"We are considering opening a store on Shopee."
"I want to know what kind of e-commerce mall Shopee is and what people think of it before I open a store there."
"What makes it different from other EC malls?"
This article is for such people. The Southeast Asian EC market is expected to grow further in the future. Among them, the rapidly growing EC mall "Shopee" is attracting particular attention. In this article, a professional in EC site creation and operation will introduce the specific reputation of Shopee for those who are considering opening a store on Shopee.
[Key points of this article]
- Find out Shopee’s reputation
- Find out why Shopee is so popular
- You can compare Shopee with other e-commerce malls
About the rapidly growing e-commerce mall "Shopee"
No.1 in sales in five Southeast Asian countries
Shopee is an e-commerce platform that has gained explosive popularity mainly in Southeast Asia. Just one year after the launch of its service, it achieved a total merchandise volume of 1.8 billion yen. Total sales within Southeast Asia exceeded 1 trillion yen (2018).
In terms of average monthly visitors, it has surpassed LAZADA, which was in first place until June 2018. Shopee also offers over 100 brands and receives an average of over 1.4 million orders per day.
Over 100 million app downloads. Works great with SNS
Shopee also has an overwhelming number of app downloads, with the total number of Shopee app downloads exceeding 100 million, and it has over 10 million social media followers.
Shopee is also well suited to social media, as the amount of time users spend online in Southeast Asian countries far exceeds that of Japan, and the overwhelming majority of users in particular use mobile devices.
In developed countries, including Japan, the use of e-commerce sites on PCs first became widespread, followed by the use of smartphones. However, in Southeast Asian countries, the use of mobile devices accelerated without the spread of PCs.
Many people also use social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram on their smartphones, making them a perfect fit for Shopee, which specializes in mobile devices. Shopee's over 100 million app downloads show just how many people access e-commerce sites from their smartphones.
Aggressive advertising
Shopee is also proactive in advertising. In addition to advertising on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, their TV commercial featuring soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo has also become a hot topic.
It has also gained recognition from a wide range of people through advertising in the mass media, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that it has now become a national app.
Why Shopee is attracting attention
Shopee continues to grow rapidly in Southeast Asia, and is attracting attention not only from buyers but also from sellers. Let's take a look at some of the points that are attracting attention from sellers about Shopee.
Buyers and sellers can transact directly
Shopee also allows buyers and sellers to make transactions directly without going through the mall. The app has a feature to chat with sellers, and buyers can chat directly with sellers by tapping "Chat now."
Great support for sellers
One of Shopee's biggest attractions is the generous support it provides to sellers. The specific support is as follows:
- Sales commission 1%
- Web store management tool
- Shipping fee subsidy
- Multilingual Support
- Transportation Support
- One-click deployment to 7 countries
For example, even if you sell from Japan to Southeast Asian countries, the commission fee for variable and fixed costs incurred when using an EC site is 1%. In addition, we also provide a wide range of tools for managing your store online and multilingual support.
In addition to the shipping cost subsidy to deliver the products to the users, the "cheap, fast and stable" shipping support is also attractive. Also, since it is possible to expand to multiple countries at the same time, not just one, you can expand your sales channels to a wider market.
You can open a store without leaving Japan
Another attraction of Shopee is its strength in "cross-border e-commerce," which allows you to sell products without leaving Japan. Our company also operates this service, and it makes it possible to sell products to overseas markets efficiently while keeping costs down.
This allows Japan to take a stake in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market, which is expected to grow further in the future. It is an ideal service for businesses who want to minimize sales costs.
Comparison of "Shopee" with other EC malls
Let's compare it with other e-commerce malls. Here, we compare it with five other e-commerce malls: Amazon, Cdiscount, Alibaba, LAZADA, and JOOM.
[Comparison table between Shopee and other e-commerce malls]
| Shopee | Amazon | Cdiscount | Alibaba | LAZADA | JOOM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Store opening costs | free | Around 60,000 yen (annual) | Around 60,000 yen (annual) | 1 million yen or more (annual amount) | free | free |
| How to list | ・Product information is provided to Shopee and registered by the management office | ・Register one by one from the seller page ・Register in bulk using Excel | ・Register one by one from the seller page ・Register in bulk using Excel | ・Register one by one from the seller page | ・Register one by one from the seller page | ・Register one by one from the seller page ・Register in bulk using Excel ・Register via API integration |
| Sales Commission | 1% | ~15% | 8–20% | free | 0.5–12% | 15% |
| Sales remittance | Payoneer | Payoneer | Payoneer | Payoneer, TT, Paypal, etc. | Payoneer | Payoneer |
| Logistics | ・Delivery by seller ・Plans to set up specialized logistics center in Japan | ・Delivery by the seller. In the case of FBA, only overseas logistics to the local warehouse is supported. | ・Delivery by seller, FBC | ・Seller support | - Delivery by the seller - Using logistics centers in Singapore and Hong Kong | ・Delivery by the seller ・Using a logistics center in China |
| Supported countries | Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea | United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Singapore, Turkey, UAE, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, Australia (countries where Amazon operates sites) | France | China | Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam | Russia |
Amazon
Amazon now functions as a global infrastructure, allowing you to buy and sell not only in Japan, but also with any country in the world.
The FBA service, which involves a series of processes from receiving and inspecting goods to picking, packing, and shipping, is also evolving day by day, and is characterized by a low operational burden on sellers.
However, since Amazon offers a "customer-first service," repeated "delayed shipping" or "unauthorized cancellations" that lead to low ratings can result in your account being suspended, so be careful.
Cdiscount
Cdiscount is known as a major French e-commerce platform.
It is said to be the second largest e-commerce mall after Amazon, and its FBA service, which reduces the burden on sellers to the minimum, is attractive.
Cdiscount makes it relatively easy to sell even "niche products." Because of the large European market and their strength in niche products, there are cases where "something didn't sell on Amazon but sold on Cdiscount."
However, since this is a European service where taxes are higher than in Japan, it may be difficult to deal with the tax system.
Alibaba
Alibaba is a major Chinese e-commerce platform. It operates a wide range of e-commerce businesses, including the B2B service Alibaba.com, the B2C service Tmall, and the C2C service Taobao Marketplace.
Alibaba is strong in BtoB, but because sellers have a high degree of freedom, it is possible to increase sales in BtoC as well depending on how you do it. Another attractive feature is the low sales commission of 1%. Products that would incur commission and shipping fees on other EC malls can be sold at a low cost. On the other hand, the high monthly fee is a drawback.
LAZADA
LAZADA is an e-commerce mall with a market mainly in Southeast Asia. It was established in 2011 by the German company Rocket Internet, and has since expanded to six countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. It is a hugely popular e-commerce mall, boasting over 5 million hits per day and over 3,000 stores.
They start by opening a store in the Philippines, and once they have gained a certain level of recognition, they are able to open stores in other countries. However, the drawback is that they must first send their products to a sorting center in Hong Kong, regardless of sales volume.
JOOM
JOOM is a mobile EC platform born in Russia. It is now growing rapidly in Europe, and its sales are on par with those in Russia. It is an EC mall with high expectations in the growing European market.
One of the attractions is that you can open 50 stores with one account and conduct marketing on your own SNS within the app. However, since there are many low-priced products throughout the mall, the key is how to increase the purchase price per customer.
Points to Note when Operating with Shopee
Finally, I would like to share with you some operational points that we have noticed while running Shopee.
Note 1. You need to open a Payoneer or PayPal account.
If you don't have a Payoneer account, you won't be able to receive your sales. Also, you'll need a PayPal account to transfer advertising fees, so you'll need to open one as well.
And of course, you will need to open an account in advance with a delivery company that can ship overseas (such as Japan Post).
Note 2: Account and management screens differ by country
You can open stores in five countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia. However, because each country has a separate account for each management screen, you cannot centrally manage them. Inventory must also be allocated to each country. (Inventory linking is not possible)
Note 3: Be aware of Shopee's rules and penalties
Penalties will be imposed according to Shopee's rules. Therefore, if you accumulate a certain number of penalty points, you may not be able to participate in flash sales or other events.
Other points to note
- Since expiration dates are mandatory in Malaysia, it is necessary to align expiration dates at the time of shipment.
- User inquiries must be responded to via chat within 12 hours, regardless of weekends.
- Email addresses are not included in customer information, so email newsletters and other communications cannot be sent.
- Since Shopee conducts its own flash sales, they may allocate inventory without permission.
- If you don't create a group with the person in charge on Skype or something similar at the beginning, you'll end up communicating by email, so it's difficult to ask questions in a timely manner.
- First of all, it is a relatively new e-commerce mall, having been established in 2015, so it is not possible to collect detailed marketing data (search traffic and search volume) like Japanese e-commerce malls.
[Summary] Shopee's reputation
In this article, we have covered the following points regarding Shopee’s reputation:
[Summary of this article]
- Shopee is the most popular platform with the highest sales in five Southeast Asian countries.
- It is also possible to set up a store from Japan, and transactions can be made directly between buyers and sellers.
- Compared to other services, it has features such as "low usage fees" and "simple listing methods."
- You can expand your product sales channels while keeping costs such as monthly fees and sales commissions low.
Shopee is extremely popular in Southeast Asia. Compared to other services, it offers significant advantages in terms of usage fees and listing methods.
It is also possible to open stores from Japan, so with the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia growing, now is a great opportunity to enter the market.
We hope you will find the contents of this article useful when opening a store on Shopee.
*This article is current as of June 2020. Due to future updates or changes to Shopee specifications, the contents of this article may not be accurate.
