Research On The Business Model Of Southeast Asia Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform Shopee.Co

The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce trade has provided new impetus to global trade and given countries a new direction in economic development.With the wide spread of the Internet and the innovative application of digital technologies such as cloud computing,the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia continues to grow.With COVID-19 impacting consumers’ behaviors and accelerating digitalization,Southeast Asia has a huge potential for cross-border e-commerce because of the surging demand for cross-border shopping.Founded in 2015,Shopee has surpassed the former cross-border e-commerce platform Lazada in less than five years,known as the "Amazon" in Southeast Asia.Shopee’s growth from market follower to market leader is inseparable from its keen insight into market changes and the ability to integrate resources.This paper select Shopee as the research object.By analyzing its business model and comparing it with Lazada’s,this paper summarizes the advantages that can be taken into account and potential problems that need to be handled.China’s cross-border e-commerce platforms can exploit their strengths and circumvent their weaknesses to further improve their business models.This paper adopts case analysis and comparative analysis.It consists of six parts.The main idea is to firstly analyze Shopee’s internal and external environment from macro environment,industry competition environment,and organizational structure,and establish an analytical framework for Shopee business model based on Osterwalder’s business model canvas,after summarizing relevant researches of domestic and foreign scholars on cross-border e-commerce platforms,business models,cross-border logistics and payment issues.Secondly,this paper analyzes Shopee’s business model from six aspects: platform product and service design,target customer,cross-border payment,cross-border logistics,marketing,and profit model.Thirdly,the operation effect of Shopee business model can be evaluated from the perspective of platform data,financial data and market share.The research finds that Shopee’s business model has a significant effect on the increase of relevant data,revenue and market share of the platform.Fourthly,through the comparison with Lazada in platform design,cross-border logistics,cross-border payment and profit model,the main conclusion is that Shopee has competitive advantages in localization and social media promotion,but there are some noticeable problems,for example,platform supervision and cross-border logistics.Finally,based on the previous analysis and conclusion,and inspired by the advantages and disadvantages of Shopee,the paper provides five optimized ideas for the development of cross-border e-commerce platform business model in China: the first one is to optimize platform value proposition image by providing more heterogeneous products,introducing interactive concept function and strengthening brand product protection.Secondly,companies can improve cross-border logistics and payment systems to provide consumers with safe and diversified services,so as to improve enterprise competitiveness.Thirdly,it is essential to improve platform service design.Companies may not only design an independent mobile app that can satisfy customers’ requirements,but also pay attention to the anti-risk capability of merchants when operating the platform.Fourthly,enterprises can focus on differentiated marketing strategies,which means that choose the right marketing channels and apply localized marketing strategies based on the consumer’s spending characteristics.In addition to traditional TV advertising and email marketing,social media and celebrity endorsements can deliver value as well.The last one is the way to construct the cross-border e-commerce ecosystem to enhance profitability and anti-risk capability of enterprises.