From campus startup to Southeast Asian hot seller, it leverages Shopee to create a new growth curve

" The Southeast Asian e-commerce market will exceed US$200 billion in 2025. " This joint report from Google, Temasek and Bain reveals that the world's fastest-growing e-commerce blue ocean is accelerating its rise.

More and more brands are "setting up camp" in this hot land, leveraging e-commerce platforms to "enter the countryside" to do business. Chinese luggage brand MAH is one of the best among them .

The strategy of "netting out more fish and selecting the best ones " accurately targeted the Southeast Asian battlefield and, relying on Shopee's localized ecology, staged a counterattack of "a snake swallowing an elephant".

The story of the MAH brand began on a university campus in 2010. The company's founder Ivan and his roommates had a dream of starting a business. They made their first fortune by selling bags through links on domestic e-commerce platforms at a very low cost.

However, with the vigorous development of domestic e-commerce, the competition in categories on the platform has become increasingly fierce. The entry of many international brands and the rise of emerging brands have gradually intensified the reshuffle of the luggage industry.

Ivan and his partners realized that relying on the short-term profit model of "speculating" could not support the long-term growth and product expansion of the brand. In order to gain a foothold in the fierce market, they must build their own brand moat.

In 2014, MAH made a key decision to create its own brand. With innovative design and high-quality products, MAH has gained a foothold in domestic e-commerce platforms and successfully entered offline channels, making a name for itself in the mid- to high-end backpack market for young women. In 2017, after the brand developed steadily, MAH set its sights on the international market and aspired to build a global brand.

▲ Picture source: Interviewed seller

After a period of brand incubation, MAH officially started its internationalization in 2019, adhering to the strategy of "casting a wide net to catch more fish", and fully expanded into multiple international markets including Southeast Asia, entering through local mainstream e-commerce platforms. Unexpectedly, the Southeast Asian market responded enthusiastically.

In recent years, the penetration rate of e-commerce in Southeast Asia has continued to increase, and consumers' shopping enthusiasm has exploded. In 2024, the average number of online shopping in Southeast Asia will reach 5.4 times per month, far exceeding the global average. The luggage category is particularly eye-catching, with strong development momentum in markets such as the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Vietnam is hailed as the "new blue ocean" of the luggage industry.

Southeast Asia's huge young consumer group and strong purchasing power have also given MAH new vitality in this market. Ivan said, "Our target group is mainly the 18 to 25-year-old group, including college students and young people entering the workplace. Consumers in this age group are the main consumer force, with strong purchasing power and consumption demand, so we regard them as the main target group."

Southeast Asia has a population of about 670 million, with an average age of less than 30 years old, and young people account for a considerable proportion. This coincides with MAH's target market and lays a solid foundation for the brand's success in Southeast Asia.

However, when entering the Southeast Asian market for the first time, choosing which platform to use as a breakthrough point became an issue that the MAH team had to consider seriously.

“Only by choosing the right platform can you achieve twice the result with half the effort.” Ivan said. After careful consideration, MAH finally chose Shopee as the “first stop” to enter Southeast Asia.

When asked why he chose Shopee as his main platform, Ivan gave a straightforward answer: the market is large, the system is complete, and users are highly dependent on it.

According to Momentum Works’ report, Shopee will dominate the Southeast Asian market with a 48% market share in 2024, accounting for half of the local e-commerce industry. Thanks to Shopee’s abundant user traffic, MAH has achieved impressive results in Southeast Asia in just a few years.

It is learned that on the Shopee platform, MAH's GMV has achieved a year-on-year growth of 660%. In particular, the "Siro Backpack" once became a hot-selling item, with cumulative sales exceeding tens of thousands and average monthly sales exceeding 1,000 orders, becoming a well-deserved hot-selling item.

Talking about this achievement, Ivan said: "Shopee has a larger market share, which means it can bring in more revenue, which is the primary reason why we chose Shopee. More importantly, Shopee has built a complete e-commerce system, integrating from shelf e-commerce to final logistics, warehousing and other links, which provides better entry conditions for brand sellers." He further pointed out that it was the "package solution" provided by the platform that helped MAH quickly take root in the local market.

MAH has been operating on Shopee for about 4 to 5 years. As Southeast Asian consumers become more and more dependent on Shopee, it is particularly important to choose to open an official store on Shopee. Ivan added, "With the help of the Shopee platform, MAH can not only establish the brand's flagship store image, but also facilitate the further development of the brand."

If the platform's support has injected strong growth momentum into the brand, then accurate market insights are undoubtedly another key factor in MAH's rapid rise in the Southeast Asian market.

After several years of market exploration, MAH has gradually drawn an accurate portrait of the luggage consumer groups in Southeast Asia: for example, consumers in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines prefer European and American styles and simple and fashionable designs; while consumers in the Thailand and Vietnam markets prefer cute-style products.

Based on deep insights into these markets, MAH provides a solution to differentiation: "unify brand tone and dynamically adapt to needs."

MAH did not launch customized products specifically for the Southeast Asian market. As Ivan said, "MAH's brand and product style are consistent, and it always adheres to its unique positioning and route. Therefore, it is more about combining the characteristics of the local market and making adjustments to the brand line."

For example, MAH keenly captured the environmental protection trend in the Philippine market and promptly launched backpacks made of environmentally friendly materials; when it moved to Singapore, its simple and elegant design won enthusiastic pursuit from consumers; and in Thailand, printed shoulder bags with Thai style and tropical elements are very popular.

▲ Picture source: Interviewed seller

If localization at the product level is brewing a jar of "good wine", then strengthening local fulfillment capabilities is to ensure that the "good wine" can be smoothly delivered to consumers and avoid the brand falling into the dilemma of "good wine is afraid of being hidden in a remote alley" .

Therefore, in terms of localized fulfillment, most of MAH's sites in Southeast Asia have been connected to Shopee's official warehousing services.

“Shopee’s localized fulfillment brings us many advantages,” Ivan said. “First, the platform event resources provided by Shopee can effectively increase product exposure and thus promote sales conversion. With this support, we can reach target consumers more accurately, improve conversion rates, and further drive business growth.”

It is based on this understanding that MAH continues to promote localized fulfillment as a core strategy. The team not only participates deeply in Shopee's various platform activities, but also ensures the implementation of localized strategies through customized operation mechanisms. From resource docking to process optimization, from data monitoring to strategy iteration, MAH has formed a set of effective localized operation methods to continuously release this strategic advantage.

When talking about the increase in orders after the brand settled in Shopee, Ivan recalled: "The first site to realize orders was the Philippines, around July 2022. It was the start of the school season in the Philippines. We combined off-site advertising with targeted promotions and successfully promoted a significant increase in sales. From the initial average of more than a dozen orders per day, it gradually climbed to more than 90 orders per day, and the market feedback was very positive."

MAH is well aware of the business logic that traffic dividends are fleeting while operations are long-lasting, and has specially formed a 10-person localized operations team covering core functions such as visual design and customer service.

At the same time, we have innovatively created a "two-wheel drive" marketing matrix: in terms of marketing within Shopee, we have used Shopee Live as the main live broadcast platform for brands, implemented a daily broadcast strategy, and combined it with the frequently updated Shopee Video short video content matrix;

In the off-site social media battlefield, we target core customer groups, use Instagram and Facebook as the communication hub, and accurately deliver creative materials. This three-dimensional approach of linking inside and outside the site not only achieves accurate diversion of traffic funnels, but also builds a three-dimensional field of brand awareness.

▲ Picture source: Interviewed seller

Facts have also proved that MAH's choice is wise. It is learned that during the Shopee 12.12 promotion in 2024, the number of Shopee Live viewers increased by 32 times, and the number of Shopee Video short video viewers exceeded 42 million, bringing strong growth momentum to brand exposure and sales.

Shopee's rich content ecosystem has also given MAH more confidence in increasing brand exposure. Ivan said, "For markets that are not yet mature or are developing, we plan to continue to increase resource investment to promote business growth."

Today, the Southeast Asian luggage market is in a stage of rapid growth. Thanks to the demographic dividend, consumption upgrades and branding trends, the market size continues to expand. At the same time, consumers' shopping habits are also quietly changing - from simply pursuing low prices to paying more attention to quality and brand value.