When Products Go Viral, Can Your Supply Chain Keep Up?

For years, retailers have focused on forecasting demand. Today, they’re increasingly trying to keep up with it. Across Southeast Asia, social commerce has fundamentally changed how consumers discover and buy products. Livestream shopping, creator recommendations and short-form video have compressed the traditional purchase journey from days or weeks into minutes. A single piece of content can turn an everyday product into the next bestseller almost overnight.

The numbers reflect the scale of this shift. According to Cube Asia, combined gross merchandise value (GMV) across Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop grew by 22% in 2025, with TikTok Shop recording the fastest growth as social commerce continues to reshape online retail across the region.

For retailers, however, the challenge isn’t simply handling more online orders, it’s managing a level of demand volatility that traditional retail operations were never designed to accommodate.

Demand is becoming increasingly unpredictable

Retail planning has traditionally relied on historical sales data, seasonal patterns and promotional calendars to forecast demand. Social commerce has now completely disrupted that model. Rather than building gradually, demand has the potential to surge within hours of a viral video, influencer endorsement or livestream event. That means products that were moving steadily one day can suddenly attract thousands of orders the next, leaving retailers scrambling to respond.

It’s not that retailers don’t have enough inventory but it’s that they’re often lacking the visibility to understand where that inventory sits across stores, warehouses and fulfilment partners – or the agility to redirect it quickly enough to meet changing demand.

Visibility is a competitive advantage

From a consumer’s perspective, every sales channel should deliver the same experience. Whether they make a purchase on TikTok Shop, Shopee, Lazada or a brand’s own website, they expect accurate stock availability, rapid delivery and clear order updates.

Meeting those expectations requires retailers to maintain a real-time view of inventory across their entire network. Without that visibility, businesses risk overselling products during periods of high demand, delaying shipments or cancelling orders after customers have already completed their purchase. In an environment where customer experiences are shared instantly across social media, those operational shortcomings can damage brand reputation just as quickly as a successful campaign can build it.

Fulfilment must become more intelligent

Visibility is only part of the equation. Once demand spikes, retailers also need to determine the best way to fulfil every order. Modern order orchestration enables businesses to evaluate inventory availability, warehouse capacity, delivery commitments and shipping costs in real time before automatically routing orders to the most appropriate fulfilment location.

This flexibility allows retailers to balance workloads across stores, distribution centres and logistics partners as demand changes, helping them maintain delivery performance even during sudden sales surges. Rather than reacting to disruption, retailers can make fulfilment decisions dynamically as conditions evolve.

Social commerce requires connected operations

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding social commerce is that it’s simply another sales channel, when in reality, it changes how retailers need to operate. Marketing campaigns, inventory planning, warehouse operations, transportation and customer service can’t function independently when demand can change dramatically within minutes.

Success increasingly depends on connecting these functions through a unified operational platform, where inventory, orders, fulfilment and logistics share the same real-time information. When every part of the business is working from a single view of operations, retailers can respond faster, make more informed decisions and continue delivering the customer experience consumers expect.

Turning demand into fulfilment

Social commerce will continue to reshape retail across Southeast Asia, giving brands more opportunities to connect with customers and drive online sales. But every spike in demand puts pressure on the systems behind the scenes.

Retailers that can respond quickly to changing order volumes, inventory movements and fulfilment demands will be better placed to take advantage of these opportunities without compromising the customer experience. As social commerce continues to evolve, operational flexibility will become just as important as marketing reach.

For more information about supply chain solutions, visit https://www.manh.com/

By Raghav Sibal, Managing Director, Southeast Asia, Manhattan Associates