Mining a market worth hundreds of billions of yuan, becoming the leader in the category after five years of hard work

With a huge Internet user base of over 400 million, the Southeast Asian e-commerce market has shown amazing growth potential in recent years. According to Statista data, the size of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market has reached approximately US$139 billion in 2023, and is expected to further climb to US$186 billion by 2025. Such an attractive market prospect has naturally attracted a large number of new players to join the market, while old sellers are also accelerating their gold rush.

Among them, Ennet learned that many sellers have thrived in the Southeast Asian market with the help of platforms such as Shopee. They have successfully opened up a world of their own in this hot land through precise market positioning, high-quality products and services, and clever marketing strategies.

Shoes sales turned to Southeast Asia to dig for gold, and quickly gained volume after entering Shopee

Quanzhou, a city that has nurtured nine 100 billion industrial clusters, including textiles and clothing, footwear, petrochemicals, and electronic information, is well-known throughout the country for its strong manufacturing strength. Among them, Chendai Town, Jinjiang, Quanzhou, known as the "Chinese Shoe Capital", is a major footwear town, producing more than 1 billion pairs of sports shoes annually, accounting for about 40% of the national market and 20% of the global market.

With such advantages in the industrial belt, Wei Ting from Lingyi Clothing Store in Chendai Town, Jinjiang City, resolutely decided to join the e-commerce industry in 2018, focusing on the footwear category. He said frankly: "Quanzhou has many shoe manufacturers, and the stalls are basically shoes, which provides great convenience for our product selection and delivery. At the same time, we have in-depth cooperation with the industrial belt factories, rich upstream and downstream resources, and outstanding product development capabilities."

(Photo source: Interviewed sellers)

In 2019, with the rise of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market, Weiting's friends achieved good results on the Shopee platform. This attracted Weiting's attention, and he began to consider expanding his business overseas. So he decided to use the Shopee platform to enter the Southeast Asian market.

Surprisingly, Weiting's store performed well after entering Shopee. " We started to receive orders as soon as we put our products on the shelves. The subsequent order results were also good. We achieved relatively ideal order results in one or two months . " This achievement made him determined to transform into a cross-border e-commerce and focus on the development of the Shopee platform. Over the past five years, Weiting has continued to deepen its presence in the Southeast Asian market, and the pace of explosive orders in the store has become the norm.

When talking about sales strategies, Wei Ting was quite insightful: "You must have a keen enough insight into the market, pay attention to marketing and various operational details, and actively participate in platform promotions." For Wei Ting, the two recent promotions have left a deep impression on him. For example, on the day of the 7.7 promotion, his sales volume hit a record high for the store, and the number of orders for the 8.8 promotion even increased by more than 30% over the performance of the 7.7 promotion .

"In fact, there are several key points to pay attention to when it comes to big sales during a big sale. First, do a good job of product maintenance before the big sale, including main pictures, keywords, detail pages, inventory, etc. Second, do a good job of store announcements to let customers know that the product is participating in the big sale. Third, plan the advertising budget in advance. We start to increase the budget a week before the big sale, and the budget reaches the maximum on the day of the big sale. Fourth, be sure to check the details on the day of the big sale, follow up on the dynamics of each product and make timely adjustments."

With this strategy, Weiting promoted hot sales of its products during Shopee promotions, and its products also performed well in daily sales.

Focus on differentiation and follow local customs when selecting products

The rapid increase in sales and the explosion of orders during the big promotion are all due to Weiting's careful observation of the market and in-depth research on the product itself. In the Southeast Asian market, especially in Thailand, due to the hot weather, consumers have a particularly high demand for slippers. Weiting keenly captured this market opportunity and focused on slippers.

There are so many slippers on the market, how to attract and retain consumers? Weiting starts with the product experience and pays attention to every detail. The slippers in his store are made of light, soft, wear-resistant and non-slip EVA material, which not only provides consumers with a more comfortable wearing experience, but also saves costs on shipping, improving the cost-effectiveness and competitiveness of the product. Today, a pair of slippers in the store that is light as a selling point has become a hot item and is deeply loved by consumers.

(Photo source: Interviewed sellers)

In addition , Wei Ting has also put a lot of effort into design. He noticed that Southeast Asian consumers prefer retro styles, so he would pay attention to retro shoes when selecting products. At the same time, there are certain similarities between the aesthetic tastes of Southeast Asian consumers and domestic consumers, so Wei Ting will also consider putting on the shelves the shoe styles that are popular in China. He also mentioned in an interview, "Some basic styles of products with simple designs will have a wider audience and are easier to increase the number of orders."

Many people inevitably wonder, are our products available in the entire Southeast Asian market? Wei Ting gave his answer: "Of course not. After all, there are differences in weather, geographical location, festivals, etc. between different market segments, which will affect consumer preferences, so we will develop customized products or conduct targeted product selection."

For example, Malaysian consumers are more fond of Muslim style, so more shoes with corresponding design styles are launched; Thailand has many rainy seasons, so the main focus is on promoting rain boots or wading shoes in the corresponding season.

With such a wide range of consumer groups, there are significant differences in consumption, whether divided by age or gender . Therefore, when Weiting first put products on the shelves, he basically sold all of them, regardless of gender, age group or consumption level. But in the end, the most popular category was the cost-effective women's shoes, so he has since focused on the demand for cost-effective women's shoes.

With its keen insight into the market and in-depth research on products, Weiting's store stands out in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market. Today, it has firmly established itself as the top seller in the slippers category on the Shopee platform . Summarizing successful experiences, Weiting believes that focusing on differentiation and selecting products in accordance with local customs are the keys to deepening its presence in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market.

The traffic pool is huge, making orders and orders more efficient

In the e-commerce industry, the quality of the product itself is the cornerstone of success, and the operation strategy is the key to driving the store's sales. For Weiting, in addition to these two points, the platform's traffic advantage is also an important factor that he cannot ignore.

As a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, Shopee has a huge user pool and traffic pool, which enables stores to reach consumers more quickly. In the fierce competition in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market, Shopee's performance is still outstanding.

YouNet ECI's report pointed out that in Vietnam, in the second quarter of this year, Shopee accounted for 71.4% of Vietnam's e-commerce GMV market share . In Malaysia, Campaign's list shows that Shopee has become the favorite brand of local consumers. It was rated as the highest quality (70%), the most innovative (63%), and the most well-known (93%) among all brands on the list.

For Wei Ting, who was still a cross-border novice at the time, he knew that reaching consumers more quickly was the key to success. In terms of Shopee's on-site marketing, Wei Ting said, "The most direct way is to use Shopee advertising and AMS affiliate marketing , such as on-site advertising, coupons, affiliate marketing, discount packages, etc. These tools have greatly improved traffic and product conversion ."

Not only that, Weiting has recently begun to try out in-site content marketing tools such as Shopee Live and Shopee Video , and actively cooperated with influencers to conduct live broadcasts. "The overall traffic performance is quite unexpected."

Today, Weiting's store on Shopee is performing better and better, and his investment is also increasing. Whether in terms of budget or personnel, he ensures that there is no shortage of products, sufficient inventory, and maximizes the advertising budget to ensure sufficient product exposure.

Talking about the future layout, Wei Ting said: "We will continue to deepen our presence in the Southeast Asian market and consider developing in the direction of localized fulfillment." He mentioned: "For consumers, localized fulfillment will have faster timeliness and better after-sales service. Currently, more than 45% of the store's products are shipped from official overseas warehouses."

At the same time, the importance of branding in the e-commerce industry continues to emerge. Wei Ting added: "In the future, we will no longer be satisfied with just distributing goods, but will consider building a brand to further enhance the competitiveness and market influence of the store!"

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