On Shopee-pi-pi-pi-pi-pi-pi online shopping-py-py-py-py free delivery-wy-wy-wy … The advertising of the shopping platform Shopee poisoned the picnic of many Poles, but also successfully built brand recognition, which in six months became the third marketplace on the Polish Internet. Aggressive marketing is one of the strategies characteristic of the Singapore e-commerce platform.
Contrary to appearances, its promotion on the Polish market is well-thought-out, and the mentioned spot presents the advantages of the brand, thanks to which it managed to gain a leading position in Southeast Asia. Shopee is conquering more countries by offering products at low prices and with free delivery, and the main sales channel is the mobile application.
It is no coincidence that the cheerful family humming the company’s name to the rhythm of the children’s hit “Baby Shark” is equipped with smartphones.
Shopee was founded relatively late, as it was only in 2015 (for example, Allegro was founded in 1999 and Amazon, which started out as an online bookstore, in 1994).
The brand belongs to the Singapore-based Sea company, which, apart from online trading, operates, inter alia, in the gaming industry. Its portfolio includes the game producer Garen, which in turn stands, among others, behind the hit “League of Legends”. SeaMoney also owns the financial services provider SeaMoney.
Shopee started from conquering local markets and in 2015 it entered Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, and made its debut in Taiwan. In 2019, the company entered Latin America with the launch of the site in Brazil.
In 2021, it made its debut in Mexico, Chile and Colombia. Currently, Shopee is the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia with 343 million monthly users.
Importantly, the brand’s strategy was focused on mobile devices from the beginning, as 90% of Southeast Asian residents use the web via smartphones (e-Conomy SEA report 2019). Shopee’s success is largely due to the express digitization that the region underwent during the coronavirus pandemic.
“According to a report by Google, Bain & Company and Temasek Holdings, it is estimated that 40 million people used the Internet for the first time in the six countries of the region in 2020. Thus, the total number of Internet users in Southeast Asia increased to 440 million, or 75% of the region’s population.
This growth was largely driven by new users in rural areas in countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, where 21 million new consumers have joined the digital economy since the start of the pandemic, 72% of whom live in non-urban areas “- we read in the analysis of the website” Tech Monitor “.
Currently, the Shopee mobile app is the most popular in the world in the e-commerce industry. According to the list published by DHL, cited by the Wiadomości Handlowe portal, it was downloaded 200 million times in 2021.
The Shein application came second (175 million downloads), and the meesho application came third (155 million). Amazon was fourth with 150 million downloads. 80 million downloads were recorded by AliExpress.
Shopee in Poland
In Poland, Shopee made its debut in September 2021 in the form of a mobile application and a browser version for both desktop computers and phones. Visually, the Shopee website resembles the website of its most important competitor in Poland – Allegro.
Characteristically, the platform started with a free delivery offer for customers and promotions for selected products that can be obtained for as little as PLN 1.
In April, the company introduced the minimum order value, but new users are still welcomed by the offer of free delivery on the first three purchases, regardless of the amount we pay for them.
The website offers customers daily deals on selected products and discount coupons for specific stores. You can finally earn “Shopee Coins” when you shop. Each 100 coins reduces the cost of the order by PLN 1. And the assortment? There is everything here – from a latex face mask, through sports shoes, to the packaging of chips (chips even have a separate category on the website). Most of the goods will arrive from Asia.
According to the Megapanel Gemius / PBI research, quoted by the Wirtualne Media portal, in just over half a year after its debut, Shopee managed to become the third e-commerce site on the Polish Internet after Allegro and AliExpress, with a reach of 36.32 percent. and with the number of 10.92 million real users (summed up data for the application and website).
Importantly, Chinese AliExpress has little more, just over 11 million real users. The built ranges and user base will be Shopee’s advantage in talks with Polish sellers that the Singaporean marketplace is trying to acquire. At the start, he offered them no commission. However, there are also downsides to working with Shopee.
“Polish sellers may not be prepared for the model in which Shopee operates. The platform provides buyers with a safe shopping guarantee. This» Shopee guarantee «means that the company transfers the money to the seller for the goods shipped only after the buyer confirms receipt of the order.
If the customer does not receive the product, Shopee will return his money “- wrote the portal Wiadomości Handlowe right after the start of the website.
If the acquisition of Polish sellers is successful, the company may become a real threat to Allegro. For now, however, Shopee primarily offers an assortment similar to what we can find on AliExpress, and this is not enough to become number one in Polish e-commerce.
Fiasco in France
Interestingly, Poland was the first European foothold of the Asian e-commerce tycoon. Shopee made its debut in Spain in October 2021, followed by France.
However, the marketplace did not appear on the latter market for a long time – in February 2022, the company announced the end of its operations. In a statement to Bloomberg, Shopee called its presence in France a “short-term pilot.” This market was the most difficult market in the region, with a strong position of AliExpress and Allegro. A month later, in March 2022, Shopee withdrew from India.
Commentators speaking to industry media about Shopee’s strategy agree that the model that has made the company successful in Southeast Asia can work in other emerging markets, such as Latin America. Brazil is the largest market in this region, where Shopee has been operating for two years.
In 2021, the Singaporean marketplace gained the status of the most popular e-commerce application in terms of the number of downloads and time spent in it, replacing the Argentine Mercado Libre, which was established in 1999.
However, what has been achieved in one part of the globe does not necessarily guarantee success in Europe. Viren Shetty, an entrepreneur and business angel from Singapore, in an interview with Tech Monitor, points to the fact that the discounting strategy works well at the stage of gaining market share, but requires capital.
After going through the stage of building reach, one should be guided by the specifics of a specific market, and not copy strategies that have worked well in a different cultural context. For now, however, Shopee seems to be successfully duplicating the existing solutions. Southeast Asian users also had to listen to the interpretation of “Baby Shark”.
Source: BusinessInsider
