Shopee

2.2.1. Shopee overview

Next, in order to clarify previous concepts, this part will refer to one of the biggest e-commerce sites in Southeast Asia, which is Shopee.

Shopee states on their official website that the Shopee is a platform designed for each specific region, so as to create a commercial environment for individuals, organizations, and businesses who want to sell, promote, and distribute their products to consumers. Its mission is to offer consumers a simple, secure, and user-friendly online shopping experience through convenient and fulfillment support. Shopee helps online shopping become easier and faster (‘’Shopee’’, n.d.).

Shopee is located in Singapore and is owned by the SEA group ( previously Garena), which was established in 2009 by billionaire Forrest Li. Shopee was first launched in 2015 in Singapore.

Until now, this e-commerce platform is available in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Brazil. During that time, Shopee was positioned as an e-commerce platform focused primarily on mobile devices. It also served as a social network allowing users to buy and sell items at any time and from any location. Shopee is an intermediary that integrates the operation, shipping, and payment support systems to make online shopping easier and safer for both buyers and sellers (Shopee Careers, 2021).

In the beginning, Shopee has followed the C2C (customer-to-customer) model and performed as an online platform where individuals exchange goods with others. Then, Shopee has expanded to B2C (business-to-customer) and acted as third-party connecting businesses with individuals.

Until now, by successfully integrating these two business models, Shopee has accomplished greater efficiency. In C2C, Shopee lets buyers and sellers connect directly with each other.

Shopee helps sellers conveniently approach their buyers, but also pushes those buyers to access a bunch of selling sources, which diversify their purchase option, regardless of distance or time.

With the C2C model, Shopee is able to build an e-commerce platform with the greatest variety of products and services. In order to upgrade the reputation, Shopee later has adopted the B2C

9 model. As in B2C, buyers can choose products with high quality from official and excellent brands.

In addition to this, buying and selling activities are not limited to the Shopee website only, but are also common on mobile devices, such as the Shopee App. Shopee’s user interface is designed specially for mobile devices, giving users a fast and simple mobile shopping experience.

2.2.2. Shopee in Southeast Asia

As mentioned earlier, in the past two years, despite the fact that most of Southeast Asia’s retail industry was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce has exploded because buyers and sellers progressively shifted to various online platforms. In early 2019, Shopee opened Shopee shopping mall, enabling famous businesses to launch their online stores. In addition, the company spent 192.9 million USD on marketing and advertising.

Over the last few years, Shopee, which operates in Southeast Asia, has promoted Chinese business selling under the ‘International Shop’ category to enter the market in the region. Shopee China also provides an opportunity for sellers in China to join the retail spreading ecosystem in Singapore. China takes its own advantage in each Shopee market. Taiwan is the first market chosen by China. As it is a part of the China market, it is easy to exploit an additional e-commerce channel. Then, there are Malaysia and Singapore, which have a parallel characteristics to Taiwan and a major Chinese population. On a third level, Vietnam shares a border with China and has similar cultures. So ‘Made in China’ products have been familiar to Vietnamese people.

In terms of Shopee’s overall investment and talent support, Indonesia is the top place.

2.2.3. Shopee in Vietnam

In contrast with other marketplaces, Vietnam is a perfect location for e-commerce, with a population of 96 million people, an average age of 31, about 85% of the population using the internet, and more than half of the netizens purchasing online. Vietnamese consumers have the highest probability of placing an order after considering a product on an online shopping platform, which is 30% higher than any Southeast Asia country.

Shopee first launched in the Vietnamese market in August 2016, with a C2C business model development strategy (a third-party in the buying and selling process between individuals). But nowadays, Shopee Vietnam has evolved into a mixed model while combining the B2C model (business-to-customer). Shopee thus has charged the seller and get commission from them as the product listing fee (Shopee, 2021)

According Shopee Career (2021), some of the highlight achievements of Shopee Vietnam can be named, involving:

● August 2016: Shopee entered the Vietnamese market with its first C2C marketplace concept. Shopee Vietnam, at present, has combined the B2C and C2C models.

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● 2018: Shopee Vietnam was voted as the most popular e-commerce platform in Vietnam.

● 2019: Shopee Vietnam recorded more than 1 billion participation in entertainment games on the app and 10,000 hours of a live broadcast on Shopee Live features, selling 80 million products in 24 hours on 12.12 Birthday Sale.

● 2020: Shopee maintains its leadership position in the Vietnamese e-commerce market in the third quarter of 2020, with average monthly traffic of 62.7 million.

● 2021: Shopee recorded 1.8 million products sold within 1 minute on 9th September Despite being a late-commer to the e-commerce race, Shopee has made an exceptional breakthrough and is currently in first place. As stated by ‘‘The map of e-commerce in Vietnam’’

in Q3 2021, there is over 77 millions monthly web visits on Shopee Vietnam. Shoppee makes it easier for online customers by simplyfing the member register, product browsing and purchasing process. Until now, Shopee still performs well, as the most popular e-commercial platform in Vietnam (‘‘Vietnam e-commerce platform’’, 2020 December 8th).

Because of receiving such great financial support from the parent company Sea Group, Shopee is able to stay on the leading position in the e-commerce marketplace. At the same time, Shopee has built a sucessful company strategie that identifies a good client category, target consumer understanding, and a strong focus on sellers and young generation shoppers (‘‘Who is the leading e-commerce platform in Vietnam?’’, 2020).

Shopee is primarily concentrated on mobile devices, which is the Shopee App. So that, the platform had 880 million app downloads overall as of 2017, with over 5 million ones in Vietnam (Shopee, 2021).

Apart from this, the e-commerce trading platform Shopee.vn is operated and managed by Shopee Co., Ltd. Sellers and buyers are two main members of this site. A seller is a business, organization, or individual who needs to use Shopee’s service to set up a booth, upload product/

service information, and/ or advertise them. While buyers are traders, organizations, or individuals who interested in purchasing product/ service offered for sale on Shopee (Shopee, 2021).

To sum up this section, we cannot deny that Shopee is one of the leading e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam. Shopee operates as a social network to meet users’

needs for buying and selling at any time and from any location. By integrating management, delivery, and payment support systems, Shopee makes online shopping quicker and safer for both buyers and sellers. Indeed, Shopee is performing well in both Southeast Asia and Vietnam, which means Shopee has proved its core value and mission in the e-commerce market.

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