Analyzing Shopee: An In-Depth eCommerce Platform Review

shoppee-case-study

About Company

Shopee Pte. Ltd., shortly known as Shopee, is a Singapore-based international tech firm that offers specialized services related to e-commerce. In 2015, the firm came into existence in Singapore before the organization grew overseas.

As of 2021, the company is deemed the biggest e-business platform in Southeastern Asia, with more than 343 million visitors per month. Besides, the company has an impressive client base comprising buyers and sellers throughout nations in East Asia, such as Taiwan, Europe (Poland), and Latin America, who desire to buy and sell their products online.

Sea Limited is the parent organization of Shopee.

What is the brand name of Shopee?

The brand name of the company is Shopee.

What type of company is Shopee?

The company is an ancillary organization of Sea Limited, a leading tech corporation in Singapore. 

To which industry does Shopee belong?

Shopee belongs to the e-commerce sector.

When was Shopee established?  

The company came into existence on February 5, 2015, seven years back, in Queenstown, Singapore.

Where is the headquarters of the company situated?

The company’s central office is located at 5 Science Park Drive, Shopee Building, Singapore 118265.

Which territory does Shopee serve?

The Singaporean e-commerce behemoth serves 12 nations, and they are listed below:

  • Malaysia
  • Indonesia
  • Singapore
  • Philippines
  • Vietnam
  • Thailand
  • Brazil
  • Taiwan
  • Colombia
  • Chile
  • Poland 
  • Mexico

What are the subsidiary organizations of Shopee?

The subsidiary firms of Shopee are the following companies: 

  • PT. Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi
  • Shopee Japan Co., Ltd

Shopee Management

Forrest Li Xiaodong (originator)

Forrest Li Xiaodong was born in 1977 or 1978. He is a wealthy Singapore-based entrepreneur. He is the originator, chief executive officer, and chairman of Sea Limited, a firm with subsidiaries such as Shopee and Garena. Besides, Li serves as the Chairman of Lion City Sailors FC, a Sea Limited subsidiary.

Forrest Li was born in Tianjin, China. Li has a bachelor’s degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University in engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

In 2009, Xiaodong first resumed his professional life with Garena. At that period, the firm had just been running from a solitary store at Maxwell Road, Tanjong Pagar.

In March 2019, once the stock price of Sea Ltd, his customer internet firm, rose by 45%, his net worth rose to over US $1 billion.

Forrest is a soccer lover. He also serves as the Lion City Sailors chairman, a soccer club participating in the Singapore Premier League and taken over in 2020 by Sea Limited.

Forrest is married and stays in Singapore. He came up on the Forbes Asia 2020 August cover, the Asiatic version of the Forbes periodical. As stated by Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Forrest’s net worth was projected at US $19.8 billion as of August 2021, giving him the position of the wealthiest man in Singapore.

Chris Feng (CEO)

Chris Feng became a part of Sea Limited in March 2014. Since January 2022, he has functioned as Group President. Before this position, Chris worked as the CEO of Shopee from July 2015 and as the CEO of SeaMoney from March 2020. Earlier, Feng functioned as the chief of the smartphone trade. Before his association with Sea Limited, Feng was an employee of Rocket Internet SE. There he acted in supervisory positions at Lazada and Zalora, and McKinsey & Co. Feng has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore with 1st class honors. 

What is the business model followed by Shopee?

The company began as a C2C (customer-to-customer) marketplace. However, it became a business-to-customer (B2C) and C2C fusion prototype.

Shopee collaborates with more than seventy courier service suppliers throughout the marketplaces it caters to for offering logistic assistance to customers. In Singapore, the company joins Ninja Van, a logistics startup for article procurement and supply. Other supply collaborators in the territory comprise Pos Indonesia and Pos Malaysia. Furthermore, Shopee joined with Ecom Express and Delhivery for supply in India before the company departed the inland marketplace.

During the nascent stages of expansion, Shopee came up with grants and complimentary distribution to its customers. Nonetheless, supply facilities were still costly in the regions they served.

Shopee Pte. Ltd timeline

2015

In 2015, the company came into existence in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. During the same year, the company forayed into seven marketplaces throughout the territory.

It organized the company’s first Shopee University conference in the same year. The idea was to conduct a sequence of sessions and seminars to help the local industrialists and enterprises assemble online trades in the Philippines.

Presently, sellers have effortless accessibility to fresh expertise and know-how regarding how to expand their trade with Shopee online.

2016

The company initiated the 1st 9.9 Super Shopping Day.

In 2016, Shopee introduced its trademark. 9.9 Super Shopping Day for attaining smartphone-first buyers throughout Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Shopee Mall gets launched throughout the territory

Shopee Mall is the top online mall in the territory, providing one-stop accessibility to a wide variety of domestic and overseas products.

Shopee Mall showcases two hundred brands in the Philippines and Singapore. The committed web portal boasts thousands of items marketed by top retail merchants and brands in the territory. Shopee Mall came into existence to provide a wider online shopping feel and to serve the bigger brand names better, searching for engagement of an omnichannel outlook.

It unveiled Lucky Prize, the first Shopee in-application game, for fetching an additional enjoyable and attractive shopping feel for customers.

2018

In 2018, the company launched ShopeePay, the mobile wallet of Shopee, beginning in Indonesia.

The company’s mobile wallet currently serves customers in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand.

The online shopping behemoth introduced Shopee Live, their in-application live streaming attribute.

The facet offers live shows and participation, permitting sellers and customers to sync.

In 2018, the company came up with the China Marketplace web portal that renders buyers simple accessibility to items from Chinese traders, with no necessity for any consignment and brokering charges in the Philippines and Singapore. The web portal is a contender of the Taobao Collection selection from Lazada.

Shopee came up with its central territorial office in Singapore.

The new headquarters was a major landmark in their voyage, permitting them to cultivate tech skills, build the industrial network, and generate further employment prospects. The premises covers 244,000 sq ft and can house up to three thousand employees.

Unveiled Shopee in Brazil

It manifested their 1st marketplace undertaking beyond Taiwan and Southeast Asia. 

Commenced the Shopee Code League

It is the biggest online code league in the territory. The occasion anticipates fostering tech skills and aficionados and permits them to join worldwide.

Introduced Shopee Premium

The attribute is currently accessible to customers in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. 

2020 – Observed their fifth birthday

Shopee observes its birthday every December 12, with festivities throughout their different regional bureaus and together with their 12.12 Birthday deal.

Organized the 1st Shopee Brands meeting

By organizing the brand collaborators of Shopee in Singapore, the company uncovered its strategies to serve shoppers and enterprises better, authorizing its collaborators to reach new altitudes online.

Introduced Shopee in fresh marketplaces throughout Europe and Latin America

In 2021, the company initiated a social media consumer service division in the Philippines, Shopee Cares PH. During the same year, Shopee commenced a food supply facility in Indonesia known as ShopeeFood, in collaboration with more than five hundred traders.

On August 10, 2022, ChannelAdvisor, a cloud-oriented e-commerce firm, declared that it will amalgamate with Shopee to permit its customers to attain fresh consumers by “broadening their multichannel mercantile schemes to new marketplaces in the Asia Pacific territory while harnessing the competence of a centralized policy.”

Growing its span of activities, Shopee keeps on acting to constantly serve the requirements of shoppers and vendors in its new marketplaces.

Who are the brand ambassadors of Shopee?

From time to time, the company has utilized the following people as its brand ambassadors:

  • Blackpink, a girl group from South Korea
  • Bambam a member of Got7, a boy band from South Korea (for Thailand)
  • Christiano Ronaldo (Singapore)
  • Actresses Marian Rivera, Kim Chiu, and Anne Curtis, senator pugilist Manny Pacquiao, vocalist Jose Mari Chan, aside from TV celebrities Alex Gonzaga, Sarah Geronimo, Willie Revillame, and Kris Aquino (for the Philippines).
  • Gurmit Singh and Mark Lee (Singapore)
  • Vocalists Syahrini, Rizky Febian, Didi Kempot, Via Vallen, Nella Kharisma, rock group Slank, performer Prilly Latuconsina, artist Maxime Bouttier, humorist Tukul Arwana, and erstwhile JKT48 associate Melody Nurramdhani Laksani (for Indonesia). Stray Kids, a boy band from South Korea, soap opera performers Amanda Manopo and Arya Saloka, vocalist Nassar Sungkar, vocalist Lesti Kejora and performer-spouse Rizky Billar, web celebs Thariq Halilintar and Fuji An, vocalist Happy Asmara, and martial artist and performer Joe Taslim also acted as brand ambassadors in Indonesia.
  • BtoB (South Korea)

Funding

Shopee served as the backer of Liga 1, the leading pro soccer segment for men in Indonesia, for the 2019 and 2020 spells.

Honors and accolades

The company received the recognition of the Singapore Startup of The Year during the 2nd version of the Vulcan Awards, conferred by Vulcan Post, a digital publisher, in 2015.

Disputes 

Over its seven-year journey, the company has been subject to the following controversies:

  • Poorly paid courier services in Indonesia – There were accusations that it was paying the courier services in Indonesia poorly once a few dispatch riders publicly stated that the organization cut down their remuneration per supplied parcel to just 10 US cents per parcel. Last year, it was 34 cents. There were complaints that basic monthly wages were not disbursed as well. There was no pay for gas or parking charges, or incentives.
  • Meet-and-greet with Blackpink – Many supporters informed that they got notifications about winning tickets, yet they were subsequently one-sidedly withdrawn by the company. People shared screenshots revealing that competition technicalities were altered the previous day. The Department of Trade and Industry conducted probes in this regard.      
  • Overturned employment bids – There were allegations from a subscriber of a China-based social networking site in August 2022 that he shifted as a result of an employment bid from the e-commerce company to serve at the central office in Singapore. Surprisingly, the company rescinded the job offer once he got off the flight in Singapore with his kin. Similar things happened with many other subscribers who quit their present jobs and ceased their housing agreements to join the Singaporean firm just to see their job offers revoked.
  • Support for Toni Gonzaga – Therewas huge criticism when gossip began circulating that the site would launch Toni Gonzaga as the brand ambassador following a substantial staff dismissal by the firm. One of the primary reasons behind the backfire was the lofty payment given to Toni for political campaigns. 

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