Shopee to ramp up Korean goods sales in Vietnam, Thailand

Shopee Pte. Ltd., an e-commerce operator, plans to quadruple sales of South Korean products in Vietnam and Thailand by 2025 aiming to expand its global presence with goods from the Northeast Asian country.

The online shopping subsidiary of Singapore’s tech giant Sea Limited is set to expand fulfillment services, discover promising beauty brands, strengthen incubating programs for startups and increase live commerce services, said Yuna Kwon, head of Shopee’s cross-border shopping business for South Korea and Japan, on Thursday in Seoul.

“We have made a remarkable achievements exceeding the growth in Shopee’s global platform through all-out support for Korean sellers,” Kwon said in a press conference to mark the fifth anniversary of Shopee’s business in the country.

“We aim to strengthen Korean sellers’ competitiveness and foster the cross-border shopping market based on innovative solutions, which reduce logistics costs and delivery times.”

Shopee has been selling South Korean products on online platforms with a focus on cross-border shopping in eight countries – Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Mexico and Brazil.

The number of orders for South Korean items has soared by 22 times over the last five years with transaction values surging by 18 times, according to the company. In the first half, the orders and transactions were estimated to have grown 80% and 50%, respectively, from a year earlier.

VIETNAM, THAILAND

Demand for South Korean products in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing e-commerce market, especially in Vietnam and Thailand, became stronger, Shopee said.

Vietnam, which was the seventh-largest customer of South Korean products in 2019, became the top buyer last year, while orders for the Northeast Asian nation’s goods in Thailand jumped 412% in 2022-2023.

The most popular South Korean items on Shopee are currently beauty products, followed by K-pop goods and functional and health food.

The company aims to double sales of beauty products by 2025.

TO FOSTER CROSS-BORDER SHOPPING SECTOR

Shopee plans to focus on raising South Korean sellers’ revenue and expanding their sales channels based on its logistics system, which completes delivery to Southeast Asia in three to five days.

The company introduced consolidated shipping services, a freight shipping process where multiple orders are combined into one shipment, this year to improve logistics efficiency by sending various South Korean products together to one country.

“Only 25% of Korean goods are sold through cross-border shopping, while the rest is still going through overseas distributors, although the Korean cross-borer shopping industry has significantly grown,” Kwon said.

“We will actively support more excellent sellers to succeed through Shopee.”

Write to Sun A Lee at suna@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.