KUALA LUMPUR, 27 March 2024 – Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, doubles down on operational and logistics investments in the country as it maintains its #1 marketplace position by average monthly active users and total time spent in-app. Shopee’s commissioned study with Kantar revealed recently that 70% of the platform’s buyers across Southeast Asia are now 32 years old and below (Generation Z), spending an average of 30 minutes on its app daily*.
Over 2023, Shopee enhanced fundamental capabilities to create seamless and safe experiences targeted to these digitally savvy buyers. This included providing Malaysians with faster and more flexible delivery options, such as Next Day delivery, Instant Delivery, and increased Shopee collection points for self-collection.
Malaysian users shopping or selling on the app contacted Shopee’s customer service team 9.5 million times with questions in 2023 — these cases were resolved within 30 seconds 98% of the time with success — and with 80% customer service satisfaction rate, the highest across industries.
The first point of contact for most Malaysians has typically been with Shopee’s proprietary AI chatbot, affectionately named Sophie (after the company’s mascot). Sophie’s neuro-linguistic programming was enhanced to help users along the way by recognising relevant intents, anticipating queries based on users’ live interactions, and providing more granular solutions based on a localised management playbook. In 2023, Sophie’s successful closure rate doubled, such that it resolved 80% of cases satisfactorily from 18 million chats handled before routing them to live customer service agents.
On this front, Shopee optimised the number of customer service agents available, and boosted their processes, training, and incentives so that even with the volume of questions throughout peak e-commerce shopping periods, end-to-end resolutions across cases of various complexities took less than a day to resolve and abandonment rate (dropped calls) were nearly zero at the end of 2023.
In fact, Shopee’s customer service agents received one of the best in market monthly incentives for good performance. They were also equipped with SOP Assistant Tool that empowered front line agents to solve more cases based on internal information and turned them into decision making experts using first-party CRM data across the platform.
Shopee’s customer service team often receives personalised feedback such as, “Very fast response from the team. Thanks a lot. I preferred using Shopee [over competitor], due to its simpler refund process. Thanks Shopee ❤️” and “I appreciate your hard work! Customer service strives for prompt and efficient response. Thank you for acknowledging my concerns.”
“Users should use the Shopee Guarantee period wisely to track the status of their shipments and then check whether the products delivered meet their requirements. If users cannot use Seller Chat to resolve any issues with sellers directly, they should contact Shopee’s customer service agents directly. Shoppers can also report products using the Menu for seller features tab in the right corner of any product listing in order to help keep the community safe, as Shopee holds all sellers to high standards of responsible selling,’ explained Sern-Li Lim, Head of Operations at Shopee Malaysia.
In 2024, Shopee continues to enhance the capabilities of its logistics ecosystem to support faster shipping to buyers. Shopee’s logistics partner SPX has expanded warehouse facilities and will operate seven days a week. Shopee is also working closely with brands, sellers, and partners to aim for 95% of orders to be shipped out in the same day.
Moreover, Shopee has spearheaded a comprehensive and fuss-free returns policy to give millions of Malaysians confidence when looking to check out their desired products, including high-value goods, that they cannot touch or feel when shopping online. First, by enhancing the Return Refunds process so that it is much easier and shorter, completing in only two and a half days (compared to the retail industry sector benchmark of seven days), with two times more drop-off points and doorstep pick-up option. Second, by expanding its Change of Mind free returns, no questions asked policy from 19 March 2024 for more products and items, providing additional flexibility throughout the shopping journey during the 15-day Shopee Guarantee period.
A #ShopSafeWithShopee survey of 1,000 Malaysian shoppers aged 18 and above found that nine out of ten utilise platform features like Shopee Live demos, seller chat, Shopee Mall’s Authentic Deals circle, and Shopee Guarantee to ensure safe online shopping transactions**.
* Kantar study “The Future of Shopping: Engaging Generation Z Shoppers in the Digital Era” commissioned by Shopee polled 2,000 respondents across Southeast Asia in January to March 2024
** #ShopSafewithShopee was a voluntary survey conducted on 1,095 buyers and 548 sellers between 14 August to 14 September 2023 on Shopee MY marketplace app.
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