Entering the second year after the pandemic, offices are bustling again, as are shopping centers. However, there is a new habit that has persisted since the pandemic period, namely shopping online through digital platforms.
According to the e-Conomy Southeast Asia report released by Google, there were 40 million new internet users in Southeast Asia in 2021 and 80% of them already had an online shopping experience. This fairly large number of digital consumers is expected to continue for the next few years.
Together with SimilarWeb, iPrice again updated the Indonesian E-Commerce Map data in the first quarter of 2022 to find out the development of e-commerce based on the average total website visits (desktop and mobile web). In addition, we also analyze their social engagement based on social sentiment data obtained from Buzzsumo.
Shopee, Lazada and Tokopedia Lead Southeast Asia
An e-commerce company from Singapore, Shopee is still prominent in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market in the first quarter of 2022. Shopee is consistently the most visited e-commerce site in 5 of 6 Southeast Asian countries namely Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines , and Vietnam.
Total visits reached 421 million visitors at the beginning of 2022. In the past year, Shopee has placed a significant focus on getting more involved in the lifestyles of its consumers.
That is the reason why Shopee is expanding its line of business and providing food delivery services (Shopee Food) in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
The closest competitor in this area is Lazada with a total visit of 137 million visitors. This Alibaba-backed e-commerce company managed to rank second in Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, fourth in Vietnam, and third in Indonesia and Malaysia.
In contrast to Shopee, Lazada has actually expanded its business line into the logistics sector to solve one of the biggest challenges of e-commerce in Southeast Asia.
After building its own logistics infrastructure, Lazada is also working with Grab to help sellers in Singapore with same day delivery services. In Indonesia, e-commerce with the highest number of website visitors is still occupied by Tokopedia, reaching 157 million visitors in Q1 2022. This e-commerce from Indonesia has managed to become the only local e-commerce that has the most local website visitors in Southeast Asia, rivaling Shopee and Lazada.
Dominance of Local and International e-Commerce in Southeast Asia
Of the six countries analyzed by the iPrice team, there are at least 1 to 3 local players in the top 5 most visited e-commerce rankings in each country.
Then, which country has the strongest market localization? iPrice's research results show that Singapore is the country with the largest share of local e-commerce, reaching 98% of all e-commerce in the area.
Not surprising considering the country has two unicorn companies, Shopee and Lazada, which currently lead the e-commerce market share in Southeast Asia.
Vietnam is in second place with a share of local e-commerce reaching 60%. Not much different from Vietnam, Indonesia is in third position with a 54% share of local e-commerce followed by Malaysia (25%), Thailand (15%) and the Philippines (1%).
Although the share of international e-commerce is more dominant in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, in fact the number of local e-commerce in these three countries is actually more than the number of international e-commerce. However, the smaller scale of local e-commerce makes the international share more desirable.
Highest Engagement e-Commerce on Social Media
Social media (medsos) now plays a very important role in the publication and advertising activities carried out by e-commerce in Indonesia.
Realizing this, iPrice Group also analyzes the reactions and engagements that occur between Facebook and Twitter users towards the 4 most visited e-commerce sites in Indonesia.
Data shows that Tokopedia has succeeded in becoming an e-commerce platform with the highest Facebook and Twitter engagements at 145 thousand engagements, followed by Bukalapak at 117 thousand, Shopee at 96 thousand, and Lazada at 12 thousand.
Interestingly, despite having a lower number of visitors, Bukalapak manages to have higher social engagement than Shopee and Lazada. It seems that the Indonesian people have a higher enthusiasm for local e-commerce development topics such as Tokopedia and Bukalapak compared to international e-commerce developments.