Shopee’s using AI – and more – to make marketing easy for MSMEs

Summary:

• Shopee Marketing Solutions has grown from basic visibility tools into a full-fledged suite of 14 services that covers branding, performance, content, and engagement.
• To reduce the operational burden for sellers, Shopee introduced GMV Max, an AI-powered tool that automates bidding, budget allocation, and ad placements. This helps sellers focus on outcome-driven optimization instead of manual campaign management.
• These solutions level the playing field for MSMEs by providing simple, scalable, and data-driven tools to tap into digital marketing and secure sales effectively.
• Learn more about how Shopee Marketing Solutions helps brands unlock new growth.

If you’re a seller trying to grow your presence on an ecommerce platform, the landscape can be pretty competitive. With thousands of sellers and even more listings, standing out from the crowd and reaching the right customers can be difficult.

The challenge is even more significant for MSMEs, as they often lack access to the right tools, resources, or expertise to leverage digital marketing to connect with customers effectively.

This was what pushed Shopee to launch its Marketing Solutions offering in 2019.

Peggy Zhu, head of brand and growth marketing at Shopee / Photo credit: Shopee

“The emphasis then was on accessibility and ease of adoption, enabling sellers, especially MSMEs, to easily participate in paid marketing without requiring advanced marketing expertise,” says Peggy Zhu, Shopee’s head of brand and growth marketing.

Since then, Shopee Marketing Solutions has evolved, providing comprehensive support to sellers of all stripes.

From simple solutions to a full-fledged suite

When it launched, Shopee Marketing Solutions was relatively simple. It focused on helping sellers achieve stronger visibility on Shopee’s platform using paid tools such as keyword-based search ads, product discovery placements, and high-traffic banners.

Now, the offering has become a full-fledged suite of services with 14 solutions across four pillars: branding, performance, content, and engagement. These services range from shop and product ads to more extensive solutions such as cross-channel and affiliate marketing.

Shopee’s suite of marketing solutions / Photo credit: Shopee

“Customers today go through multiple touchpoints before making their final purchase,” explains Zhu. “Cross-channel marketing is now the norm, and it has become important for sellers to engage with buyers on multiple touchpoints. Therefore, we deepened our integration with Meta and Google to meet this growing demand.”

Beyond standard digital ads, Shopee has partnered with Meta to introduce the Catalog Product Video feature to Meta Collaborative Ads with Shopee, which automatically pulls videos from a seller’s Shopee catalog to Meta for advertising use.

Shopee has also enhanced integrations with Google to bring Demand Gen campaigns to Google Ads with Shopee, leveraging Google AI and Shopee conversion signals to reach new shoppers across Google’s most visual surfaces such as YouTube, Discover, and more.

Zhu highlights that both features are the first of their kind among marketplaces in Southeast Asia.

On the affiliate marketing front, Shopee helps sellers tap into its network of affiliates to scale their content development, enabling them to drive social buzz and word-of-mouth more effectively.

“Content is a key driver for ecommerce growth, yet it’s very time-consuming, especially for MSMEs who are limited in resources,” shares Zhu. “We help bridge this gap.”

Dive into Shopee’s suite of marketing solutions

This integrated approach lets sellers plan their marketing efforts across channels more holistically, instead of having to test different strategies on different platforms.

Taking it to the next level

The advent of AI has opened up new opportunities for Shopee to further enhance the marketing experience for MSMEs.

“We’ve always sought ways to continually enhance the overall buying and selling experience for the communities we serve through technology,” says Zhu. “We take a very thoughtful approach to innovation, and when it comes to AI, it’s no different.”

One key offering is GMV Max. As the name implies, GMV Max leverages marketing tools to drive growth in gross merchandise value (GMV) by making campaign management more efficient and results-focused.

Click on the orange circles to learn more about the features of GMV Max

“GMV Max plays a key role in strengthening Shopee’s marketing solutions by shifting the focus from manual campaign management to outcome-driven optimization,” explains Zhu.

Before GMV Max was introduced, sellers typically ran ads to boost visibility for in-demand products or to introduce new items to potential customers. This often required them to manually monitor performance, adjust budgets, and keep pace with shifting consumer preferences.

Through conversations with its sellers, Shopee found out that many struggled with knowing where to invest their ad budgets, lacked the time or expertise to build effective marketing strategies, and found it overwhelming to manage ads across hundreds of products.

GMV Max aims to address these pain points by taking the guesswork out of campaign optimization. With Shopee’s AI-driven algorithms, it automates key decisions – from bidding and budget allocation to ad placement – by learning from individual user preferences and real-time signals, such as active search terms and product performance.

In its simplest form, a seller can choose to activate an ad, and GMV Max will completely automate the whole ad operation – including product selection, return on ad spend target optimization, and budget allocation – to capture the best available conversion opportunities at any given time.

In other words, GMV Max automates campaign optimizations and drives business outcomes, allowing sellers to achieve more with less effort.

“This makes advanced marketing capabilities more accessible to sellers of all sizes, allowing them to achieve stronger results with less complexity and operational effort,” Zhu says.

So far, compared to traditional manual modes of optimization, GMV Max has driven a 20% increase in order conversion rates within Shopee Mall as well as a 25% reduction in cost per order.

Staying ahead

GMV Max is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Shopee’s efforts to leverage AI to unlock new growth for its sellers.

“Our AI-powered marketing solutions will connect sellers and their products with high-potential audiences to achieve better performance and cost-efficiency,” says Zhu.

For example, Shopee launched a new product boosting feature called Promote My New Product in December 2025, which aims to help sellers secure the first sale of their newest listings faster.

By giving these new listings an early push, sellers can see how shoppers respond and spot products with strong demand. This helps MSMEs focus their time and resources on what works, enabling them to move quickly, stay flexible, and respond to market opportunities with greater confidence.

Based on initial tests, the Promote My New Product feature has led to 70% more product listings unlocking their first order within seven days.

“Building upon our commitment to enable success for MSMEs at every stage of their journey, our roadmap is centered around designing solutions and tools that are simple, scalable, and highly effective for every seller, regardless of size or sophistication,” says Zhu. “The goal is for sellers to move beyond manual optimization and focus on strategic growth.”

Shopee builds practical, accessible solutions to help millions of MSMEs grow online.

Shopee Marketing Solutions simplifies advertising and makes it easy for MSMEs with lean resources to achieve meaningful sales results. It is committed to delivering innovative solutions, actively leveraging technology like AI to ensure its partners stay ahead of the curve and enable brands of all sizes to reach their full potential and succeed.

Unlock new opportunities for growth with Shopee Marketing Solutions.

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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.