Singapore-based e-commercer Shopee had yet another feat that eclipsed its triumphal Singles Day results, trumpeting over 12 million orders across Southeast Asia for the most recent December shopping extravaganza, which is also known as the “National Online Shopping Day” in Indonesia.
The company claimed north of 11 million orders recorded for its Singles Day event on November 11 big sale last month, a result that revealed the company’s ‘stealthy yet steady’ rise against the odds of Alibaba’s keeping pouring resources into Lazada, its Southeast Asian e-commerce portal.
Lazada, on the other hand, announced a combined 1.3 billion visits to its platforms during 11.11 and 12.12 shopping festivals, though failing to give a total orders count for each of the sales event.
In Southeast Asia, Shopee’s popularity has been on the rise. The platform is now the top e-commerce player in Vietnam, beating The Gioi Di Dong and Lazada in terms of monthly web visits. In Indonesia where there is a quite large number of e-commerce platforms, Shopee is also ranked among top layers on Google Play, along with local players Tokopedia and Bukalapak according to App Annie statistic.
Shopee’s steady growth is partially attributable to its localised approach aiming to provide a good online shopping experience for both buyers and sellers across different markets. “Shopee is highly customised for each local market and is not a one-size-fits-all platform, which allows us to respond to local users’ needs and preferences more efficiently. This strategy extends to not only our product and marketing strategies, but also to the way we hire our talent,” Agatha Soh, Shopee’s Head of Regional Marketing, told KrASIA in an interview.
As the smartphone and internet penetration keeps growing in Southeast Asia, Shopee decided to bypass desktop and adopt a mobile-first approach. More than 90% of the transactions it saw came from mobile devices. In order to provide the best user experience, the platform includes social chat features and in-app games.
The most popular item categories for Shopee include health & beauty and mobile & accessories. In Indonesia alone, Shopee recorded over 5.4 million orders on 12.12, mostly in the aforementioned categories. This makes Indonesia the largest market for Shopee in Southeast Asia. According to Soh, In the third quarter of 2018, Shopee saw 158.5 million gross orders and US$2.7 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, a respective 24.0% and 21.1% increase from last quarter.
“Next year, we’ll continue to focus on diversifying and expanding our product assortment to attract a wider demographic of users by partnering with brands and other strategic partners to meet the needs and preferences of users in each market. Our approach to partnerships is always to cater to the evolving tastes of consumers and to help brands and retailers grow their business online,” Soh told us.
Editor: Ben Jiang