Shopee vs Lazada. Which is the better platform for sellers?
If you live in South East Asia and want to start selling online, you might have asked yourself this question.
In this article, we will be going over several things to look out for when deciding which platform to sell on, as well as our opinion on what will help you the most.
Here’s a list of things to look out for:
- Visitors
- Marketing & Advertising
- Livestreaming
- Logistics
- Customer Order Tracking
- Education
Visitors
Based on data from 2020 and 2021, these were the average visitors on Lazada and Shopee in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Source: Statista
From the data given to us, we can see that Shopee has overall more traffic coming to their platform in all 4 countries.
The biggest difference in visitors would be in Indonesia, with a difference of over 91 monthly million visitors.
While the other countries have a difference of about 6 to 33 million monthly visitors, with Singapore being the smallest in difference.
So what does this mean for sellers?
All this means is that Shopee has more monthly visitors than Lazada, but not that sellers on either platform are getting more or fewer sales.
In 2020, Lazada had great success for 350,000 sellers on their platform during 11.11.
Meanwhile, Shopee had a seller receive 75,000 orders in 24 hours on 12.12 in 2020.
More visitors may help you get more sales, but we will also need to look at how each platform helps you close sales.
Marketing & Advertising
Both Shopee and Lazada are actively running ads through Google and Meta (Facebook & Instagram).
These ads are usually targeted at people who have browsed your online store on the platform(s) or are searching for a product at the moment.
Even on Youtube, you will see Lazada and Shopee ads that feature popular celebrities to help promote their platforms throughout the year.
But let’s take a look at advertising on the platforms.
Both Shopee and Lazada allow sellers to buy ad placements on their platforms.
This helps you get found when customers are searching for a product, as you will be placed above the organic listings while also having your organic listing somewhere below.
This gives you more chances to get a customer’s attention to view and purchase your products.
Not only that but both platforms may contact you directly to introduce special campaigns throughout the year to help increase your sales.
So when it comes to marketing and advertising, both Shopee and Lazada are mostly equal to each other.
Next, we look at what both platforms are trying to do with the increase in livestream sales.
Livestreaming
With live-selling trending upward globally, Lazada and Shopee are also pushing this on their platforms.
So what are they currently doing to help sellers sell live?
Lazada – LazLive
Lazlive is an in-app live-streaming feature.
Meaning, both customers and sellers can access this through the Lazada app.
This initiative enables your customers to have a better shopping experience.
This is done by allowing shoppers to interact with you in real time and get instant replies to any questions they have about your products.
In Southeast Asia, the Lazlive app was the first to offer the ‘See-Now-Buy-Now’, giving Lazada a first-mover advantage.
This live-selling feature has gotten over 27 million views which has helped increase sales by 45%.
With a new area to capture, Lazada is working on training local influencers to break its previous records and improve the overall experience of live-selling.
Shopee – Shopee Live
Shopee Live is Shopee’s answer to Lazada.
Similar to LazLive, this feature was created to help Shopee sellers gain more sales through higher engagement with their customers.
It managed to bring in 450 million views during Shopee’s 12.12 Birthday sale in 2021.
From what we know, if you missed a live stream on ShopeeLive, then you can access it afterward.
Customers may prefer to shop over Shopee Live over another app as sellers are able to co-host live stream events alongside someone else, opening up possibilities for collaboration between multiple sellers.
When comparing the two, both are also equal in live streaming functionality, with Shopee having an additional feature to co-host that might be more interesting to some of your customers.
Aside from what these platforms can do to help increase your sales, we will also be looking at the services they provide that help you fulfill your sales.
Logistics
The main difference between Lazada and Shopee is that Lazada owns most of its warehouse network and 40 fulfillment centres while Shopee does not.
With the whole logistic chain handled by Lazada from storing and fulfilling orders, many sellers on the platform are confident about their products being delivered on time with reasonable shipping costs.
Shopee on the other hand has strength in its partnerships with global logistic companies like
- DHL eCommerce
- Ninja Van
- The Lorry
- J&T Express
- and more to ensure fast product delivery and reliability
At the end of the day, both platforms have similar strengths in order fulfillment.
The advantage of using Lazada, in this case, would be not having to deal with 3PL company mistakes that may arise, as you can deal directly with Lazada if you have any fulfillment issues from their side.
Besides fulfillment, we should also take a look at how these platforms help your customers track their orders, so they don’t have to look for you when there’s a logistics issue.
Customer Order Tracking
Though it may seem unimportant to sellers like you, if this function didn’t exist, you would have much fewer customers on any platform.
That said, tracking through Lazada is easier than Shopee.
Customers get detailed updates on their deliveries in real time without needing to visit a third-party website.
Shopee customers on the other hand need to visit a third-party provider website to know the order status.
If a customer had multiple orders being delivered by different courier services, they would have to visit different sites to gather information on where their deliveries are.
This gets tiring quickly for the customer.
So when it comes to order tracking, Lazada sellers have the edge over Shopee sellers here.
Just to understand Shopee better, here is how orders are usually tracked.
Through Seller Center and Shopee App, Shopee sellers will as well be able to track their orders.
The following information will be given to customers to help with the tracking, which are
- The tracking number (which is easy to share via one tap instead of manually typing it)
- “Pickup Done” notifications (which will be sent out by the 3PL partners instead of Shopee)
If you’re looking for a stronger fulfillment experience for your customers, Lazada has the advantage here.
But let’s not forget something that both platforms have been improving to help both new and experienced sellers sell on their platforms, which is…
Education
Both platforms have created a learning portal to help all their sellers learn how to improve their online stores.
Lazada has Lazada University which has step-by-step guides to start selling on Lazada quickly.
You will have access to live webinars and other services to help you sell seamlessly and reach your store’s full potential.
On the other hand, Shopee has Shopee Masterclass.
Shopee Masterclass sessions help sellers to learn about
- logistics
- live streaming
- advertising
- finance management
- marketing
- and more via webinars and actionable tips
In terms of education, both Lazada and Shopee are more focused on helping you sell on their own platforms, and provide some education on selling online in general through their courses.
In this case, both platforms provide a similar education to their sellers
So Which Platform Should You Use?
So which platform should you choose?
Shopee or Lazada?
In our opinion, you should use both.
First off, there are no rules on either platform that says you must sell on only one of them.
Also, there are a few differences between both platforms, with the biggest difference being the number of monthly visitors.
And the experience between both platforms differs depending on what you are selling personally, as well as your preferences in how things like logistics and fulfillment are managed by either platform.
Overall, you would still need to try out both platforms to see if you prefer one over the other, or if both are fine for you.
Selling on both platforms also allows you to tap into both customer bases, so the monthly visitor difference does not really impact you.
The Easier Platform For New Sellers – Shopee
That said, if you are looking to start selling online for the first time on any of these platforms, you may want to start with Shopee, as they are less strict on the requirements to get started selling on their platform.
Regardless of your choice, you will still need to put in the work to become successful on Lazada or Shopee, and that includes taking the time to manage your stores.
Store Management
Running an online store can get tedious with work like
- Customer support
- Product updates
- Store design
- Ad Management
This work gets doubled when you sell on another platform as well.
If store management is keeping you from growing your business, then you may want to outsource your work so you have more time to focus on your business instead of being stuck in it.
We help to manage and improve your stores on Lazada and Shopee
If you feel that store management is something you need help with then contact us for a free consultation here, and we can see how we can help you improve your online store on any of these platforms!
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