Singapore led all markets tracked worldwide for e-commerce app install growth in the first half of 2026, rising 67 per cent year-on-year, according to Adjust‘s Shopping App Insights Report: 2026 Edition.

Vietnam (up 42 per cent) and Indonesia (up 36 per cent) followed closely behind, with the Philippines (up 16 per cent) and Malaysia (up 14 per cent) also posting strong double-digit gains, as Southeast Asian markets emerged among the strongest performers globally against a backdrop of 15 per cent year-on-year growth in global shopping app sessions.

Engagement climbing alongside installs

Indonesia and Singapore also recorded the strongest session growth of any market in the report, up 62 per cent and 58 per cent year-on-year respectively. Singapore ranked among the strongest markets globally for engagement and retention, with 16 per cent Day 1 retention and 1.45 sessions per user on install day — trailing only Japan.

Other regional highlights from the report include:

• Malaysia’s paid-to-organic install ratio topped every market tracked at 1.11, the highest reliance on paid acquisition in the dataset
• Vietnam’s paid-to-organic ratio fell 54 per cent year-on-year to 0.89, nearly halving its reliance on paid installs
• Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore all reduced the number of ad partners they worked with in H1 2026

Paid acquisition takes on a bigger role

The report frames the trend as a shift toward costlier, more selective user acquisition, with marketers increasingly concentrating spend on channels and campaigns proven to bring in higher-value, longer-retained shoppers.

“E-commerce apps had a strong first half of 2026 with major shopping events continuing to grow in scale. However, user acquisition is becoming more costly and paid installs are driving a larger share of growth, particularly in fast-growing markets like Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia,” said April Tayson, Regional Vice President, INSEA at Adjust.

The report draws on Adjust’s data across thousands of apps spanning shopping, marketplace and deal-discovery categories from January 2024 through June 2026.