Shopee makes buying and selling a breeze

Shopee makes buying and selling a breeze

Shopee’s the latest online mobile shopping platform. It brings together elements from Carousell (easy to list, seller-buyer chat), and other more traditional marketplaces features that is reminiscent of Qoo10 and Lazada, the other big shopping platforms that would be familiar to Singapore shoppers.

In a nutshell, Shopee has the following features.

Buying on Shopee

  • Explore popular trends by tapping on #Hashtag
  • Chat and make an offer
  • Shopee curated specials and Shopee codes
  • Be protected with Shopee gurantee (funds are held by Shopee until buyer receives goods)

Selling on Shopee

  • Snap a picture – ready to sell
  • Organize listings, track orders, manage customers with “Seller Assistant”
  • Engage customers with Shopee Live Chat
  • List and sell products easily, at no additional costs
  • Sellers can opt for integrated logistics, Shopee will collect the product and deliver on behalf by next working day.

I tried listing a couple of products and it was pretty easy. But I did find the options to be limiting. For example, shipping options is configured per seller, not allowing me to have different shipping options for different products. Otherwise, it was easy and I listed my item in less than a couple of minutes. It’s much easier as compared to say, selling on Lazada and Qoo10. In addition, Shopee does not charge any listing or transaction fees. Once again, a great advantage compared to Qoo10 and Lazada, which charges sellers a commission on goods transacted.

In order for a marketplace to thrive, there needs to be sufficient customers. Shopee has attracted over 150,000 local users in Singapore since it was soft launched back in July.

Personal experience on Shopee?

My first purchase on Shopee was back in August, and they have been aggressive in their marketing efforts. Here’s a snapshot of some of my star deals bought from Shopee, $1 (shipping included) 16GB Samsung microSD, $2.17 cutlery holder, $1.63 USB charge monitor, $3 32GB Samsung microSD but to name a few. It’s a great place to look for shopping bargains on Shopee thanks to a combination of category sales and Shopee coupons. This week, they have been running a daily item special as well as a SITEX special for the tech geeks. The Black Friday special isn’t very inspiring though. All in all, there are some great bargains waiting to be unearthed which makes it all the more fun to shop around or to succumb to impulse buys. Last night, I bought a bottle of Speculos bread spread for a $1, (an additional $2 for shipping), since it was on offer. Heard it’s pretty yummy. One aspect that I find rather limiting on Shopee is still the item selection. It’s pretty small as compared to say Qoo10 or Lazada which has attracted more sellers. But that should improve over time.