The $90 Billion Question
In January 2026, TikTok Shop reported that its Southeast Asian gross merchandise value had surpassed the $90 billion annualized run rate — more than double the figure from the same period in 2024. The growth was concentrated in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, where the platform’s live-streaming commerce model had found an almost perfect product-market fit.
The revenue numbers were celebrated in ByteDance’s internal communications. What went unmentioned was the operational strain beneath the surface. In each of TikTok Shop’s six Southeast Asian markets, the company was operating with skeleton logistics teams that were being asked to manage complexity far beyond their capacity.
A Sun Tzu Recruitment consultant who has worked with multiple e-commerce platforms in the region described the situation bluntly: “The business is growing at 100% a year, but the logistics talent pool is growing at maybe 5%. The math does not work.”
Why Logistics Talent Is So Scarce
The scarcity of experienced cross-border logistics professionals in Southeast Asia has multiple root causes. First, the region’s e-commerce logistics infrastructure is fragmented. Unlike China, where a handful of national carriers (SF Express, JD Logistics, Cainiao) cover the entire country, Southeast Asia requires coordination across six distinct markets, each with its own customs procedures, last-mile providers, and regulatory frameworks.
Second, the skill set required to manage this complexity is highly specific. A regional logistics director needs to understand cross-border customs clearance processes in Thailand and Vietnam, negotiate contracts with local last-mile providers in Indonesia and the Philippines, manage inventory across multiple bonded warehouses, and ensure compliance with each country’s import regulations. This combination of skills is extraordinarily rare.
Third, the compensation expectations are misaligned. E-commerce platforms, accustomed to the relatively lean salary structures of Chinese internet companies, are competing for talent against established logistics giants like DHL, FedEx, and Kerry Logistics, which offer higher base salaries, more predictable career paths, and less operational chaos. Sun Tzu Recruitment’s data shows that the average total compensation for a regional logistics director at an e-commerce platform is approximately 160,000to220,000, while comparable roles at traditional logistics firms range from 200,000to280,000.
“Here’s the thing,” a Sun Tzu partner based in Singapore said. “The platforms are trying to hire logistics talent at internet company salaries. But the people they’re recruiting come from an industry where compensation is structured very differently. Until the platforms adjust their expectations, they will keep losing candidates to incumbents.”
The Three Critical Roles
Based on Sun Tzu Recruitment’s active mandates across Southeast Asia in the first half of 2026, three logistics roles have become the most urgently needed — and the most difficult to fill.
Regional Supply Chain Director — This role oversees the end-to-end supply chain across all Southeast Asian markets, from procurement planning in China to last-mile delivery in Indonesian outer islands. The ideal candidate has 12 to 15 years of experience in cross-border logistics, including at least five years managing multi-country operations. Sun Tzu Recruitment has identified fewer than 80 individuals across Southeast Asia who meet these criteria, and most are not actively looking.
Last-Mile Operations Head — With TikTok Shop’s live-streaming sales concentrated in evening hours, last-mile delivery networks face extreme peak-load pressure. The head of last-mile operations must design routing and staffing models that can handle three to four times the average volume between 8 PM and midnight. This is a problem that few logistics professionals have encountered before — traditional e-commerce does not produce such acute demand spikes.
Cross-Border Customs & Compliance Manager — Each Southeast Asian market has different rules for e-commerce imports. Thailand requires advance electronic data submission. Vietnam imposes value-added tax on imported goods above a threshold. Indonesia has a positive list of categories that can be imported via e-commerce channels. Keeping up with these regulations and ensuring compliance requires a specialist who combines legal knowledge with operational experience — a combination that is almost impossible to find in a single candidate.
One Sun Tzu client in Jakarta took six months to fill a customs compliance manager position. The first three candidates declined the offer. The fourth accepted but resigned within the probation period, citing burnout from the sheer volume of regulatory changes across multiple markets.
How Platforms Are Responding
The major cross-border e-commerce platforms are pursuing different strategies to close the logistics talent gap, none of which is fully working yet.
TikTok Shop has been poaching aggressively from traditional logistics companies, offering 30 to 50 percent salary premiums to attract experienced regional directors. The strategy has had mixed results. While several senior hires have been made, retention has been poor — three of the seven logistics directors hired in 2025 have already left, citing the intensity of the role and the lack of support infrastructure.
Shopee, TikTok Shop’s primary competitor in Southeast Asia, has taken a different approach, investing in an internal logistics training program that fast-tracks high-potential operations staff into management roles. The program has produced competent mid-level managers but has not addressed the shortage of senior leaders with cross-border expertise.
A Sun Tzu consultant who advises both platforms noted, “The training programs are good for building depth in the second tier. They are not producing the kind of strategic leaders who can design a supply chain network from scratch across six countries. For those, you still need to recruit from the traditional logistics industry — and that market is nearly empty.”
The Structural Talent Deficit
The logistics talent shortage in Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce is not a temporary mismatch that will correct itself. The underlying dynamics suggest a structural deficit that will persist for at least three to five years.
The demand side is growing exponentially. E-commerce penetration in Southeast Asia has risen from 5 percent in 2019 to an estimated 18 percent in 2026, with cross-border platforms capturing an increasing share of that growth. The supply side, meanwhile, is growing only linearly. It takes a decade to develop a seasoned logistics professional — and the pipeline of new entrants to the field is thin.
Sun Tzu Recruitment estimates that the gap between demand and supply for senior cross-border logistics talent in Southeast Asia will widen by 15 to 20 percent per year through 2028. This has direct implications for compensation: starting salaries for regional logistics directors have risen 40 percent in two years, and Sun Tzu expects another 25 percent increase in 2027.
That said, not every platform is convinced that building in-house logistics teams is the right long-term answer. Several are exploring partnerships with third-party logistics providers that can offer end-to-end solutions, reducing the need for internal logistics hires. Others are investing in technology — automated sorting systems, AI-powered route optimization, and predictive inventory management — to reduce the operational complexity that requires human expertise.
“In the end, the winning platforms will be the ones that figure out how to do more with fewer people,” the Sun Tzu partner said. “Not because they want to underinvest in logistics — but because there simply aren’t enough experienced people to hire.”
For the logistics professionals who do exist in Southeast Asia, the market has become a seller’s paradise. Multiple offers, accelerated promotion timelines, and compensation packages that would have been unimaginable three years ago have become the norm. The question for the platforms is whether they can close the talent gap before the growth curve bends.
Comments are closed