Luxury platform: Shopee aiming to be ‘top premium beauty destination’ with launch of dedicated prestige ecosystem

Launched in late September, Shopee Premium is a dedicated platform to provide consumers with direct access to authentic premium products.

The platform currently hosts around 20 beauty brand such as Sulwhasoo, L’Occitane, Foreo.

Shopee Premium follows the launch of Shopee Mall, which currently has more than 18,000 brands across multiple categories.

“With 70% more new brands opening official stores on Shopee Mall in 2020, we felt that it was timely to carve out a more differentiated platform for premium brands, given the untapped potential of existing users who were already searching for authentic premium products online,”​ said Ian Ho, regional managing director, Shopee.

In particular, the firm has observed a strong demand for premium beauty products on the platform.

“We’ve seen consistently strong demand for beauty products on Shopee, which includes skin care, cosmetics and personal care products. The health and beauty category is one of our top performing categories, where the growth of premium beauty brands has exceeded mass beauty brands,” ​said Ho.

According to a survey conducted by Shopee, over 16,000 respondents from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam say they choose to shop online for premium products because of the convenience and the ability to easily compare products and prices.

“In this new normal, consumers still want to look and feel good despite staying home more often. We believe that as more consumers in the region turn to e-commerce and trust Shopee to fulfil their daily and lifestyle needs, the demand for authentic premium beauty products will continue to grow as well,” ​said Ho.

The firm expects the growth of the premium categories to rise, driven by the rising middle class in the region.

“The personal luxury goods market continues to enjoy sustained growth across Asia, with demand for beauty purchases rising across online channels. The growing middle class in South East Asia will continue to drive the expansion of the premium customer base,” ​said Ho.

Additionally, the rise of the Gen Z consumer will boost the growth of the premium categories, Ho added.

“A deeper look at the premium and luxury consumer segments show that younger consumers will dominate the growth of the industry. While millennials have been steady buyers of premium and luxury products, the Gen Z consumers will reshape the market, representing a growing portion of consumers that seek out brands aligned with their values.”​                                                                                                                                                   

Seamless experiences

Ho explained to CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ that the firm strived to support brands to create a smooth online shopping experience for its consumers.

“What matters most to brands is that they deliver a consistent and seamless omnichannel brand experience for their customers​. The offline and online shopping experience should be complementary rather than opposing, as technology has changed the linear buying journey.”​

The company leveraged its data and insights to design and build Shopee Premium around consumer behaviour.

For instance, the platform’s brand spotlight pages give brands more digital real estate to customise brand elements and content.

This allows the brand to feature products and collections or illustrate brand heritage through long-form articles, stylised photography and images.

“These pages help to increase consumer touchpoints and replicate the experience of browsing through a store, section by section, as they look for products that capture their attention. If they have questions about the products, they can use the Shopee chat feature to engage in real-time conversations that helps cultivate more trusting relationships between brands and customers,” ​said Ho.

Additionally, the platform allows brands to host livestreams, which are becoming more important for the online shopping experience.

“With digital savvy millennials and Gen Zs making more beauty purchases across online platforms, we wanted to help premium brands better engage with these generations of consumers. They are digital and mobile-first, enjoy discovering new brands online, and are heavily influenced by online brand videos and content,”​ said Ho.

Furthermore, the company working to launch services and features that will further enhance the premium shopping experience, such as express delivery, and even personal shopper service.

“The possibilities are endless and we’re always seeking ways to meet the needs of brands and their customers,” ​said Ho.

The company is also in the midst of onboarding more brands and securing more partnerships.

“We have received strong interest from brands since the soft launch, and as Shopee Premium gains higher traffic and engagement during this year-end shopping season, we’re confident that more brands will be keen to come onboard,” ​said Ho.

“Ultimately, we want to become the region’s top premium beauty destination, where shoppers can get access to both leading household names, as well as niche and cult brands within the premium tier.”​