Supplemental reading: Case Study from Shopee

Digital Marketing Concepts (Chapter 1)

Digital Marketing Techniques:

➔ Mobile Marketing: Shopee introducing campaigns through Push Notifications

Push Notifications are messages that pops up on mobile devices. They look almost exactly like text
messages and they work as an alert for users who have installed the Shopee App. The great thing
about it is that the users need not be in the Shopee app in order to see it. This allows for Shopee to
send push notifications at any time to remind users of upcoming or ongoing promotions, events and
can also serve as a tool to remind them to check out what they might already have in their shopping
cart. Using push notifications drives more traffic into our application and could possibly achieve a
higher retention rate.

Social Media Marketing: Reaching & engaging consumers through Shopee’s Instagram, Facebook +
InstaTV Channel

Shopee creates customer value through social media marketing. Shoppe actively engage users
through interactive posts and videos. The selected platforms include Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube as these are 3 of the top social networking platforms. With content ranging from creative
games, reviews, giveaways and upcoming campaigns, Shopee cover a large spectrum of what users
would find useful and engaging.
Email Marketing: Pushing of EDM Content

Electronic Direct Mail (EDM) is used on a weekly basis to drive sales and to build brand loyalty. Using
EDMs require us to first build a database of users by giving them an option to sign up for Shopee’s
mailing list. Users who are subscribed to the mailing list will be receiving weekly updates,
promotions and upcoming sales events. The content of EDMs can be but not limited to: Welcome
messages, event information, promotional offers, seasonal specials and product launches.

Digital Marketing Goals of Shopee:

➔ To increase brand awareness + top of mind among current and potential customers
➔ To create direct customer engagement
➔ To generate traffic to app
Planning (Chapter 2)

During the 11.11 Campaign, Shopee used both Online marketing and Segmented marketing to
capture and target specific audience.

For instance, for different categories, an analysis of the competitor’s

(Lazada) product range was conducted and engaging contents such as
infographics were used to engage and capture customers on social
media.

Different design considerations are also taken in place to capture the

attention of different age/gender group. For instance, if the category
is targeted more towards men, then dollar-off discounts are given to
capture the attention of the men.

A post campaign analysis will be conducted to ensure the effectiveness of the campaign’s mechanics.
Web Presence Options (Chapter 3)

Shopee creates a web presence through several strategies. The main strategy is through the mobile
application (Shopee App). Thematic campaigns and major campaigns are held throughout the year to
continuously engage and attract consumers to visit the app. Besides, several engagement and
marketing tools such as Social Media engagement and giveaways (Instagram, Facebook & YouTube) &
content marketing through blogs are also employed to strike conversations amongst consumers to
repeatedly use the app for their purchases.

At the same time, Shopee understands the needs of sellers and provides a web version of the seller
centre to ensure seller’s convenience in the listing of their products.

Creating an eCommerce store on Shopee requires 5 Simple steps:

1. Creating an account

2. Opening an e-store

3. Uploading products

4. Marketing your brand

5. Start selling online

The content of the store can be managed via the seller centre. Using the Seller Centre, sellers will be
able to effectively manage their stores such as the listing of products and managing of sales. Using the
Marketing Centre available in the seller centre, Sellers will be able to participate in Marketing
initiatives such as My Campaigns and create vouchers and bundle deals to increase sales.

Search Engine Optimisation (Chapter 5)

Shopee employs best practices for Search Engine Optimisation to ensure that customers and
potential customers can find Shopee on search engines. Some practices include having good page
structures and useful content on our website.
Social Media Marketing Considerations

During key campaigns such as 11.11, social media such as Instagram & Facebook are being used to
‘shout out’ about key initiatives, for e.g, the daily challenge, Shopee shake feature, Shopee games
and daily OA giveaways.

The latest game addition on the Shoppe App is Shopee Slice, a Singapore version of Fruit Ninja
where users slice objects on their screen to earn points and avoiding other objects that causes a loss
of points. Shopee coins are earned at the end of the game and can be used as an in-app currency.

The beauty of Shopee Slice is that there can be countless adaptations of it to fit into each campaign
or major event Shopee might be having. One example would be a take on Singapore’s National Day
where we paid tribute to an iconic Singaporean phrase “mee siam mai hum” which translates to mee
siam without cockles(hum). Users were challenged to slice ingredients of mee siam e.g. tofu, eggs,
lime to earn points and to avoid cockles that will lose you points.
Social media calendar is planned based on the campaign calendar.

Social Media AccountsShopee employs two types of Facebook profile to cater to the varying needs:

Shopee Fan page: Employed as a mean to create conversations amongst consumers

Shopee University Facebook: Used as a mean of information to push out relevant

courses/workshops for sellers

Different type of accounts is managed differently by Shopee to curate and push out contents that
are catered to different target audience.
Using Social Media, Social Media Management Services, Social Media Management Services,
Social Media Marketing and Promotion, Social Media Engagement, Leads Generation and Sales
(Chapter 8,9,10,11)

Shopee constantly engages paid influencers to increase the awareness of the brand and the
campaigns. :

Other than paid Influencers, frequent engagements are also done on the Shopee TV / Live videos to
involve consumers to participate. Notifications/ comments on Shopee Facebook, Instagram TV and
live steams are addressed within 4 hours to ensure constant engagement with the consumers.
Online Advertising, E-Mail Marketing, Mobile Marketing (Chapter 12, 13,14)

How Shopee uses the working of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) within the app via paid ads on the
seller centre

Paid ads that are offered to sellers ensures increased visibility of products, reach buyers who are
searching for keywords related to the advertised listing and enables cost effective spending as sellers
only pay when users click on their ads.

Shopee also makes use of paid ads to divert traffic to their app. Through the use of social media ads
such as Instagram and Facebook, the number of traffic being redirected to the app makes up a
significant percentage of traffic for the app.

The Paid ads that are offered are split into two categories: Targeted Ads and Keyword ads. These
play a part in aiding sellers gain exposure more quickly and effectively especially if they are new
sellers with little to no ratings.

Sellers that utilize targeted ads will have their listings shown under the “Similar Products” section
when a user searches for something in a similar category. These ads will be placed in the product
detail page of products similar to what the user has searched.

Shopee utilises Keywords Ads as part of its SEM approach for sellers. Through this, sellers can reach
a higher volume of users. Keywords are then split in to two ad groups: Broad match and Exact
match.

With Broad Match, sellers bid for keywords that has similar meanings or a more generalised term.
For example, if a listing of a “Red Polka Dot Dress” utilises a broad match keyword ad, the listing will
appear for users that search for “dress” or “red dress”.

For Exact Match however, a product listing of a “Red Polka Dot Dress” will only appear when the
user searches for the exact same thing. Searching for “red dress” or “red polka dot” will not bring up
the product listing as it does not exactly match the ad. This will be much more effective for sellers
with unique or specialised products to not be broadly categorised with general products.
The effectiveness of Paid Ads however, is dependent on the past product reviews/ratings of each
particular listing, and also the bidding amount.

Web Analytics (Chapter 15)

Shopee uses analytics on both front - One for its online marketing strategies to increase brand
awareness and direct traffic to stores and within the app itself, analytics are used to help sellers
understand their buyers better.

Social Media Insights, Email Marketing Analytics, Online Advertising Analytics (Chapter
16,17,18)Regular data on social media are also extracted to generate into insightful content planning
for the community team. The content that are found on Shopee Social Media are usually in line with
the on-going campaigns to direct traffic and raise awareness.

On the Seller’s Centre, Seller would be able to get insights of their customers and their products.
This case, they would be able to target specific group of target audience/ specific products that they
would want to focus on.
SHOPEE 11.11 Big Sale – CASE STUDY

Shopee as the leading e-commerce marketplace takes continuous steps to ensure top of mind
awareness and branding amongst the consumers. Frequent tactical campaigns such as the 11.11
Singles Day is recognized as the largest offline/online shopping day in the world with many of our
competitors leveraging their key message accordingly. Shopee differentiates itself by creating a
variation of singles day, naming it the 11.11 Big Sale. During this campaign, Shopee creates
engagement and brand loyalty helps to continuously attract traffic to the app.

One of the key pushes for this year 2019 Shopee 11.11 Big sale was the introduction of 2 key Unique
Selling Points (USP), 10% Cashback and Free Shipping. The aim of these USPs were to give buyers and
sellers an incentive to use Shopee as compared to other e-commerce platform. On the seller’s end,
Sellers who opt into the 10% Cashback and Free Shipping program will get more exposure in-app in
return. With an in-app microsite and specials tags dedicated to items with 10% Cashback, sellers are
guaranteed to have an increase in traffic in their stores.

This year, Shopee 11.11 Big Sale managed to smash records in with a whopping 70 million orders in
24 hours, a 600% increase as compared to 11 million in 2018.

A multi-pronged approach through both offline and online initiatives were adopted to build its share
of voice in the market for this year’s Shopee 11.11 Big Sale. A strong emphasis via social media and
online marketing ads coupled with our offline out of home presence helped to build a strong top of
mind awareness during key campaign dates.

This year, Shopee decided to go bigger on offline initiatives through extensive out of home (OOH)
advertising. OOH platforms such as Shopee’s MRT Concept Platform at Bugis station as well as our
presence at Orchard MRT were one of the first - heavily tapping on our brand ambassador Cristiano
Ronaldo.

Shopee also hosted a media and influencer engagement event with a “Larger than Life” theme
where all activities in the venue were substantially huge, indicating the scale of our 11.11 Big Sale
campaign in app. The event was able to generate buzz resulting in a good number of organic posts
on social media which helps to raise awareness of the campaigns that we were driving in-app.
On the online front, we ramped up our Online marketing spendings a week before D-day to capture
the relevant keywords and a larger share of voice online. Google and Facebook Ads were used to
target consumers via Google searches and Facebook ads to maximise the effectiveness. Higher
spending was targeted on categories that Shopee was stronger in such as Health & Beauty.

One of Shopee’s key online strategy is through active engagement with users via related contents
and giveaways on Shopee Social Media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Blog). Curated
content with relevance to the 11.11 Big Sale include Instagram posts, YouTube Videos and blog posts
such as “Shopee 11.11 Big Sale: The Ultimate Shopping Guide to The Best Deals”. An example of a
giveaway is an IGTV/YouTube video “how big can you go” where players try to take everyday items,
combining them to make something as big as possible. Exclusive 11.11 promo codes for new Shopee
users such as “BIG1111” were issued to give potential new users of Shopee an incentive to download
and use our app.

This year, we introduced Shopee LIVE, which allows for sellers in Shopee to engage with their
potential buyers. Similar to Facebook LIVE which has proven to be a great platform to promote
products, Shopee LIVE has the same features and more where sellers are also able to flash the
product on the live stream itself. This is especially useful for sellers in the fashion category where
they are able to model on the clothes and talk about details such as the cutting etc.
Shopee also uses its’ LIVE function to engage with their users. One of the key highlights was the use
of Shopee LIVE to create pre-hype for campaigns and communicating flash sales and vouchers. To
drive more traffic into the Shopee App, viewers on YouTube are encouraged to watch the stream on
the Shopee App as you can only participate in games and giveaways in the app itself and be
rewarded with Shopee Coins.

As Shopee is a mobile optimised site, Mobile marketing is one of the most effective ways used to
promote campaigns and their offerings. Push notifications are sent to target users with favourable
purchase behaviours to drive traffic to the app.

Additionally on the seller front, Shopee as a mobile app also encompasses key digital marketing
features such as paid ads and offers statistics in the seller centres for sellers to
understand the buyer’s behaviour.
Paid ads allows sellers to place advertisements within Shopee’s App and web platforms to increase
exposure for product listings. Users who search for keywords related to the advertised product will
see ads on Shopee’s search result pages. Sellers will have to bid for the keywords relevant to the
selected product and set their bid price. The list of keywords is ranked by quality score and search
volume. Both keyword quality score and bid price affects ad rank, so it is important to pick the right
keywords and bid competitively.

Similar to Google’s SEO, paid ads function using the Cost-per-click (CPC) model and sellers are
charged only for each click.
Shopee extensively utilises up-to-date strategies of both online and offline marketing strategies to
gain a larger share of voice and market share. A holistic approach of marketing initiatives
incorporating many small factors that contribute to the success of a large objective: achieving top of
mind awareness when it comes to the best platform for online shopping. An interactive presence in
all mediums maximizes the effectiveness of an integrated marketing effort.