Shopee Optimistic Of Strong Regional Sales Growth

By Zairina Zainudin KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 (Bernama) -- Shopee, the largest e-commerce platform in South-East Asia and Taiwan, is optimistic its regional sales growth momentum of 43 per cent month-on-month will continue this year. Regional Managing Director, Ian Ho, said the platform also aimed to secure higher contribution from business operations in Malaysia following the excellent performance in the early months of this year. He attributed the future growth to Shopee’s rapport with sellers that used the platform, coupled with the increasing number of established brands joining it. “We have multinational companies such as L’Oreal, Watson, Nestle, Oppo and Huawei on board with us. The reason why they consider our platform is testament of how fast we have grown,” he told Bernama recently. In the first half of this year, Shopee achieved over US$3 billion (RM12.8 billion) in annualised gross merchandise value (GMV) across the region and garnered over three million downloads in Malaysia. On the Malaysian business, Ho said, the country’s sophisticated infrastructure has played a crucial factor in helping the business become more prominent and expand further. “Our largest markets are Taiwan and Indonesia, but Malaysia is definitely significant to us. “We have been operating for less than two years here but we have over 200 employees and this shows our commitment,” he said. On talks that Shopee would be allocated with business space at the Malaysia Digital Free Trade Zone, Ho said, the company was exploring on opportunities to rent a place in the zone. Shopee offers online shopping security through Shopee Guarantee, where users are protected by withholding the payment to the seller until the buyer receives the order. -- BERNAMA