Shopee is leaving Tokopedia behind

Tuesday, 16th August 2022 – Market research company BOI Research has released a report on online shopping behaviour. The research shows in the past 12 months, Shopee has achieved a lot of progress to become the favourite e-commerce in Indonesia. Currently, 3 out of 5 Indonesians consider Shopee their favourite e-commerce.

In the past three months, 64% of Indonesians have recently shopped using e-commerce. These users are primarily consumers from Java. On average, these online shoppers spend about Rp 274,000 per month on various e-commerce platforms.

Cash still dominates most purchases in Indonesia, especially for payments at small shops (warung) or traditional markets. With the rise of e-commerce in the last couple of years, e-wallet usage has seen a spectacular rise. Especially for e-commerce platforms, e-wallet payments have become the primary choice (79%).

The research, which includes respondents from urban and rural areas throughout Indonesia, shows that Shopee is currently the biggest e-commerce platform in Indonesia. It is the most popular e-commerce brand for people of all ages. Moreover, most Indonesians, particularly women, think of Shopee as their favourite place to shop online.

Compared with Shopee, only a relative view of e-commerce users are aware of Lazada and Tokopedia. Lazada and Tokopedia’s brand awareness is similar (66% and 64 respectively). However, among those familiar with the brand, most consider Tokopedia their favourite e-commerce.

Tokopedia was a close competitor to Shopee about 6 to 12 months ago. However, the e-commerce platform is experiencing a decline as Shopee is now the leading choice to shop online.

Shopee’s superiority is thought to be due to their large number of advertising campaigns in rural areas and by targeting the lower middle-income segments. “Shopee wins big because they’re available in rural areas. They aim a lot of advertising campaigns at the lower-middle class consumers. They also take in merchants from the home industry segment,” said one e-commerce expert.

This nationwide survey was conducted from 24th June to 17th July with 587 respondents aged 18 to 44, both in urban and rural areas. The survey uses a CASI (online survey) method with multi-stage quota sampling. The margin of error is set at 4,3% with a 95% confidence level.