Brands adapt to an evolving e-commerce landscape with Shopee

Shopee announced several platform enhancements, including more cross-category synergies, and the expansion of our brand intellectual property (IP) portal

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 17 February 2023 – Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, held its annual Shopee Brands Summit 2023 yesterday. Themed �Sailing Through Evolving Seas: Winning with Consumers in E-Commerce’, this year’s summit focused on how brands can adapt to a changing global business environment and leverage untapped opportunities in e-commerce.

Despite ongoing macroeconomic headwinds, speakers at the Summit highlighted the continued untapped potential for e-commerce in the region as more people come online, including younger shoppers and those outside of tier-1 cities. Shopee aims to help businesses adapt to the evolving needs and preferences of consumers and remain the platform of choice for brands, sellers and shoppers.

During the event, Shopee focused on three key trends for brands this year: increasing demand for digital services in Southeast Asia, rise of a new generation of buyers with different needs and the growing importance of establishing a secure shopping ecosystem. Shopee also announced several platform enhancements designed to help brands leverage these trends.

Zhou Junjie, Chief Commercial Officer at Shopee, said, “We have seen how digital services like e-commerce can improve people’s lives and transform the way consumers and businesses interact. With the macroeconomic landscape constantly changing, it is important for brands to innovate their engagement strategies and strengthen their data analysis. The new features and enhancements we are rolling out give brands the power to effectively target and deepen their relationships with consumers. Shopee is committed to continue supporting our brand partners and help them adapt to evolving trends so they can unlock long-term growth opportunities and advance in the digital economy.”

1. Increasing demand for digital services
Consumers in the region are spending more time on online platforms. Shopee recently launched its 2023 Consumer Trends Report, which found that in Singapore, browsing on Shopee is a daily routine for two in three users. Additionally, more consumers are also relying on e-commerce for all their purchases, from daily essentials to big ticket items such as electronics and furniture.

In line with this, Shopee is committed to continue delivering more value and convenience to meet this increased demand. This includes having exciting shopping events that provide more deals and savings, such as:

• 3.3 Mega Shopping Sale as the first big shopping campaign of the year, featuring deals across all categories.
• Regional Shared Super Brand Days which will allow complementary brands to collaborate with each other to target a specific segment of consumers, while enabling consumers to enjoy greater value on products they need.

Additionally, in order to help brands better capture this increased demand and reach more consumers, Shopee announced a full suite of new and improved end-to-end marketing solutions tools. This includes tools to support brand discovery and awareness building, such as display ads, discovery and search, influencer marketing program and affiliate marketing solutions. In order to help brands gain a deeper understanding of their customers and better develop effective strategies to reach and engage them, Shopee also announced major enhancements to its data tools, including:

• New Transaction Index: Since its launch in 2021, Shopee Brand Portal has been providing brands with comprehensive data and insights. This year, Shopee announced a new transaction index, an indicative benchmarking tool based on a number of factors including sales and consumer behaviour insights. This will allow brands to understand key trends and buyer behaviour, discover white-space opportunities and obtain tailored recommendations and strategies from Shopee.
• Brand Membership Insights: As consumers purchase more frequently and across more categories, more brands are finding ways to build consumer loyalty. As such, Shopee is enhancing its brand portal to provide more granular insights on brands’ membership performance, in order to help brands better understand how they can continue to best meet their customers’ needs and maximise their customer lifetime value.

2. Rise of a new generation of buyers with different needs
Shopee has observed the rise of younger, more purposeful buyers aged 34 and below coming onboard its platform. For example, in Vietnam, shoppers aged 18 to 34 made the most orders on Shopee last year.

Shopee has found that this group of consumers are shopping differently from previous generations, with trust and quality being essential in their consumer journey. Shopee’s 2023 Consumer Trends Report found that young consumers pay particular attention to product quality, security of payment methods and the credibility of KOLs who endorse the brand and its products. In Malaysia, seven in 10 shoppers make purchase decisions based on product demonstrations, unboxing videos and the inclusion of a warranty while Indonesia saw a three times increase in products purchased through links shared by Shopee’s KOL affiliates compared to 2021. In Vietnam, users are increasingly utilising Shopee’s review feature, leaving more than 268 million product reviews last year.

In addition to online shopping, younger consumers are also exploring more of Shopee’s engagement features and services, which in turn, allows brand partners to leverage Shopee to engage customers from discovery to delivery. In Indonesia, three in eight Shopee users use Shopee Video to look for product reviews and promotions and Vietnamese shoppers spent more than 37 million hours on Shopee Live last year for both entertainment purposes and to look for product information. Shopee announced that it will be making further enhancements to its platform features to enable brands to continue engaging with their consumers through a variety of touchpoints. These include:

• Shopee Live: Brands will now be able to tap on Shopee’s network of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) to host Shopee Live sessions. They will also be able to hold competitions through Shopee Live, allowing them to explore new content formats to engage with shoppers. Shopee will also be introducing new features exclusive to Shopee Live, such as vouchers, limited-time prices and a real-time livestream performance dashboard.
• Virtual Tools: Together with its partners, Shopee also continues to explore new virtual tools that can enhance consumers’ online shopping experience and help brands deepen their engagement with shoppers. Recent examples include SkinCam, an AI-enabled skin diagnostics tool that can recommend skincare products and routines to users, and Show Me My Home, a virtual home shopping feature that provides a gamified shopping experience for P&G shoppers.

3. Strengthening the shopping ecosystem as online transactions increase
As the digital economy continues to grow in Southeast Asia, Shopee remains committed to supporting the region’s development, while building a secure and engaging marketplace for shoppers, brands and sellers. This includes protecting the rights of its partner brands and sellers. Shopee has been committed to providing a secure shopping ecosystem. In 2022, Shopee supported more than 8,500 brands on IP protection.

Looking ahead, in 2023, Shopee will double down on its brand protection efforts with the launch of several brand protection initiatives to better serve its community. These include:

• Shopee Brand IP Portal: Shopee has developed a new one-stop portal for brands and Intellectual Property (IP) owners to protect their IP rights and grow their brand on Shopee. Through the portal, brands can seamlessly report and manage takedown requests.

• Enhanced Solutions for Product Monitoring and Takedowns: Shopee continues to collaborate with brands to enhance its counterfeit detection capabilities and technologies to proactively address listings for infringing and counterfeit products.

• Collaborations with Brands and Industry Partners: Shopee will continue to work closely with brands and intellectual property rights-focused organisations to improve its brand protection initiatives and continue combating intellectual property rights infringements.

Charles Hoskin, Head of Brand Protection at Shopee, said, “We are happy to announce the launch of several brand protection initiatives this year which will serve to strengthen our ecosystem and give our users, sellers and brand partners added peace of mind when using our platform. We are committed to providing our users, sellers and brand partners a safe, reliable and enjoyable shopping experience. We will continue to enhance our platform to serve their needs.”

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Shopee

Shopee is the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia & Taiwan. Shopee promotes an inclusive and sustainable digital ecosystem by enabling businesses to digitalise and grow their online presence, helping more people access and benefit from digital services, and uplifting local communities.

Shopee offers an easy, secure, and engaging experience that is enjoyed by millions of people daily. Shopee is also a key contributor to the region’s digital economy with a firm commitment to helping homegrown brands and entrepreneurs succeed in e-commerce.

Shopee is part of Sea Limited (NYSE: SE), a leading global consumer internet company. Sea’s mission is to better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology through its three core businesses: Shopee, Garena and SeaMoney.