Shopee Will Facilitate Local SMEs Exporting to Malaysia and Singapore

Shopee Indonesia said the plan to export SME products using the overseas platform. The plan is on administration process, pilot project is to be done in mid-2019.

Shopee Indonesia's Head of Government Relations, Radityo Triatmojo explained the current inter-country transaction in Shopee's platform is only when re-sellers purchase overseas products, not until the end users.

He added, the team is learning the required administration to export, logistics, until payment gateway. Also, the requirements for its platform overseas, in terms of product description, import duty, and others.

Everything is set for any issue related to the e-commerce players can be unraveled and solved. They will present all issues to the government, what to loose and others.

"Because we want to sell from local sellers to end user, we want it to be door to door [the service]," he said on Tue (4/12).

To realize the plan, Shopee Indonesia will utilize its platform in Southeast Asia. The two target countries are Singapore and Malaysia. There's no specific number to share regarding the export potential.

"We want to start from what we have, with the current platform. The setting will be adjusted because this is related to payment and its logistics."

He said, they haven't decided on what product to export. However, considering the offline retail trend, the highest on demand local product in both countries are moslem fashion.

Shopee was first introduced in 2015 in seven countries, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Philippines. The biggest contributor is Indonesia with 40% of the total GMV.

In Indonesia only, Shopee has been downloaded over 74 million times. There are 1.6 million active users and 95% of order made in-app. Shopee has users in 515 cities and districts. Shopee Indonesia team is now exceed 5 thousand people.

This concept was previously implemented by Lazada Indonesia last year. Lazada also use its overseas platform to market SMEs products through special page. The SMEs allowed in market have been curated by Lazada.

Lazada's target market are in Malaysia and Singapore. To make sure a qualified logistics, they put the products in warehouse of both countries. There will be weekly delivery process from Indonesia.

– Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian