Effective Strategy, This E-Commerce Achieves First Position in Satisfaction Indicators for Buyers to Local Brand Sellers & MSMEs

Kapanlagi.com - The emergence of e-commerce platforms is proof of rapid technological advancement in this era. In addition to providing an easy and comfortable shopping experience for consumers, e-commerce also opens up significant opportunities for business players, especially local brands and MSMEs. Moreover, the presence of these online shopping platforms can also contribute to the growth of the domestic digital economy.

By helping to boost the number of local brands that are now starting to dominate the market, e-commerce has indirectly created various fields and new job professions, such as live streaming hosts, online store admins, affiliates or content creators, and workers in the logistics industry. It can be concluded that the benefits of the presence of e-commerce far exceed the ease of online transactions, but also provide a broad and positive economic impact for various layers of society.

This significant influence makes the landscape and dynamics of e-commerce strategies in the country always interesting to observe. To gain and maintain a position as a market leader, there are various integral factors that e-commerce players must pay attention to in order to enhance user and seller satisfaction when using their platform. So, how can the innovations and features offered provide advantages for sellers? And what aspects are key to the success of e-commerce platforms in attracting and retaining buyer loyalty? Let's discuss further regarding the aspects that determine the superiority of an e-commerce platform.

1. Consumer Satisfaction Indicators in Online Shopping

Buyers are one of the main stakeholders in building a sustainable e-commerce ecosystem. A high user base will become a magnet for businesses to market and sell their products on the platform. At the initial entry into a market, thematic campaigns and attractive offers often become the main strategies for e-commerce platforms to acquire new users. However, to retain and ensure the user base continues to grow, a more holistic approach is needed, by understanding consumer behavior and preferences to provide the best online shopping experience for each individual.

Referring to the recent research results from IPSOS released in June 2024 titled ‘Online Shopping Experience and Satisfaction in E-commerce’, it was found that Shopee excels in providing and delivering the highest level of satisfaction to users in their online shopping experience. Shopee's superiority in satisfaction is supported by data, where Shopee (62%) is the first choice to be recommended by consumers to their close relatives, followed by Tokopedia (46%), TikTok Shop (42%), and Lazada (36%). This finding raises the question, what are the aspects that influence consumer satisfaction with a platform?

To create the best holistic shopping experience, e-commerce platforms must ensure that orders arrive in the hands of buyers with fast and accurate delivery, as this also influences consumer perceptions of convenience in online shopping. From the same research results, Shopee (60%) is also the best online shopping app in terms of delivery speed, followed by Tokopedia (16%), Lazada (13%), and TikTok Shop (9%). In addition to delivery that complements the online shopping experience, consumers in Indonesia still consider the lowest price as one of the determining factors in choosing an online shopping platform, where Shopee remains the leading e-commerce at 64%, surpassing Lazada (13%), Tokopedia (12%), and TikTok Shop (11%).

As innovations from e-commerce platforms continue to develop, public preferences are also increasing, not only in determining product choices but also in shopping methods. This drives e-commerce platforms to become more active in developing and providing interactive features such as live shopping and short videos that enhance consumer engagement while helping to make shopping choices.

The trend of shopping using live streaming features is discussed in more depth by research titled 'Understanding Live Streaming Shopping Ecosystem in Indonesia' by Populix, which reveals that 69% of consumers say Shopee Live is the most frequently used live streaming feature by the Indonesian public, surpassing its competitors, namely TikTok Live (25%), Tokopedia Play (4%), and LazLive (2%).

Like other shopping activities, live shopping has important factors underlying consumer preferences, one of which is the completeness of categories. In the same study, Populix found that Fashion and Beauty became the two categories with the highest percentage among other categories, which were most frequently purchased during live streaming. And Shopee Live is the feature most often used by consumers to buy items from these two categories. For the Fashion category, Shopee Live is used by 79% of consumers, followed by TikTok Live (44%). Similarly, for the Beauty category, Shopee Live is used by 71%, higher than TikTok Live (51%) which failed to catch up to Shopee's position.

Now, it can be concluded that to win the hearts of consumers in a tight competitive landscape, e-commerce players need to pay attention not only to aspects focused on shopping activities but also to the entire consumer journey from upstream to downstream.

2. Local Brand Sellers and MSMEs Optimize E-Commerce as a Main Business Strategy, Shopee Becomes the Seller's Choice

As a shopping destination relied upon by the community, e-commerce platforms are increasingly becoming a business strategy utilized by local brand sellers and MSMEs to boost sales. E-commerce opens new opportunities and various advantages not found in previous selling methods, which certainly provides maximum satisfaction in buying and selling local brands and MSMEs. By making e-commerce a sales strategy, local brand sellers and MSMEs will experience a wider market reach as their products can be accessed by online consumer bases anytime and anywhere they are. The technology and features presented by e-commerce also help to minimize operational costs and simplify transaction and shipping management.

Amidst fierce competition among e-commerce platforms in creating space for sellers to enhance their businesses, an IPSOS survey titled 'Understanding the Potentiality in E-Commerce Seller' states that the advantages of the e-commerce platform they choose are influenced by several aspects. One of them is that sellers admit that promotions and thematic campaigns are the features most frequently utilized and have a significant impact, especially in supporting sales increases for local brand sellers and MSMEs.

This is evident in this research, where Shopee (65%) is associated as the e-commerce platform that provides the largest revenue for local brand sellers and MSMEs, above Tokopedia (16%), TikTok Shop (9%), and Lazada (6%). Moreover, based on seller preferences, Shopee (59%) is also ranked first as the e-commerce platform that provides the most benefits for their businesses, followed by Tokopedia (20%) in second place, and TikTok Shop (8%), and Lazada (7%).

The increasingly popular interactive live streaming feature among consumers is also an important aspect for sellers in choosing their favorite e-commerce platform. Consumers now prefer this interactive shopping method because they can see and ask about the products they wish to purchase directly. This also makes live streaming an important strategy adapted by sellers in responding to the demands of their consumers.

This finding is in line with an IPSOS survey titled ‘Live Streaming E-commerce Trends for Sellers’, where Shopee Live is the live streaming feature most frequently used by local brand sellers and MSMEs. In terms of percentage, 72% of sellers prefer Shopee Live, far ahead compared to its closest competitor TikTok Live (26%). This aligns with the Market Share indicator, where Shopee Live (82%) is also the most chosen platform for the sales needs of local brand sellers and MSMEs, far surpassing its closest competitor TikTok Live, which is only 18%.

Shopee's consistency in analyzing shopping trends and striving to respond through technological innovations as well as feature and program initiatives is a factor that strengthens Shopee's position compared to other competitors as the favorite e-commerce platform across the entire ecosystem, from users to local brand sellers and MSMEs.

With the various explanations provided in this article, it can be concluded that Shopee continues to maintain its title as the e-commerce choice of the Indonesian people over time. However, this is not the end of the competition among e-commerce players; there are still strategies and innovations that will emerge to win the hearts of the people in Indonesia.

(kpl/glo)