Tag: Shopee

Manila, Philippines – Locally-developed telemedicine app KonsultaMD in the Philippines has taken its services up a notch by bringing its benefits closer to those who need it – the app has partnered with Shopee to spread more awareness on the technology of teleconsultation, specifically for moms. 

KonsultaMD will be launching a live stream on the Shopee app which aims to promote telemedicine, being the next best thing to face-to-face consultations due to its easy access, for moms who juggle daily all-around tasks. It will be called ‘Shopee MomDays’.

“These days, it’s a big challenge for mothers to balance work and household demands, especially with all the health and safety protocols. For them, a top health concern is the possibility of someone in the family getting sick and needing immediate doctor advice, but going to the clinic or hospital already poses a big health risk in itself,” said KonsultaMD in a press statement. 

The live stream will be every Monday from 3 to 4 pm, slated to kick off today, January 18, of the same time. It will be hosted by Dr. Alyxandra Kim Sangel, MD. Through the live stream, viewers will learn how to do check-ups via telemedicine.

“KonsultaMD is excited to partner with Shopee for MomDays. Moms want the option of consulting health professionals without having to leave the safety of their homes, and KonsultaMD conveniently provides 24/7 access to doctors through video or voice calls,” said Cholo Tagaysay, KonsultaMD’s COO.

During the live streams, there will be weekly games that will give five moms a chance to win KonsultaMD Family Annual Plan. The plan includes a 12-month membership for five people, unlimited voice consultation, 48 video consultations, as well as e-Prescription, e-laboratory request, e-medical certificate, and access to partner benefits.

Manila, Philippines – In the Philippines, no one has yet braved to give top e-commerce platforms Shopee and Lazada a run for their money, but that just might soon change. 

Raffy Tulfo, one of the country’s most popular broadcast journalists and public affairs personalities, has launched his own e-commerce platform. 

Officially unveiled in December through a digital press launch, Tulfo’s platform ‘Idol Shopping Network’, shortened as ISN, aims to create a marketplace where the safety of both buyers and sellers are of utmost priority.

According to a report by Manila Bulletin, ISN is actually owned by Tulfo’s kids, where Tulfo and his wife are just acting as ‘support system’ to the business.

Idol Shopping Network’s logo. Screengrab from YugaTech.

Despite only standing in as a ‘supporter’, it seems the new e-commerce platform is set to embody Tulfo’s branding of ‘safe’ and ‘lawful’ transactions. 

Tulfo is mostly known as a hard-hitting, no-holds-barred commentator and champion of the poor who has several public service programs under his belt – long-running radio program WANTED SA RADYO (Wanted in radio) and noontime newscast IDOL IN ACTION – both of which have Tulfo acting as a mediator for any grievances and complaints of injustice from the public. 

Tulfo during one of the live broadcasts of his radio program on his YouTube channel.

According to Manila Bulletin, the broadcaster shared that while he himself hasn’t experienced any inconveniences or fraud with shopping platforms, he has received many e-commerce-related complaints on his radio show and television program.

“For example, customers would order peanuts but they would receive popcorn. Problems like that,” said Tulfo. 

In November, the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) revealed that a total of 14,869 complaints have been made against online shops in 2020, where ninety percent involve the more familiar platforms Shopee and Lazada. 

With ISN putting a premium on safe transactions, Tulfo said the platform would run a one-of-a-kind system that would ensure products are safe from the seller down to the rider and buyer. 

A report by Philstar shared the said process. In an exclusive interview, Tulfo revealed that ISN will be both lenient and strict to sellers – the e-commerce platform welcomes sellers with zero capital, where sellers only need to put out their goods, provided the merchandise passes quality control standards by ISN. 

Tulfo said merchants will be well-screened, where the selection process will be “long and strict,” where rather just simple photos, products must be seen live by ISN.  

To further ensure the process is a hundred percent safe, a little effort will also be required by customers. Tulfo shared that customers must sign a contract agreeing to be videoed and photographed while opening the package from the courier. They will also be asked to sign a document stating the product is the right one and is sent in good condition, and if otherwise, the customer need not pay for the order.

Tulfo shared that his long-term plan for ISN is to subsidize a school out of its profits, where earnings will go to such basic expenses as employee pay, maintenance, and others.

Upholding the character of fairness he is most known for, Tulfo promises that he will welcome buyer complaints on his own ISN’s products. 

Singapore – As Shopee celebrates its fifth year in the business, the Southeast Asia and Taiwan platform shared the three key strategies it lived by to propel the company’s leadership in the e-commerce landscape today. 

In 2019, Shopee reigned over Alibaba-owned Lazada and Indonesia-grown Tokopedia, where it emerged as the most used e-commerce app with the highest number of monthly active users, at the same time, coming out as the most visited e-commerce website in Southeast Asia, according to a collaborative report by iPrice, App Annie and SimilarWeb. 

This 2020, the platform continues to set new records with its recent shopping events, with the just concluded 11.11 sale recording 200 million items sold across the region.

Chris Feng, CEO at Shopee

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 localized strategies that make Shopee what it is today.

Chris Feng, CEO, Shopee

Shopee shared that in shaping the platform, it circles its strategies on three e-commerce trends: social, personalization, and integration.

With social, Shopee recognized the power of replicating the human touch to online shopping. Advancements in technology have increased consumers’ expectations of their shopping experience, demanding more engagement, one with rich and unique content.

To address this consumer need, 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.

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 retain the social experience in the platform.

Another trend, hyper localization, has grown to be an imperative among brands, and as a platform that runs on seven different markets, Shopee lives and breathes such strategy.

“Personalization is critical in the e-commerce of today. A highly personalized experience is crucial to make online shopping more efficient, enjoyable and unique for consumers, while helping brands and sellers drive increased traffic and growth,” said Shopee in a press statement.

To do this, Shopee continually refines its recommendation engines to offer more customized and relevant shopping suggestions made to fit consumers’ needs.

For brands and sellers, being able to offer personalized recommendations helps to increase overall awareness and conversions. Through Shopee’s own AI capabilities, the advertisements on the platform are ensured to be delivered to the right users at the right time and place.

Lastly, Shopee stresses the importance of integration or creating a seamless customer journey online.

The rise of e-commerce has shifted the physical shopping experience to a virtual one, and with the pandemic rigidly restricting in-person interactions, the need to enhance the online customer experience has been more resounding.

As more retailers switch to online selling, Shopee helps brands and sellers of all sizes to rightly deliver across customer touchpoints by providing fundamental operational support through integrated payments and logistics, while making the experiences innovative that value-add to the overall customer journey.

For its 11.11 sale event last month, the platform partnered with CapitaLand mall in Singapore for an online-to-offline experience. Both parties 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.

Source: CapitaLand

Shopee also doubled down on defining the integration of physical experience to online when it partnered with consumer goods company P&G in July, introducing the 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.

“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,” said Feng.

As Shopee’s 12.12 Birthday Sale approaches, Feng also commented, “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.”

Shopee believes the three key trends which have shaped e-commerce, including its own, will continue to drive the growth of the medium in 2021 and beyond. As it anticipates this, the platform said it will continue to drive initiatives around such trends like its Shopee Mum’s Club, which provides like-minded mom consumers with one-stop exclusive access to baby product deals and parenting content, its Book Club for a new generation of digital readers in Vietnam, and a “Pawrents” club, which it mounted for Singapore consumers to meet the growing online demand for pet products in the country.

Singapore – Another global beauty brand has exclusively partnered with Shopee, and this time, it involves AI chatbots.

Following its Olay tie-up, Shopee has partnered with Unilever-owned skincare brand POND’S to launch the “Smarter Skincare Just For You” regional campaign, which will integrate POND’S skin analysis tech, Skin Advisor Live (SAL) AI chatbot, exclusively on the platform for the first time. 

Pond’s said that through SAL – which only requires users to upload a selfie to get started – users can gain a deeper understanding of their skin and be matched with the most effective skincare products, all from the comfort of their homes.

SAL was first launched on Facebook Messenger across nine countries last year, where according to POND’S, 98% of consumers cited that they enjoyed their interactions with SAL. POND’S also said the feature generated more than 15 times higher purchase intent as compared to its current landing site, and consumers were spending up to three times more time on SAL. 

Our mission has always been to provide consumers with expert skincare solutions to enable them to look their best every day. When faced with so many beauty choices available online, we understand it can be overwhelming and challenging for consumers to pick the right skincare products for their needs. By integrating SAL, POND’S virtual beauty advisor on Shopee’s robust chat platform, we can help consumers quickly find the products that suit their unique skin type.

Rohit Bhasin, Global Brand Vice President, POND’S

The campaign will be leveraging Shopee’s marketing tools and core engagement features. For a start, SAL carries a “Buy Now” button, where users can be directed to the product detail page on Shopee Mall to learn more about the product before making a purchase.

The digital campaign will also be delivering engaging and relevant smart beauty content via Shopee KOLs, social media, and co-branded videos, where content will revolve around debunking beauty myths and equipping users with knowledge and tips to confidently discover and experiment with beauty products online. In addition, POND’S will roll out live stream engagements through live stream giveaways and rewards.

“This partnership will enable POND’S and Shopee to capture more digital-savvy consumers in the region and drive higher engagement, as e-commerce becomes an increasingly important channel of growth. In the region, e-commerce has contributed significantly to the growth of Unilever’s skincare category, year-over-year, hitting more than 400% in key markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam,” said Shopee in a press release.

We are honored to be the first and exclusive e-commerce platform to partner with POND’S on this innovative campaign. We’re always looking for ways to explore and launch new ideas, tech, and products with brands and to provide fresh experiences for our Shopee users who trust us for a seamless and unique shopping experience. This partnership comes at an opportune time to empower users to invest in quality products catered to their skincare needs through edutainment and promotional deals this holiday season.”

Ian Ho, Regional Managing Director, Shopee

The campaign on Shopee Mall will run for six months and will be rolled out in phases across four markets in Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, starting December.

Manila, Philippines – With increased online spending during the pandemic also comes a surge of online purchase complaints, and this has been evident in Southeast Asia market The Philippines, with the country’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) revealing that a total of 14,869 complaints have been made against online shops this year, according to a report by Philippine News Agency.

The complaints were made from the period of January to October this year, where according to DTI Undersecretary for Consumer Protection Group Ruth Castelo, nature of the complaints spanned violations of the Price Act, the quality of products, and deceptive, unfair, or unconscionable sales acts or practices.

Being the top e-commerce sites in the country, Shopee and Lazada were reported to account for the majority of complaints with a combined 6,907 number of flags.

Compared to the full year of 2019, complaints against Lazada grew three-fold from 1,014 to 3,475 complaints for the first 10 months of 2020. Meanwhile, those against Shopee increased over five times, from 607 complaints from the end of 2019, to a total of 3,432 complaints this year.

“Ninety percent of the total online complaints from October 2020 are against two of the more familiar platforms,” said Castelo.

She added the remaining complaints last month involved transactions on Facebook and other online platforms.

In early October, news about a scammed student astounded Filipinos, where a 20-year-old received rocks instead of his ordered laptop.

Manila, Philippines – Local-based telecommunications company PLDT has recently partnered up with e-commerce Shopee’s payment platform ShopeePay to bring convenience to payment gateways for services provided by the local telco.

The recent partnership aims at providing more payment service options for PLDT customers in settling their payments for postpaid plans, WiFi, and other bills.

Users can pay through ShopeePay in the Shopee app, under the “Load, Bills & eServices” option.

Accompanying the recent partnership is a chance for PLDT Home subscribers to receive rewards just by paying through the ShopeePay platform. Users may enjoy Shopee coin cashbacks for the following promos:

  • 300 Shopee coins cashback when users pay every Monday, Thursday, and on November 11 by using the voucher code PLDTBILL300.
  • 250 Shopee coins cashback every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with the voucher code PLDTBILL250
  • 200 and 150 Shopee coins cashback respectively when they pay their bills with PLDTBILL200 and PLDTBILL150 voucher codes

“As more consumers are turning to our platform to stay connected and fulfill their daily needs, we are committed to providing them easy access to digital payment services such as ShopeePay for seamless payment,” said Martin Yu, associate director at Shopee Philippines.

Manila, Philippines – The 11.11 Christmas sale of e-commerce platform Shopee is undoubtedly around the corner, and the Philippine leg of the brand has bolstered its marketing efforts to build on its momentum, giving shoppers in the region a chance to win ₱1M.

Called “Shopee Milyonaryo,” with the word milyonaryo meaning millionaire, the raffle draw has started 25 October, with succeeding draws up until 11 November. In order to join, Shopee users need to claim their code within the mobile app for a chance to participate in a televised game to win the cash prize.

The claiming is not perpetually opened and is only activated from 6:30pm each day until 4pm the next day. With this, Shopee has created a “remind me” feature to help users remember to participate. 

Ever since its 8.8 sale event in August, Shopee PH has partnered with popular afternoon variety show Wowowin, implementing different branded activities to engage its Filipino shoppers. The daily winner of the milyonaryo raffle is similarly announced on the show every 5:55pm, where the chosen user, through a phone call, plays a game where he or she is asked to choose from a number of boxes, with one of them containing the one million peso cash prize. 

What Shopee’s main placement has been on the show is a simple phone call engagement where host Willie Revillame chooses from a list of submitted contact info from its Facebook page, and calls the person for him or her to simply say “Salamat Shopee” or “Thank you Shopee,” in exchange for a ₱20K cash prize.

Just recently, the e-commerce platform has also revealed one of its newest endorsers ahead of 11.11, the country’s Queen of All Media Kris Aquino. An ad of Aquino and her digital banners have already been rolled out across channels.

Manila, Philippines – Philippine mobile service provider Smart Communications has teamed up with Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Shopee to give Smart postpaid users the option of paying their bill through ShopeePay.

Regulated under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, ShopeePay is a mobile wallet which allows users to cash in and pay for items within the Shopee app.

With this partnership, Smart postpaid users can easily and securely pay for their postpaid bill directly on the Shopee app.

To pay for their postpaid bill, users need to log-in to the Shopee app, activate the ShopeePay wallet, and then top up with their selected payment method. Afterwards, users need to go to “Load, Bills & eServices,” tap “Postpaid Mobile” and then “Select Smart or Sun as the Biller.”

Subscribers of Smart Bro Postpaid and Sun Postpaid can also use the feature. Pay settlement through ShopeePay will also allow users to redeem Shopee coins which can be used for other purchases in the Shopee app.

Singapore – P&G-owned skincare brand Olay has launched a brand new campaign – Adult Fearlessly – and it has partnered with Shopee to exclusively run it on its platform ahead of Olay’s special sale event Brand Day. The event will be held on October 14 to 16.

The campaign seeks to reach and engage with millennial women around Southeast Asia to bring a message of empowerment that they can #adultfearlessly, and overcome the perceived challenges of “adulting,” such as that with investing in their skincare needs.

Together with Shopee, Olay has conceptualized and co-created content such as a video called “Fearless with your choices,” which aims to shift the mindsets of millennials as they confront their fears of turning 30. It is also said to highlight the positive aspects of the journey leading up to such age.

The campaign will be rolled out in phases across six markets including Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. 

Lucy Moran, Senior eCommerce Director of Olay for APAC shared that the brand wants to focus on how consumers are integrating their lifestyle with their skin needs.

“As one of the top facial skincare brands in the world, we are continually innovating and advancing the way we connect with our consumers. With e-commerce driving a major shift from offline to online sales, there is potential to achieve further growth in this segment,” said Moran.

“Riding on this momentum to broaden our reach in Southeast Asia, we are partnering with Shopee once again to bring more engaging and convenient experiences online, where consumers are able to access Olay products– all at the click of a button,” she added.

Meanwhile, Shopee’s Regional Managing Director Ian Ho said that the Health & Beauty category is one of the top-performing on the platform as the new normal has driven even more consumers to browse and buy skin care products online.

“We are proud to be able to support Olay in their e-commerce growth through this campaign. Our shared consumer insights and widening base of millennial users have enabled a hyperlocal strategy for Olay to deliver the best online shopping experience. We are confident in supporting Olay to achieve another successful campaign with us,” said Ho.

This will be the second collaboration between the two brands. In April, Olay’s regional campaign for its Retinol 24 product line was also run by the partnership with Shopee.

Singapore – Shopee’s parent company Sea recently inked a deal with Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to train and hire 500 Singaporeans on eCommerce-related skills of software engineering, product management, and user experience design.

The program is part of IMDA’s ongoing initiative TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) which aims to enhance training and placement opportunities for information and communications technology (ICT) jobs across the economy.  

According to IMDA, the program, when implemented, will be the largest TeSA Company-Led Training (CLT) program ever by a Singapore-based company. 

The program will include 400 entry-level and 100 mid-career Singaporean job seekers who will go through 6 months of training to be provided by Shopee.

Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran believes that strategic partnerships with industry players are key in growing a strong pipeline of local tech talent.

“In these challenging times, the Government’s priority is to create good jobs for Singaporeans. In particular, we want to ensure that we have a strong pipeline of local tech talent equipped with the skills to secure new opportunities in the Digital Economy. Partnerships with the industry players are key,” Iswaran said.

“This collaboration with Sea Limited (Sea) is timely as it will help some 500 Singaporeans acquire the requisite skills to further their career in the ICT sector, which remains a bright spot in our economy. It also signals the scale and ambition of our ongoing national effort to create jobs and training opportunities for all Singaporeans in our economic recovery from COVID-19. I urge more companies to come forward and join us in this concerted effort,” added Iswaran.

Meanwhile, Sea’s Chairman and CEO Forest Li explained the benefits of the partnership. 

“As a global consumer internet company born and bred in Singapore, we are honored to partner with IMDA on this important initiative. This program not only creates 500 highly-skilled, technical roles at Sea and Shopee for Singaporeans at all stages of their careers but also ensures that these talents can access training and development opportunities to build thriving long-term careers in the ICT sector,” said Li.

“In line with our mission to better the lives of consumers and small businesses through technology, we are committed to empowering our local communities to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the growth of the digital economy,” he added.