Shopee expands into Spain as it expands into Europe

Shopee_es posted a post on Instagram on Friday saying it would offer free shipping in European countries.

A Sea source who declined to be named confirmed to Reuters that the Instagram account was real, but did not elaborate and said he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In early September, Shopee announced that it would launch a Polish site this fall. The first batch of sellers have already settled in. Many media outlets said that Shopee's entry into Poland is the first step in its expansion into Europe. If Shopee then enters Spain, its presence in Europe will be further expanded.

In fact, in recent years, Shopee has been continuously expanding its e-commerce business in markets other than Southeast Asia. Since entering the Latin American market and launching its e-commerce business in Brazil last year, its shopping app has become the most downloaded shopping program in Brazil in the first quarter of this year. This year, Shopee has also launched e-commerce businesses in Chile, Mexico, Colombia and other places, and will also open the Argentine market in the second half of the year.

In addition to actively expanding in the Latin American market, Shopee is also preparing to enter the Indian market. Currently, Shopee has launched a website for sellers in India. The company has also released detailed guides to help merchants register on the platform, comply with local tax guidelines and understand how to handle bulk orders.

It can be seen that Shopee is expanding its e-commerce business globally. Some analysts say that Shopee chose Southeast Asia and Latin America because of the low e-commerce penetration rates in these regions. According to eMarketer data, among the six Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia has the highest e-commerce penetration rate of 4.26%, while the rest have an average of only 2.5%; while the average penetration rate in Latin America is 6%.

In contrast, the e-commerce penetration rate in the EU is much higher. According to Eurostat data, the e-commerce penetration rate in the EU reached 72% in 2020.

As far as the cross-border e-commerce industry is concerned, the European market has always attracted many cross-border sellers with its high consumption level. According to some data, the revenue of the European e-commerce market will reach 465 billion US dollars in 2021; by 2025, the value of the European e-commerce sector will reach nearly 570 billion US dollars. Faced with such a "fat" market, Shopee will naturally not remain indifferent.

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