December 2020

Entering the Southeast Asia E-commerce market: Why Shopee?

According to the report by Google and Temasek, the Southeast Asia e-commerce market is predicted to be worth over 238 billion USD by 2025. The region is still relatively young with only 1% of total retail GMV being generated online compared to 7.1% and 15.9% in the US and China.

There is a fast-growing young & digital-savvy population of 158 million who spend approximately 19.4 hours online per week. Southeast Asia is the only truly ‘mobile-first’ region. 

   >>> Read more:Social Commerce from the view of Southeast Asian online sellers

Together is the development of both social e-commerce and mobile e-commerce, which encourage international businesses to enter the SEA e-commerce market. There is an obvious trend that many enterprises choose Shopee to embark their business. Why Shopee?

In this article, Boxme will go deeper into Shopee’s position and advantages to answer this question.

1.The overview of e-commerce marketplaces – Shopee

Shopee is a mobile-only marketplace that provides for both users and retailers a fast, convenient, secure shopping, and selling experience. 

The overview of Shopee (Cited in Payoneer.blog)

Shopee is one of the leading mobile e-commerce marketplace in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

>>>Read more: Why is Shopee successful in the whole SEA region?

         >>>Read more: Who is the leading eCommerce platform in Vietnam?

Geographies it operates in are Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore. It has traces of similarity to the Taobao model, in which buyers and sellers can communicate and transact directly. Shopee also unboxes opportunity for cross-border sellers from China and Hong Kong for selling to Southeast Asian and Taiwanese customers.

Shopee offers a wide selection and variety of products, user-friendly interfaces, supported for integrated payments and seamless experience. Owing to the customized features, localization strategy, Shopee has successfully offered close and beneficial connections among buyers and sellers. 

           >>> Read more: 3 key factors that contribute to Shopee’s success

2. Why Shopee – the ideal destination for business to enter

Shopee – the predominant e-commerce marketplaces in the whole SEA 

As stated in the map of e-commerce reported by IPrice group, Shopee has been skyrocketing the entire SEA region over the last two years from 2019 to 2020 with substantial amounts of monthly users traffic.

Shopee recently concluded a successful 2019 that reinforced its status as the number one platform in Vietnam and the region. The company is the number one shopping app in Southeast Asia and Taiwan by monthly active users. About 80 million items sold during the Shopee 12.12 birthday sale. Over 1 billion plays have been recorded on Shopee’s wide range of in-app games.

         >>>Read more:12.12 Shopping Festival – Sales record with impressive numbers

        >>>Read more:Vietnam eCommerce marketplaces mark massive records on Single’s Day sale 2020

On the biggest sales event of the year, Shopee once again proved its dominant position by rolling out tremendous promotion events for the whole month. Consequently, Shopee has broken the record with enormous sales revenue. Therefore, Shopee has become the “golden” and “promising” destination for both regional and international businesses to join in 

         >>> Read more:12.12 Shopping Festival – Sales record with impressive numbers

Potential sales from high traffic channel 

It is obvious that one of the biggest competitive advantages of selling on Shopee platform is the scale of their online presence. These marketplaces have created a name and trust in people. 

As reported in the Iprice group e-commerce report, Shopee drives around 60 million visitors a month, which is the highest number of online audiences any e-commerce platform can offer. For online bases, it is such an impossible mission to target and reach out this number of online users. That’s Why Shopee become a popular platform to enter.

         >>> Read more:Why is Shopee successful in the whole SEA region?

Acquire new customers 

Why Shopee? Customers visiting Shopee would not initially look for a particular shop at the first time but look for their wanted products. However, they would look for products that are available and listed in your store. Once you get a customer with the help of these giant online stores you can win the customer as a repeat buyer by giving them excellent service and fulfillment.

Promotional events and free shipping offer 

Another key yet competitive advantage of Shopee is offering various freeship coupon codes for customers.

In the growing world of the young generation, online shopping has become a phenomenon, nevertheless, young buyers spend much money on online shopping yet still prefer free shipping offers. Acknowledging the buying habits of customers, Shopee has constantly offered freeship extra codes. More or less, customers tend to grasp towards Shopee for the sake of free-ship. 

Why Shopee is more favoured by buyers over other competitors, another factor is due to the amount of promotional events of Shopee within the year. Besides the biggest sales event, the Single day Sale 11.11 and 12.12, Shopee also carried out lots of individual discount offers due to the close collaboration with brands throughout the year. This provokes the customer’s curiosity to search products on Shopee platform monthly to find the best deal. 

    >>>Read more:How Shopee’s marketing strategy steps up in the SEA sales event 2020

No commission fee

Shopee is known for a no-commision platform in which retailers can carry on business transactions without paying any extra or hidden fee for the system. That’s Why Shopee is an ideal place for any start-up retailers. No extra fee, no listing fee, no commission fee which means no financial burden. This lets retailers make big money on the platform. Though, enterprises can opt for native advertising and purchase paid ads at their own will.

        >>>Read more:Guides on how to build a successful Shopee business model in 6 steps

3. More readings ? 

>>Read more:Boost Your Sales On Shopee With 16 Following Tips (Part 1)

>>Read more:Boost your sales on Shopee with 16 following tips (Part 2)

>>Read more:How to increase sales in Shopee with these 3 features

 

Boxme Announcement: New Fulfillment Center In Hanoi, Vietnam

Boxme Global would like to express our sincerest thanks to agencies, partners, customers for your trust and cooperation.  

To create a professional work environment and offer better services to our customers, Boxme is pleased to announce the move of Boxme Hanoi fulfillment center to an upgraded facility as follows:

New address: Boxme Fulfillment Center, D10-11,  Tan Trieu Concentrated Production Area, Thanh Tri, Hanoi

Old address: Nam Thang Long Industrial Zone, Thuy Phuong, Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi

Operation date: December 5, 2020 (moving time from 5/12/2020 to 12/12/2020)

We would like to deliver this announcement to our agencies, partners and customers to ensure seamless communication during and after the move. All transactions, letters and invoices shall be delivered to the new address starting December 5, 2020. Other information regarding the company remains unchanged.

Best regards,

Boxme Global

Boxme Philippines partners up with shipping courier J&T Express

Boxme officially launches B2B Fulfillment service

Boxme Announcement: New office and fulfillment center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Philippines’ top 4 E-commerce platforms in 2020

Not an outsider to the E-commerce development in Southeast Asia, Philippines’ E-commerce landscape also experienced certain growth. As a relatively new market, although the country’s 16% of annual market growth only ranked 6th in the region, it is still higher than the global average of 13%.

–> Read more: Philippines: An E-Commerce Landscape Like No Others

As a primitive market with a high Internet penetration rate, the Philippines will be a challenging market with great promise for online sellers. Let’s see what the top 4 most popular e-commerce platforms in the Philippines in 2020 are and what factors helped them break through in this article!

Philippines’ E-commerce Map – Q2 2020 (Credit: iPrice)

1. Lazada – www.lazada.com.ph

With more than 30 million visitors a month, Lazada evidently occupies the first position in the list. With a wide variety of categories and purchasing options from C2C to B2C, Lazada has succeeded in attracting Philippines online buyers.

Payment method:

• Cash on delivery (CoD)
• Lazada e-wallet
• Credit and debit cards
• BDO Installment
• GCash

Delivery method:

• Last-mile delivery
• Store pickup

Delivery time:

• 7 days for Manila city
• 12 days for suburban areas (except remote regions)

2. Shopee – www.shopee.ph

Shopee is known as one of the leading online shopping sites for smartphone users in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. According to iPrice’s statistics, in the first half of 2020, Shopee is the most used E-commerce application in the Philippines and has the second highest number of visitors after Lazada with nearly 29 million.

Payment method:

• Cash on delivery (CoD)
• Shopee Pay
• Debit and credit cards
• Online banking
• Payment at transaction point
• Payment through money transfer center
• Bank transfer

Delivery method: Last-mile delivery

Delivery time:

• 2 to 5 days for Manila city
• 3 to 8 days for suburban areas
• 7 to 16 days for international products

3. Zalora – www.zalora.com.ph

Zalora, Southeast Asia’s largest fashion retailer, offers a wide variety of brands for lifestyle and fashion enthusiasts. Items from famous brands such as Adidas, Nike, Herschel, Mango, Zara and Topshop are all available on this online shopping site. You can also find products from several luxury brands like Dolce and Gabbana, Kate Spade, and Emporio Armani.

Payment method:

• Cash payment
• PayPal
• Debit and credit cards
• E-gift card
• Wallet credit
• GCash
• Google Pay
• GrabPay

Delivery method:

• Last-mile delivery
• Collection at Click + Connect sites

Delivery time: From Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm, excluding holidays

4. Ebay – www.ebay.ph

Ebay is the second most popular e-commerce platform in the US market. The platform is available in many countries around the world with as many international sellers as Amazon.com. In the Philippines, this platform has the 4th number of unique visitors with 767,400 web hits according to iPrice’s statistics.

Payment method:

• Paypal (preferred)
• Debit and credit cards
• Wire transfer
• Check
• Online payment portals: Allpay.net, CertaPay, Fiserv, Nochex.com, XOOM

Delivery form: Last-mile delivery

Delivery time: Depends on the pickup location of the seller (domestic or international)

In the top 4 e-commerce platforms above, there are 3 suitable for cross-border sellers without specific product brands. Zalora in particular, is suitable for companies with an established brand. Depending on the business model, sellers can choose the most suitable sales channel or even sell multichannel. 

In addition, you can refer to quite a few marketplaces that also made the list with specific audiences and market niches such as Beauty MNL, Galleon, O Shopping, etc. Moreover, social media is a very potential market to discover with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter being the three most popular social networking sites in the Philippines.

Hopefully via this article, you can have a more holistic view of the Philippines’ E-commerce market and sales channels. If you need any advice on expanding your business to the Philippines, please contact our local experts today!

Boxme is the premier cross-border e-Commerce fulfillment network in Southeast Asia, enabling world-wide merchants to sell online into this region without needing to establish a local presence. We deliver our services by aggregating and operating a one-stop value chain of logistic professions including: International shipping, customs clearance, warehousing, connection to local marketplaces, pick and pack, last-mile delivery, local payment collection and oversea remittance.

Announcement: New warehouse in Ho Chi Minh city

Boxme supports foreign sellers enter Thailand’s E-commerce market

Thailand is one of the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce economies in the world. With a population of 70 million, the number of Internet users is 52 million and keeps growing. Thai shopping culture and behavior create potential opportunities for both Thai and foreign merchants to invest and expand their business in Thailand. However, it’s very challenging starting a business overseas, and this is when a regional expert can be of help! As the logistics expert in Southeast Asia, Boxme Global can provide you with services and consultations that can make your cross-border selling a seamless process. 

–> Related post: Seize The E-Commerce Opportunity In Thailand

Import & Export

Starting an overseas business can be troublesome. Merchants who want to expand their business to a different country would need to obtain information regarding that country’s tax and regulations, as well as preparing the required permits and certificates for their products. You will need to calculate the amount to pay for tax, customs clearance, and other fees if necessary.

In Thailand, the tax & duty threshold is Thai bath (THB) 1500, which is approximately USD 45. The import duty fluctuates from 0% to 30%, with electronics as a duty-free category.

Warehousing

Warehousing is an essential part of E-commerce where orders are stocked, processed and shipped out. Unless your choice is using expensive cross-border shipping whenever there is an order placed, foreign businesses need to find a warehouse in the destination country. Setting up a warehouse of your own requires a huge upfront investment, and we are not sure that is the right decision for new brands entering the market.

Boxme warehouse in Thailand is located in Bangkok, the capital city and distribution centers throughout the country. With an area of 1500 square meters, our warehouse can cater to any demand no matter big or small. Boxme’s warehouse management system also gives you real-time updates about stock and shipment status, paired with dedicated staff to bring you a smooth logistics experience. 

Integration System

Keeping track of your inventory and sales across various sales channels individually can be tedious and frustrating. For cross-border selling, you might have to either do it manually or create your own system to support the business. Otherwise, you can seek help from Third Party Logistics (3PL) companies like Boxme who could help online sellers integrate, sync information and manage orders across E-commerce platforms like Lazada, Shopee, Shopify, and much more into one single place!

Cross-Border Fulfillment

Manually processing orders can be tedious and wasting-time as sales traffic starts to surge as the picking and packing process will likely to be delayed in tandem with the large volume of orders coming in. In times like this, finding a reliable and affordable cross-border courier service will be required for international sales. Most merchants experience operations overload when they work on their own, and it gets even harder when you start expanding outside of your country.

Fulfillment is the steps involved in receiving, processing, and delivering orders to customers. Boxme usually provides fulfillment services to other parties such as manufacturers and online sellers. After an order is placed by the customer, the order information will be transferred to the fulfillment center to pick and pack, which are then labeled for shipment. 

Last-Mile Delivery & CoD

The final step to E-commerce sales is the order delivery to customers’ addresses. Merchants need to prepare and identify the suitable courier services for their products in terms of price and time. 

Cash on Delivery (CoD) is the most popular payment method across Southeast Asia, and Thailand is no exception. Do you know adding Cash on Delivery option can help you skyrocket your sales by 5-10 times? Your customers will feel much more confident in purchasing your products if you let them pay after the delivery.

However, with overseas sales, CoD payment is a difficulty for merchants as they are not physically there to collect the money. Thus we offer a solution: let Boxme handle all of that while you can get weekly or daily money remittance from payment gateways that connect with our system!

Boxme Support

E-commerce merchants can either hire their own team to handle the manual work or outsource to a 3PL company like Boxme.

We operate a one-stop value chain of logistics professions including:

• International shipping
• Customs clearance
• Pick, pack & warehouse in local markets (local fulfillment
• Last-mile delivery & Cash on Delivery collection
• Connect & auto-sync orders with local E-commerce marketplaces
• Local & oversea money remittance
• Support to penetrate Southeast Asia markets

Boxme has a global warehouse network spanning across 4 Southeast Asian countries: Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Along with fulfillment centers in the US and Hong Kong, going global is only a few simple steps away!

Our warehouses offer two types of storage conditions: normal storage for conventional products, and cool storage (25ºC) for temperature-sensitive products like cosmetics and supplements.

Using the Boxme Integration System, merchants can easily expand into new markets in another country without having to go through the tedious process involving tax, regulations and duties of different countries.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to catch up with the growing Internet economy of Thailand! Consult with us today!

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR ENTERING THAILAND’S E-COMMERCE MARKET

Boxme is the premier cross-border e-Commerce fulfillment network in Southeast Asia, enabling world-wide merchants to sell online into this region without needing to establish a local presence. We deliver our services by aggregating and operating a one-stop value chain of logistic professions including: International shipping, customs clearance, warehousing, connection to local marketplaces, pick and pack, last-mile delivery, local payment collection and oversea remittance.

Philippines: An E-commerce landscape like no others

The E-commerce market in the Philippines remains untapped despite the large customer base and high penetration rate, leaving room for online sellers to establish a foothold in the country.

Products that require cool storage warehousing

For certain product categories, storing at a low temperature is necessary to keep them in the best conditions.