Despite not having a big social media following, Filipinos are inclined to share their purchases online and become their own “social media influencers” to their friends and families, an e-commerce marketing expert said.
Shopee Philippines’ Head of Marketing, Huiyan Pan, shared that being highly engaged in social media is a defining shopping habit of most Filipinos, which brought sales success to Shopee in last month’s sale day, the 9.9.
“So, even for shopping habits, so for 9.9, we see that a lot of Filipinos engage in Shopee Live, something that brought the social and the engagement aspect of shopping onto the Shopee platform,” Pan said
“And very interestingly, we also saw Filipino consumers—they themselves become their own influencers.”
Shopee PH has brought in new buyers through its Shopee Live platform. IT saw a six times uplift in its viewers and a 41 times increase in its new buyers.
Pan added that this is what their affiliate program wanted to achieve through its Shopee ambassadors, saying that purchases can be shared online with one’s own circle of friends and followers.
“You can accomplish it there, so I think it’s bringing together a whole ecosystem of shoppers, bringing in shoppers, really sharing and caring within the Filipino market,” Pan said.
The Shopee regional marketing lead also saw that the passion of these livestream sellers on their platform has the ability to bring in “greater sales” and orders for their brands.
“I think this platform brings together an army of consumers, an army of content creators to really help sellers talk about their products, demonstrate their products on social media. I think that’s where all buyers and sellers get to engage and partner with these large groups of content creators,” Pan said.
Livestreaming shopping has been seen to be one of the key contributors to the Philippine e-commerce. It grew its popularity during the pandemic since the mobility of consumers were limited then.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Philippine digital economy grew to a 2.08 trillion pesos, which is 9.4% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2022.
