Shopee’s new sellers enter with ten “all” and ten “free” features, and further upgrades, interpreting the growth opportunities of high-potential categories in 2024

In the past year, Southeast Asia has become one of the few blue ocean e-commerce markets in the world that has maintained high growth. "Compared with other regions in the world, the Southeast Asian economic system has withstood the resistance of the global macro-economy more resiliently in 2023 and withstood the headwinds from the economic downturn." In the "2023 Southeast Asia Digital Economy Report", Temasek, Bain, and Google reviewed the resilience of the digital economy in the Southeast Asian market last year.

In this blue ocean market, Shopee, as the leading e-commerce platform in the Southeast Asian market, still maintains its leading edge. According to data from research firm Similarweb, based on the visit data of major e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia in December 2023, Shopee's total visits to Southeast Asian sites reached 584 million, still ranking first among all sites.

In 2024, the Southeast Asian market will still be a popular overseas destination. Recently, Shopee has upgraded the 2024 Ten "All" and Ten "Free" policies for new sellers. It is understood that the 2024 Ten "All" and Ten "Free" policies will continue to increase the help and support for new sellers, and the threshold for going overseas to Southeast Asia will be further lowered.

01 The Ten “All” and Ten “Free” Plans are upgraded again, providing a one-stop service for entering emerging markets

For new sellers who are new to overseas markets, the challenges of going overseas mainly lie in the lack of experience, limited control of resources, and difficulty in gaining in-depth insights into cutting-edge business opportunities in the Southeast Asian market. In the process of "opening up new markets", they often encounter various difficulties.

Looking through Shopee's 2024 ten "all" and ten "free" policies, new sellers can not only enjoy free store opening fees, but also receive a number of new seller incentives and supports from Shopee's official website, including no deposit for the first three months, no commission for up to three months, and up to US$60 in free advertising funds, to help sellers get their business started quickly.

(Photo source: Shopee)

In addition, Shopee2024's "10 free" and "10 free" also fully opens the top ten first sites to new sellers. It covers Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and other sites in the Southeast Asian market, as well as Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia in the Latin American market. The two emerging markets are "caught in one net" to help sellers achieve diversified growth.

02 Massive high-potential categories, strong development momentum in 2024

Business opportunity insight is the foundation of business growth, and product selection is the cornerstone of order explosion. Shopee's four major categories of electronics, fashion, fast-moving consumer goods, and life all contain product categories with great growth potential waiting for sellers to discover.

Localization, sophisticated consumption, and branding have become the cutting-edge trends in the current Southeast Asian and Latin American markets. Specific to each category, the focus and skills of product selection and operation are different.

Electronics

The global consumer electronics market is large and still growing. According to the analysis of the research organization Statista, the global consumer electronics market will reach 1.028 trillion US dollars in 2023, and the average annual compound growth rate is expected to reach 2.32% from 2023 to 2028. Online e-commerce will become the main sales channel for consumer electronics. According to Statista's forecast, more than 50% of the world's consumer electronics products will be sold through online channels in 2025.

In the category of consumer electronics, 3C digital products such as mobile phones, computers, cameras, and headphones, and home appliances are two major subcategories. The trend of personalized consumption and product innovation have driven the growth of demand for digital home appliances, from which open headphones, smart wearables, kitchen appliances, handheld small appliances and other subcategories have emerged.

On Shopee, consumer electronics is an evergreen category. On the 11.11 promotion day last year, cross-border strong categories such as mobile phones and tablets continued to be popular in Southeast Asia, with the order volume increasing by 11 times on weekdays; on the 12.12 promotion day, domestic power banks, thermal and barcode printers, etc. all showed strong sales, with the order volume increasing by 10 times on weekdays, and the order volume of household appliances such as ovens and slow cookers increased by 12 times on weekdays.

In addition, the branding trend of consumer electronics on Shopee is significant, driving the category's average order value to rise steadily. Home appliances, audio and computer accessories have become the most demanding subcategories for branding.

At present, the demand for consumer electronics on Shopee is large and comprehensive, and new sellers can enter the segmented track according to their own situation. There is sufficient demand for mobile phone accessories, headphones, data storage and other products, which are suitable for big promotions; categories with high customer unit price and high profit include home appliances, security monitoring, smart wearables, mobile phones and tablets, computer hardware, keyboards and mice, which are suitable for new sellers to develop as core categories; categories with high growth potential include charging energy storage, tablet hardware, photography accessories, drones and accessories, creating a promising growth space for new sellers.

Fashion Category

Fashion sales account for 20% of global e-commerce sales and have become one of the main categories in the global retail industry. According to Statista data, by 2022, total sales of fashion will be approximately US$863 billion, with more than half of sales coming from the clothing subcategory, a trend that has remained relatively stable over the past 10 years. At the same time, sales of accessories and footwear each account for approximately 25% of total fashion sales. On Shopee, cross-border fashion categories are in high demand and growing rapidly. Clothing categories represented by men's, women's and children's clothing and shoes, bags and accessories are the two main subcategories.

Consumption trends vary in different segments. Tops have large volumes and rich SKUs. New sellers are advised to focus on Y2K, simple commuting, and sweet and spicy styles. In the skirt category, dresses, evening gowns and other clothing for party scenes will have greater demand in the second half of the year. Overalls, jeans and wide-leg pants have become evergreen styles in the Southeast Asian market and are suitable for localized fulfillment. Yoga pants and commuter casual pants continue to sell well in the Latin American market. Jackets and hoodies will have a clear demand explosion during the autumn and winter season change in the second half of the year.

In terms of operational strategy, visual upgrades can significantly increase the growth of fashion categories. Shopee provides sellers with stylized store visual upgrade options, which can not only increase click-through rate and user stay time, but also increase the number of natural traffic displays of products. New sellers can further enhance the visual experience of products and brands and accurately locate potential consumers through store decoration strategies such as category design, setting one-click jump to store homepage pictures, and unifying product styles.

In terms of traffic, fashion categories are more suitable for social media dissemination. Operational strategies such as off-site traffic diversion and live streaming can help new sellers accelerate order growth. At present, the live streaming ecosystem on Shopee continues to improve. Shopee data shows that during the 11.11 promotion in 2023, the platform's live streaming had a cumulative viewing volume of 6.7 billion, and the number of cross-border live streaming orders during the 12.12 promotion increased to 54 times that of normal days.

Fast Moving Consumer Goods

According to market research firm AMR, the global fast-moving consumer goods market will grow from more than US$11 trillion in 2021 to more than US$18 trillion in 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.1%. On Shopee, categories such as beauty products, maternal and child toys are in great demand.

The key to cross-border FMCG business lies in localized fulfillment, rich price ranges, and branding. Overseas warehouses can not only help Shopee sellers deliver goods faster and improve consumers' shopping experience, but also help sellers control costs and focus on improving product competitiveness. According to Shopee data, building localized fulfillment capabilities through official overseas warehouses can effectively improve logistics timeliness and greatly save logistics costs.

From the perspective of segmented tracks, skin care products, bath and body care products, and personal care products are in strong demand, with high average order value and repurchase rate. Diapers and wet wipes are two relatively niche categories, with less competition from cross-border sellers and high repurchase rates, making them a blue ocean market worth considering for new sellers. During last year's 11.11 promotion, the number of orders for daily maternal and child products such as baby wipes and baby strollers reached 10 times that of normal days. During the 12.12 promotion, the number of orders for styling products such as facial cosmetics and hairdressing tools reached 10 times that of normal days, and the number of orders for perfumes climbed to 13 times that of normal days.

Lifestyle

The target consumer audience of lifestyle products is wide, and the demand for categories is diverse. On Shopee, home life, sports and outdoor, auto parts, stationery, pets, and hobbies are high-growth potential segments of lifestyle products. In the Southeast Asian market, female consumers account for a high proportion of lifestyle products, with an age range of 25-34 years old, covering a wide range of people.

Festival renewal is one of the important nodes for the explosion of demand for daily necessities. According to Shopee data, during the 11.11 promotion in 2023, Southeast Asian consumers stocked up on daily necessities in large quantities, and the order volume increased 11 times compared with normal days; during the 12.12 promotion, the order volume of large items such as wardrobes, bed frames, and tool ladders increased by more than 9 times, and the order volume of festival and party supplies in the Thai market exceeded 37 times that of normal days.