How Lazada and Shopee Ruled the Southeast Asia's E-commerce IndustryLazada was the most visited e-commerce platform in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore

The e-commerce industry seems poised for a bright future. Online brands are going all out to woo offline buyers through discounts and build their comfort and trust with technology while guiding them along a safe purchase pathway. The map of ecommerce market study by ecommerce aggregator iPrice Group and app analytics firm App Annie found that Lazada was the most visited e-commerce platform in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. It was amongst the top apps in Vietnam and Indonesia as well, ranking 2nd and 4th respectively.

However, the Alibaba-backed company experienced a decline in its overall average total visits on desktop and the mobile web when compared to the previous quarter. This was probably due to the differences in marketing initiatives between the two periods (Q1 2019 – Lunar New Year Sale, Lazada Birthday Sale.

On the other hand, its Shopee experienced a 5 per cent increase in its overall average total visits, primarily driven by the increased visits in Indonesia & Thailand in Q1 2019. This indicates that the Singapore-based ecommerce operator was able to maintain its growth momentum from the previous quarter although the first quarter of the year is considered as a non-peak period.

Mobile Website vs. Desktop

The study further highlighted interesting findings on the most visited e-commerce websites (desktop & mobile web). Although mobile applications are an important aspect of ecommerce, ecommerce websites remain relevant to consumers as well. The study noted that consumers were more likely to conduct purchases via desktops as compared to mobile phones. Shopee takes the reign as the most visited e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia with an average total of 184.4 million visits on desktop and mobile web as of Q1 2019.

Lazada saw a 12 per cent decline in total average visits when compared to the previous quarter, obtaining 179.7 million visitors in Q1 2019. Tokopedia (Indonesia), Bukalapak (Indonesia), & Tiki (Vietnam) were the 3rd, 4th and 5th most visited ecommerce platforms in Southeast Asia respectively although they were only available in a single market.

Chinese and& American Apps Ruling the SEA Region

Across the six countries analysed, Chinese and American ecommerce mobile apps remained popular and are actively used in the region with apps such as AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, TaoBao, and Alibaba.com. Chinese ecommerce apps such as TaoBao performed well in countries where there were more consumers proficient in the Chinese language (Mandarin). This was evident in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia where the app ranked fourth and third respectively. Amazon remained highly relevant for Southeast Asians as well. The e-commerce app was actively used in the Philippines as compared to Alibaba Group's applications, ranking fourth above AliExpress (fifth place) and Alibaba.com (ninth place). In SEA, Amazon officially launched its services in Singapore in 2017 with Amazon Prime Now and it currently ranks at the ninth place in the list of monthly actively used mobile shopping apps in the city-state