Shopee is the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, headquartered in Singapore and formerly Garena (the owner of brands such as Garena, Foody, Now, Airpay), which is based in 2015 and is now available in a total of seven countries in Asia including: Singapore; Malaysia Thailand; Taiwan; Indonesia Vietnam, and Philipines. The founder of Shopee is the billionaire Forrest Li , who is known for being the opposite of Alibaba. Few know that the parent company Shopee is owned by the SEA group, or in Vietnam is best known under the name GARENA company.

I. OVERVIEW:

Shopee was born in order to create an ecommerce platform to provide customers with an easy, secure and convenient way to make an online shopping experience with quick payment and transportation. Besides, Shopee will create a business environment for individuals, organizations and enterprises who want to promote, market and distribute their products to customers. It’s very simple to subscribe and post, product descriptions are all people to be able to open a booth on Shopee and this is also the online business opportunity for any individual or organization.

Some notable highlights of the Shopee platform include:

• Built for mobile devices – The Shopee user interface is built for mobile, giving users a fast and visually high mobile shopping experience.
• Live chat on Shopee – users can participate in real-time conversations through Shopee’s built-in feature – real-time messaging capability.
• Shopee Guarantee – Users can shop for free with the Shopee guarantee to protect the user by holding the payment until the purchase order is received.
• Integrated Logistics/Transport System – Shopee works with leading logistics companies to have an integrated application in the logistic system application. Users can easily select a preferred logistic service provider after ordering.
• It’s free for everyone to use without hidden costs.
• Available for free download on the App Store and Google Play.

1. History

In 2015, Shopee was launched in Singapore with an ecommerce floor-oriented development primarily on mobile devices,  operating as a social network that serves the needs of trading anytime, anywhere for the user. Integrating operating systems, logistics and billing support, Shopee is an intermediate side that makes online shopping easier and safer for both buyers and sellers alike.

2. Business model: 

The original model of Shopee Vietnam is C2C Marketplace-intermediate in the process of buying and selling between individuals.However, currently Shopee Vietnam has become a hybrid model WHEN there is a B2C (business to consumers). Shopee has charged the seller/Commission and the product registration fee.

In addition, Shopee has built sub-platforms such as:

• Shopee Mall: If you ever make a purchase on Lazada, Tiki or Red Lotus will surely know the booth as genuine Lazada Mall, Tiki Trading, SenMall… Right? And at Shopee there is also a booth called Shopee Mall. Shopee Mall is a special booth with products that are genuine goods from reputable brands and retailers on the market such as Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Pampers, Maybelline, Rohto, Unilever,… So you can safely choose to buy products in Shopee Mall. Besides that, the products at Shopee Mall have many attractive promotions and policies such as:
  • 7-Day Return/refund policy: Compared to regular products only 24h to send return/refund requests, products purchased from Shopee Mall will have time to request for returns/refunds up to 7 days.
  • Genuine Goods Guarantee Policy: products on Shopee Mall commit 100% are genuine. If fake/counterfeit goods are detected, Shopee will carry a refund of 100% of the product value for you.
  • Free Shipping Policy: All Shopee Mall products will be free for shipping up to 40.000 VND for Shopee Mall orders from 150.000 VND nationwide.
• Shopee 4H: Shopee 4H is a 4-hours fire-delivery service for orders placed and delivered in 1 number of Hanoi City and CITY districts. The following Ho Chi Minh:
  • Ho. Ho Chi Minh: District 1, District 2, District 3, District 4, District 5, District 6, District 7, District 8, District 10, District 11, Phu Nhuan District, Tan Binh District, Go Vap District, Binh Thanh District, Thu Duc District. Other areas will be extended support in the future.
  • Hanoi: Ba Dinh, Dong da, Thanh Xuan, Hoan Kiem, Hai Ba Trung, bridge paper, Tay Ho, Hoang Mai. Other areas will be extended support in the future.

3. Market share

As of 2017, the platform has recorded 80 million app downloads, in Vietnam being more than 5 million downloads. The platform is currently working with over four million vendors with over 180 million products. Also in the 4th quarter of 2017, the total cargo value of Shopee was reported at US $1.6 billion, up 206% over the previous year. However, the loss status OF the Mother group SEA group also increased dramatically. The group recorded a 252 million net loss in the quarter 4/2017, an increase of 306% compared to the 62 million USD net hole level of 4/2016.

According to the development policy of Shopee, they want to turn themselves into an online marketplace between merchants and buyers instead of the NEW floor model such as Lazada, Tiki… Therefore, to sell products on Shopee, the seller only creates the account and post the product is done, different from Lazada, Tiki, Adayroi mandatory seller must have a business license. Shopee is one of the e-commerce sites where buyers and sellers can message to Exchange, advise, FAQ before buying and currently only Shopee and Lazada have this feature. Shopee at the launch completely free discount for the main seller so when selling items on Shopee you will get 100% of the turnover minus the shipping fee if used by Shopee. However, according to the latest information, from the date 1-4-2019 the seller at the floor will be charged 1%-2% on each successful invoice.

The downside of Shopee’s biggest thought is also due to the easy advantage of selling products, the products on Shopee will not be well moderated so when buying on here you need to read the review or learn carefully to avoid experiencing poor quality goods. In addition to the transport of Shopee or Lazada at the present, there is a problem with Tiki at the 2h delivery service, however, Shopee still supports fast delivery in 4h in Hanoi and HCM City with Shopee4H service.

Where does the creation of an online marketplace between the seller and the buyer then Shopee take profit from to maintain such a large system? The personal sales organization on Shopee will be deducted from the discount% or commission on orders. For example more than 200,000 VND, Shopee will take a 2% discount, the seller will be deducted 2,000 VND. Specifically, Shopee officially launched a new policy from 1-4-2019 the seller at the floor will incur a fee of 1%-2% on each successful invoice. The payment fee for the owner is calculated on the total payment value of the buyer for the order, including, the total amount of the goods and the shipping fee after the promotion (if applicable). Depending on the payment method selected by the buyer, the payment fee applied per order will correspond. Specifically, buyers pay when receiving GOODS (COD) OR by ATM card in the domestic (internet banking), the seller will be charged 1%. With a credit/debit card payment method or a credit card installment, the fee is 2%. Also service providers can cooperate advertising products on Shopee because this is the place that daily has millions of
hits. Provide incremental services based on buyer and seller data, such as the provision of applied loans, insurance for customers with high levels of procurement.

II. ACHIEVEMENTS:

Since its launch, Shopee has achieved the growth of a number of personnel. The platform currently has over 160 million active listings with approximately 6 million sellers, including more than 7,000 brands and leading distributors. Currently, this platform has been present in most Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore Malaysia Thailand, Indonesia Vietnam.

In 2015, Shopee was awarded the Singapore startup of the year in the second edition of the “Vulcan Awards” magazine, which was published by Singapore’s Vulcan Post publishing house.