international gateway.
Hong Kong official local online retail sales reached ~US$4.6 billion in 2025, up 12.8% YoY while total retail grew only 1%. Beyond scale, Hong Kong creates value as a trusted gateway connecting China, GBA, ASEAN and global markets.

4. Capability first, then market list.
Do not start with a country list. Start with a capability audit: Can you localise content? Manage tax/compliance? Deliver transparently? Handle returns? Provide in-market service? Leverage local creators and partners to build trust?

“APAC is not one market. It is one opportunity expressed through many different consumer behaviours, regulations and commerce ecosystems.”
“In the new commerce model, content is not just marketing; content is the storefront.”
“The first question in cross-border expansion is not ‘Where should we sell?’ It is ‘What capabilities must we build to deserve to win there?’” – Joseph Yuen, HKFEC

5. Trust, AI and Execution.
With only 29% of APAC consumer businesses using agentic AI today but 76% expected within two years, AI is becoming cross-border infrastructure for multilingual content, demand forecasting and creator optimisation. Yet brands risk becoming invisible if product data, inventory, reviews and trust signals are not structured for AI discoverability. Automate where possible, keep human judgement for brand, compliance and cultural relevance.

HKFEC sincerely thanks the organisers of Retail Show Australia 2026, Microsoft Innovation Hub, NORA Network and Malaysia Cross Border E-Commerce Association for the collaboration, and all attendees who joined us at the Innovation Hub Stage.

HKFEC will continue to build APAC cross-border bridges for our members. If you are a Hong Kong brand looking to expand to Australia and ASEAN, connect with us.

Tags: Retail Show Australia 2026RSA26HKFECCross-Border E-CommerceNORAMalaysia Cross Border E-Commerce AssociationAPACMelbourne