Shopee : Most popular e-commerce platform in Indonesia
The three largest Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms — Lazada, Shopee, and Tokopedia all have a significant presence in Indonesia’s digital economy. Collectively, these three have grown over seven times larger since 2015, with other growing players like Bukalapak and BliBli from Indonesia not far behind.
Based on data covered by iPrice insights (2019) Tokopedia became the most visited e-commerce until the end of Q3 2019. In the Q1 period with total visitors reaching 137,200,900 visits / month, then in Q2 it increased with a total of 140,414,500 visits / month, and in Q3 decreased by a total of 65,953,400 visits / month. Shopee, Bukalapak, Lazada, and Blibli have always been strict competitors for Tokopedia to dominate the e-commerce market in Indonesia.
In addition, based on data covered from iPrice insights (2020) Shopee was able to overtake Tokopedia to become the most visited e-commerce site even in Q3 2020. Shopee has surpassed Tokepedia from Q4 2019 with 72,973,300 visits / month, then decreased in Q1 2020 with 71,533,300 visits / month, and have a significant increased with 93,440,300 visits / month in Q2 2020.
What make Shopee become the best ?
As already explained above that Shopee is the most popular e-commerce currently in Indonesia. I agree that Shopee is the most popular e-commerce and in my opinion also the best e-commerce platform in Indonesia .
After Q1, Q2, and Q3 2019 periods, Shopee was ranked second after Tokopedia, for the first time in Q4 2019 Shopee succeeded in becoming e-commerce with the highest total number of active monthly visitors until Q2 2020. Some of the campaign programs conducted by Shopee in this quarter and became best e-commerce platform in Indonesia, such as :
Cashback
A cashback program from Shopee offers to selected sellers to boost seller traffic and sales performance. This cashback program running since July 2019, that has proven to successfully bring significant sales uplift to all participating sellers.
Free delivery without minimum orders
The tagline “Gratis Ongkir ke Seluruh Indonesia” was an offer that is pretty much desired by online buyers. In buying an item through online, consumers must add to the cost of shipping costs. In fact, there are even up to the cost of shipping goods more expensive than the price of goods purchased. Surely the Shopee tagline certainly contains a message if Shopee provides free shipping facilities for anyone who shop online through Shopee.
This free shipping program was a Shopee campaign program which is only valid for one month and usually will always be extended program period by Shopee itself. But it could have been a time Shopee stopped the free shipping program.
Brand Ambassadors
The selection of brand ambassador from famous people close to users can be used as evidence of Shopee’s persistence in acquiring markets, especially in Indonesia.
Big Sale Programs
Shopee also made a sale initiative on the unique date of each month as was done at the moment of Single’s day 11.11 and Harbolnas 12.12. A whopping 70 million items were bought online on Shopee during the 11.11 sale.
At Harbolnas in 2019, Shopee recorded the latest record in Indonesia with sales of 1.3 trillion rupiahs in the 24-hour Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale or Harbolnas campaign. In addition, there are 80 million items sold and more than 80 million visits to the Shopee application in 7 countries.
The moment of Single’s day 11.11 and Harbolnas 12.12 which became a jump in Q4 2019 and surpassed Tokopedia as the most e-commerce in Indonesia.
In-App Games
Shopee is targeting millennials to be more comfortable in their applications with the In-App Games, this strategy makes the high increase in user engagement applied by Shopee. It can be concluded that the In-App Games and entertainment features present at Shopee give a positive impression on the increase in the total active visitors of Shopee monthly in Indonesia.
There are some in app game features provided by Shopee, including Goyang Shopee, Kuis Shopee, Shopee Potong, Shopee Lucky Prize, Shopee Live, and Shopee Tangkap.
With the interactive features such as In-App game, Shopee hopes that the number of transactions can continue to increase
Supported Logistic Partners
Shopee Supported Logistics are third party logistics providers that have integrated their system with Shopee. With this integration, Shopee sellers can easily arrange shipments, and both buyers and sellers can keep track of shipments directly via the Shopee app and Seller Centre.
E-Wallet
ShopeePay, an electronic money service from Shopee, is an electronic money service feature that can be used as an online payment method on the Shopee platform, offline at ShopeePay merchants, and to collect refunds. ShopeePay now has to compete with other similar players who are already has a huge market in Indonesia such as GoPay, Ovo, Dana, and LinkAja.
Shopee already has an electronic money license from Bank Indonesia since the end of 2018. ShopeePay can be used for almost all types of transactions. Interestingly, at offline merchants, the QR code used by ShopeePay is already connected to QRIS — meaning that’s accepts alternative non-Shopee payment methods.
Conclusion
However, while there are already some big players in Indoneisa such as Shoppe, Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Lazada, and Blibli, there’s still room for growth. Indonesian consumers popularly use e-commerce as a way to access commodities not available in local stores. As such, e-commerce adoption will continue to rise as long as this sector develops faster than conventional retail.
Because of this, aspiring new players should prepare for fierce competition in Indonesia. Moreover, with urban areas and also big cities like Jakarta, Bandung, or Surabaya already heavily saturated, e-commerce platforms are likely to target second-tier cities and the rural regions where adoption is usually lower. Specifically, the relatively slow development of modern retail is a chance for e-commerce businesses to play significant roles.
