SINGAPORE, 27 NOV 2020 – Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, wraps up the year-end sales season and marks its fifth birthday by launching its annual 12.12 Birthday Sale. Its recent 9.9, 10.10 and 11.11 shopping events set new records and signified the changing landscape and potential of e-commerce in the region. This 12.12, Shopee celebrates five years of digital acceleration in the region and highlights three key trends that have shaped and will continue to drive the growth of e-commerce: Social, Personalisation and Integration.
Zhou Junjie, Chief Commercial Officer at Shopee said, “Shopee was born with the vision of making online shopping accessible, easy and enjoyable. We built Shopee from the ground up, listening to the specific needs of people in each of our markets and turning our understanding into well-executed localised strategies that make Shopee what it is today. This year’s 12.12 Birthday Sale has added significance as we celebrate our fifth birthday, and as we come together with our brand partners, sellers and shoppers to support one another through a challenging year. As we look back on our journey, we are proud to have adapted quickly to serve the needs of our local communities.”
This 12.12, Shopee highlights three key trends that have shaped and will continue to power the growth of e-commerce in 2021 and beyond.
- Social: Bringing the human touch to online shopping
Advancements in technology coupled with changing shopper habits have resulted in online shopping evolving from a transactional experience. Today’s users are more social than ever and they demand a more engaging online shopping experience with rich and unique content. To replicate the human touch, Shopee was one of the first e-commerce platforms in the region to launch a live chat function, Shopee Live Chat in 2016, enabling direct conversations between buyers and sellers. Today, an average of 30 million messages are exchanged daily on Shopee Live Chat.
Through the years, Shopee has continuously improved on and introduced new in-app engagement features such as Shopee Games, Shopee Feed and Shopee Live, to make the online shopping experience more social. Looking ahead, Shopee anticipates this trend to stay, with e-commerce increasingly becoming a platform for people to connect and enjoy shared experiences. Shopee will continue to drive this trend through unique initiatives like Shopee Mum’s Club, which provides like-minded mom consumers with one-stop exclusive access to baby product deals and parenting content, as well as a “Pawrents” club to meet growing online demand for pet products in Singapore.
- Personalisation: Catering to the ‘Me’ economy
Personalisation is critical in the e-commerce of today. A highly personalised experience is crucial to make online shopping more efficient, enjoyable and unique for consumers, while helping brands and sellers drive increased traffic and growth. Shopee takes a hyper-localised approach by running seven different apps in each of its markets and localising its in-app features. Shopee also continually refines its recommendation engines to offer more customised and relevant shopping suggestions made to fit consumers’ needs.
For brands and sellers, being able to offer personalised recommendations to shoppers helps to increase overall awareness and conversions. Businesses that use Shopee’s in-app advertisements generate 65% more sales activity than those that do not. This is powered by Shopee’s own AI capabilities, which ensure that advertisements are delivered to the right users at the right time and place.
As the industry progresses further into what is now known as the ‘me’ economy, businesses will need to innovate in order to improve the online customer journey. In the coming year, Shopee also expects to see the rise of smart shoppers, a new demographic of young, tech-savvy individuals, who expect a highly personalised online shopping experience.
- Integration: Creating a seamless customer journey
As retailers adapt to the new normal, they must deliver a seamless customer journey across all touchpoints. Shopee helps brands and sellers of all sizes do this by providing fundamental operational support through integrated payments and logistics, while creating innovative experiences that value-add to the overall customer journey.
- Delivering an experiential home shopping experience with P&G: Together with P&G, Shopee introduced its first-ever experiential online Show Me My Home initiative, which allowed shoppers to discover and shop for P&G’s popular household items in a simulated household environment. This brought greater convenience for stay-home consumers, while mimicking the offline experience of walking in a store, even when shopping online.
- Creating richer experiences through diversified retail strategies: Most recently, Shopee worked with CapitaLand in Singapore to pilot the CapitaLand x Shopee 11.11 campaign to drive sales, traffic, and engagement for retailers across six CapitaLand malls. Shopee and CapitaLand designed a new version of the popular Shopee Slice game, allowing users to play and earn CapitaLand vouchers, which could be redeemed in-store to boost traffic for offline retailers.
In Singapore, 12.12 Birthday Sale will run from 26 November to 12 December. During this period, users can enjoy Daily 30% Cashback, Million $ Discount deals, and Midnight 20% Off Flash Sales. Key highlights include:
- Crazy Flash Deals and Flash Vouchers: On 12 December, users can look out for sitewide Flash Vouchers, 29 timeslot refreshes in Crazy Flash Deals, and over 300 Million $ Discount Smashing Deals from top favorite brands like Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung, Paula’s Choice, Herschel, and more
- Win exciting prizes with Shopee Games: Play popular in-app games including Shopee Farm, Shopee Candy, and Shopee Bubble to win attractive prizes
- Support local with Made With Passion: Enjoy up to 20% off exclusive Christmas gifts and stand to win exclusive bundles worth $100 and more for purchases from Made With Passion brands, including Udders and The Golden Duck
Zhou closed, “2020 has been a transformative year. It has shown us the importance of technology and its ability to not only connect people and meet their basic needs, but also to entertain and engage. We are just at the beginning of our digital journey and looking ahead, we believe e-commerce will have an even more profound impact on businesses and consumers, creating new ways of living, working and engaging. As we wrap up the year with 12.12 Big Sale, let’s continue to look out for one another, uplift those in need and welcome the new year on a high note.”
For more information about Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale, visit https://shopee.sg/m/12-12
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