How Shopee helps brands adapt to the changing demands of consumers

Ecommerce is a major part of life in Southeast Asia. The region saw 70 million new online shoppers emerge in the pandemic, and that number is set to grow as more and more consumers get comfortable with shopping online.

These consumers come from different walks of life and have different needs and demands of the brands they purchase from, creating unique challenges for businesses in the region. And as the number of online consumers grows, so do the expectations of their online shopping experiences.

It’s no surprise, then, that Shopee, the ecommerce arm of tech giant Sea Group, has rolled out numerous initiatives to support brands on its platform. Besides its Shopee Mall and Shopee Premium platforms, which offer consumers direct access to products from local and international brands and authorized retailers, the firm empowers merchants with a wide suite of engagement features, customer intelligence tools, and marketing solutions.

This has led to most of Shopee’s brand partners seeing their gross merchandise value (GMV) double year on year in 2021. Last year, five companies joined the inaugural “Shopee 100 Million Dollar Club,” an exclusive program for sellers that achieved over US$100 million in GMV on the platform.

Members of the C-suite forum at the Shopee Brands Summit (from left): Shankar Viswanathan, senior vice president for Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam at Procter & Gamble; Ng Tian Chong, managing director of Greater Asia at Hewlett-Packard, Manashi Guha, general manager at the L’Oreal Consumer Products Division South Asia Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa; Philip Ho, vice president, Southeast Asia (commercial) at Adidas, and Amanda Eng, regional marketing lead at Shopee. / Photo credit: Shopee

But how exactly has Shopee helped companies adapt to the changing needs of customers to achieve these new milestones? At the 2022 edition of the firm’s annual Shopee Brands Summit held on January 13, industry leaders shared their perspectives.

Bridging the gap

One key trend brands have observed from consumers is a growing demand for new shopping experiences in the online space, ones that are able to bridge the divide between the digital and physical worlds. The Covid-19 pandemic pushed consumption into the online space, but customers still want to be able to interact with and learn more about the products they’re buying.

This is where features available on Shopee’s platform, such as livestreaming, come into play. For example, the firm added an in-stream call function that allows viewers to speak directly to livestreamers to ask questions and participate in events. This helps users connect with sellers and recreates the experience of interacting with sales staff in store.

According to Ng Tian Chong, managing director of Greater Asia at Hewlett-Packard (HP), working with Shopee allowed the company to deepen real-time engagement for users online.

HP using Shopee Live to engage with users / Photo credit: Shopee

“In order to grow this immersive experience, we’ve taken advantage of opening up our virtual demo centers online to create something like a shopping ‘street’ on Shopee Mall,” he said. “Customers can ‘walk the street’ to learn more about the products on offer and receive discount coupons, creating an immersive and educational experience.”

HP has also worked with Shopee to educate its offline resellers on how to use Shopee’s tools to create a beneficial online experience for customers.

“We’ve worked with [our resellers] to enrich their online content, so that it can serve as a 24/7 salesperson,” Ng shared. “It also allows us to create a seamless experience, from online to offline and offline to online.”

Because of these features, HP has seen significant growth in its Shopee Mall store – the firm witnessed its number of followers on the Shopee Singapore platform increase threefold after it held a livestream event that was held before a mega campaign.

Discovery and loyalty

Besides creating new ways for customers to learn more about products online, Shopee has also helped brands develop new and innovative ways for customers to discover and interact with their offerings.

For beauty brands such as Maybelline, 3CE, and Etude House, Shopee’s BeautyCam feature has proven to be a major asset. Beauty Cam leverages augmented reality to allow users to “try on” makeup while shopping on Shopee.

“With the use of BeautyCam on Shopee, we’ve seen way higher engagement, way higher conversions on the platform,” said Manashi Guha, general manager at the L’Oreal Consumer Products Division for South Asia Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa. According to Shopee, brands that integrate Beauty Cam have seen conversion rates increase by 3x on average.

Shopee’s BeautyCam feature / Photo credit: Shopee

On top of offering BeautyCam, Shopee is also looking to help more merchants across categories – such as fast-moving consumer goods and toys – to drive more conversions through the launch of its sampling channel in 2022. Through this channel, customers can buy sample-size products and receive vouchers to incentivize them to purchase the full-sized versions.

The firm is also looking to integrate its current Shopee Mall brand memberships with the customer relationship management initiatives of its brand partners to drive greater customer retention, something Guha and her team are looking forward to.

“We’re hoping to be able to measure and see an increase in loyalty as a result,” she says.

Doing well, and doing good

While creating great customer experiences and campaigns is vital for companies to succeed, all four speakers at the Shopee Brands Summit agreed that it isn’t enough for consumers nowadays. Customers expect the brands they buy from to practice social responsibility and “do good,” such as taking steps toward sustainability or tackling issues of inequality and discrimination.

According to Shankar Viswanathan, senior vice president at Procter & Gamble (P&G) for Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam, P&G has worked closely with Shopee on various corporate social responsibility initiatives to build greater brand affinity and trust in the long term.

Viswanathan points to P&G’s #ChallengeTheChores campaign in 2021 as an example of this in action. Developed in partnership with Shopee and launched as a part of International Women’s Day, the campaign aimed to encourage families to share the load when tackling household chores.

The campaign involved livestreams featuring key opinion leaders on their personal challenges when tackling household chores, as well as exclusive in-app activities where customers could snatch up special deals and win prizes from P&G’s suite of brands.

“It was a mega hit. People were able to empathize with the concept, to reflect on their own behaviors through [the campaign], and we received positive feedback about it,” shared Viswanathan. The firm saw an uplift in livestream viewership throughout the campaign and a greater than 10x uplift in sales across the region.

P&G has also worked closely with Shopee to reduce shipping waste through its pilot “ship in own container” initiative. Through consultations with ecommerce firms, the consumer goods company has worked to redesign the packaging of its products in a way that they can be shipped without the need for any additional packaging.

“Now, logistics partners don’t even need to touch the packaging,” added Viswanathan.

Being a part of consumers’ lives

As sales events such as 11.11 and 12.12 become a key part of consumer habits and online shopping becomes more prevalent, brands will need to watch for upcoming trends to keep customers engaged.

HP’s Ng points to the value of big data in improving customer experiences as a major area for businesses to focus on. Meanwhile, Viswanathan highlights the opportunities that non-Tier 1 cities hold for brands, especially as more consumers go online and logistics networks are strengthened.

And for Terence Pang, Shopee’s COO, the road ahead is an exciting one for online retail.

“As retail becomes hyper-digital and shopping online becomes integral to people’s lives, we believe there is huge room for growth in the region,” he says. “By working together with our brand partners, we will continue to expand and enhance our offerings, including Shopee Mall, to serve more customers and scale to greater heights.”

Shopee is a leading ecommerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan that provides customers with an easy, secure, and fast online shopping experience through strong payment and logistical support.

Learn more about how Shopee can help your brand grow here.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.