Despite 64% reporting revenue growth, 91% of merchants face payment friction
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 16 December 2025 – Aspire, the all-in-one finance platform for modern businesses, today released its Hong Kong Ecommerce Pulse Check for 2025, revealing that while 100 Hong Kong merchants (with HKD 1–10 million annual business revenue) remain optimistic about growth even amid macroeconomic challenges, hidden financial friction is quietly eroding margins.
Developed in collaboration with Stripe, the report identifies payment friction as the most significant — and least visible — drag on ecommerce performance, with 91% of merchants losing 1-10% of revenue every month due to payment failures, hidden fees, chargebacks and disputes, settlement delays, and integration complexities with multiple payment vendors. These losses sit on top of rising processing costs, with 93% of merchants reporting that they now spend at least 2-4+% of revenue on payment fees alone.
“The data tells a remarkable story of Hong Kong merchants navigating macroeconomic challenges with speed and agility. They are reshaping product lines, adjusting pricing, and leaning into discovery-led commerce — yet payment friction continues to undercut these gains.” said Andrea Baronchelli, CEO and Co-founder of Aspire. “As merchants scale across markets, they need financial infrastructure that is transparent, integrated, and cross-border ready to unlock even more growth.”
Macroeconomic pressures drive strategic shifts
Hong Kong merchants continue to operate in a high-cost environment shaped by a consumer spending slowdown (32%), rising rents and logistics costs (32%), and inflation (31%). Despite this, growth expectations remain relatively positive: 32% expect up to 10% revenue growth, another 32% expect 10–20%, and only a minority foresee significant declines.
Instead of passing rising costs directly to consumers, merchants are recalibrating how they price and position their products:
- 31% are moving from mass categories into more defensible niches
- 73% are broadening their price architecture through a premium-to-value shift
- 44% are transitioning from physical to digital channels
- 23% are expanding physical touchpoints such as pop-ups and hybrid formats
Social commerce and cross-border expansion powers momentum
Discovery-led commerce continues to reshape Hong Kong’s ecommerce landscape. Social shops now account for 62% of merchants’ primary sales channels (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Xiaohongshu), followed by livestreaming (15%) and traditional ecommerce platforms (23%). These channels also show the fastest acceleration, with 93% of merchants reporting an uplift in social commerce sales, underscoring a rapid shift away from traditional ecommerce platforms.
Beyond domestic demand, cross-border remains the clearest path to scale. The top regional markets for Hong Kong merchants are Southeast Asia (100%), Mainland China (83%), and Japan and Korea (63%). However, scaling regionally brings friction of its own. Merchants cite logistics complexity (51%), local marketing barriers (28%), and duties (18%) as the biggest obstacles.
“When 91% of merchants are losing revenue to payment friction, it’s not just an operational cost—it’s a growth blocker,” said Sarita Singh, Regional Head and Managing Director for Southeast Asia, India, and Greater China at Stripe. “Improving payment performance via a strong financial infrastructure is one of the fastest ways for Hong Kong businesses to unlock immediate revenue and scale more confidently across markets.”
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