How did Shopee’s top sellers achieve growth from 0 to 1 within half a year?

On the long journey of going overseas, sometimes choice is even more important than hard work.

As the growth dividend of cross-border e-commerce is released, more and more Chinese merchants have gone abroad in recent years to explore the second growth curve in the global market. However, for many sellers who are new to the market, they are inevitably confused due to lack of experience: which market to focus on? Which platform to focus on?

In this regard, clothing seller Fa Ge gave a high-scoring answer. After nearly seven years in the industry, Fa Ge said frankly, "Objectively speaking, I think we were lucky. We met at the right time and opportunity, and made the right choice."

Just as Fa Ge said, he made many correct and important choices in the process of going overseas: including quitting his job to start a business to seize the industry's boom period, anchoring the vast incremental Southeast Asian market, and relying on the industrial belt and choosing to settle in the Shopee platform.

In 2017, after graduating from university, Fa Ge joined a Shenzhen cross-border women's clothing company. During his work, Fa Ge keenly saw the development potential of the cross-border e-commerce industry and had the idea of ​​starting his own business. He recalled : "I was mainly engaged in women's clothing-related work in the company before, and accumulated a certain amount of industry experience. Later, I noticed that some emerging e-commerce platforms had considerable orders. At the same time, my friends who switched to cross-border e-commerce have achieved good results, so I decided to resign and start my entrepreneurial journey."

Initially, Fa Ge's cross-border entrepreneurial journey was not smooth sailing. Although Fa Ge achieved a good result of 200 orders per day in less than a week, he soon found that the supply chain of the women's clothing industry was uneven, the size standards were often not unified, and the return rate remained high, which led to a series of operational problems such as funding and payment collection.

Facing the pressure, Fa Ge did not get discouraged, but learned from it and looked for new breakthroughs. He saw the small size deviation and relatively low return rate of the children's clothing market, as well as his own advantages in the supply chain, and decided to switch to the children's clothing track. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the market, he went deep into the children's clothing industry belt in Foshan, communicated face-to-face with many suppliers, and gained a deep understanding of industry trends. It was during this research process that Fa Ge gradually discovered the growth opportunities of the Shopee platform.

▲ The picture comes from the seller interviewed

"At that time, I read some posts and read other people's experiences, and I knew that the Southeast Asian market was still a blue ocean, with a large population and many opportunities for online shopping." Fa Ge introduced. When Shopee's Vietnam site was opened, Fa Ge saw the opportunity and joined Shopee. Fa Ge, who was just testing the waters at first, achieved good results after joining. "The investment manager I met at that time was very responsible, and the whole team was very enthusiastic and gave me a lot of support. The company did well during that time. So basically, most of the resources were invested in the Shopee platform at that time, and it also achieved certain results."

Fa Ge further shared: "The platforms I worked on before all required huge investments. In addition to the cost of the goods themselves, I also had to consider the costs of logistics and warehousing. For example, if a piece of clothing that costs 20 yuan is to be shipped to the United States, I have to pay the freight forwarding fee, pre-charge and invest a large amount of logistics fees." This made Fa Ge feel financially tight in the early stages of his business.

This pain point was alleviated after entering Shopee. Fa Ge explained: "In comparison, Shopee's entry threshold is relatively low, and we no longer need to pay this extra investment. At the same time, thanks to Shopee's fast logistics in Southeast Asia, our financial pressure has been largely resolved."

On the other hand, as a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, Shopee's perfect platform ecology also provides a fertile soil for cross-border sellers to take root in the local market. Fa Ge also seized the opportunity in time. Within less than half a year, his store quickly gained volume and continued to increase its popularity by actively participating in platform activities. "During a certain event, we achieved sales of 5,000 to 7,000 orders a day, " Fa Ge said excitedly.

As a blue ocean market with great growth potential and consumption potential, Southeast Asian e-commerce has broad opportunities for gold mining, but it is not easy to truly take root in this market. Differences in cultural customs and consumer preferences determine the importance of accurate market insights and localized operations.

Based on this, Fa Ge has developed a set of refined operational product strategies through nearly seven years of hard work.

In the process of exploring the local market, Fa Ge found that price is an important factor in attracting consumers. Fa Ge concluded: "Since most Southeast Asian countries are developing countries, consumers pay much attention to cost performance, so having a price advantage means having higher competitiveness. "

But cost-effectiveness is not the only determining factor. Southeast Asia is home to many different markets, each with its own unique local customs and practices, and consumers’ consumption habits and product preferences vary to a certain extent. For this reason, the Fa Ge team has developed a set of product selection strategies tailored to local conditions, developing products in a targeted and customized manner for different countries and sites.

Talking about the road to product style positioning, Fa Ge shared his profound insights. Initially, he thought that the aesthetics of Southeast Asians were similar to the domestic style, so he tried to introduce domestic popular elements, especially the design of a well-known store in Shenzhen that focuses on Chinese style. However, after the product entered the Malaysian market, the market feedback was beyond his expectations. After careful market research, Fa Ge keenly realized that there was a big difference between the aesthetic preferences of Southeast Asian consumers and the Chinese style, and the acceptance of Chinese style products was not high.

With this experience, Fa Ge quickly adjusted his strategy and changed the product style to the Japanese and Korean style that is more in line with Southeast Asian aesthetics. Especially after the opening of the Vietnam site, the products launched by his team are not only full of design, such as skirts with lace and embroidery elements, but also deeply loved by consumers. These products have performed well in sales and profits in the Vietnamese market, successfully proving the correctness of the adjustment direction.

▲ The picture comes from the seller interviewed

"Consumers in Vietnam and Thailand are relatively trendy and more willing to accept designs with a sense of design. Their purchasing power is also good. Unlike consumers in the Philippines, they do not pursue the ultimate value for money. With the right time, place and people, the Vietnamese and Thai markets have achieved very good results," Fa Ge revealed.

In order to better meet the consumption needs of this target audience, Fa Ge's store has adopted a strategy of giving equal importance to cost-effectiveness and design in product design. He knows that the price positioning of products is not simply to pursue low prices, but to provide reasonable prices while ensuring the sense of design. Therefore, his products are not only highly designed, but also moderately priced, and are deeply loved by consumers. It is precisely this differentiated product selection strategy and refined operation management that have enabled Fa Ge's store to accumulate a large number of fans among mothers in the Southeast Asian market and successfully gain a foothold in the Southeast Asian market.

Looking back on his seven years of overseas experience, Fa Ge was filled with emotion: "Behind the success, there is not only the favor of opportunities, but also the support of execution. I made the right choice at the right time, and firm execution was the key to making all this a reality. In general, the courage to try and the courage to fight are the only way to success."

When talking about his expectations for the future, Fa Ge also formulated a clear development blueprint for his company: continue to rely on the Shopee platform to focus on the Southeast Asian market, and plan to develop Shopee overseas warehouses in Southeast Asia and build its own factories. With the help of the platform, continue to accumulate resources and wait for the right time to develop more diversified categories and tracks.

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