Welcome to SEA! China’s Vipshop has entered Southeast Asia. 

• Vipshop, who? Founded in 2008, Vipshop is an e-commerce marketplace that specializes in online discount sales. 
• They sell everything from clothing to makeup to household goods. 

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🛍️ For the VIPs

Their niche. They entered the market targeting a specific segment — branded goods at a discount. 

In a market where it can be challenging to acquire authenticated branded goods, Vipstore stood out. 

• Worry not, they get their supplies directly from the brands themselves. 

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🔢 The numbers

• They’ve got over 300M users in China
• But their annual revenue for 2022 was $14.9B, an 18.58% decline from 2021. A potential reason for entering new markets? 

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😀 Just-in-time

Since the beginning, Vipshop focused on playing the role of the distributor. 

• As the aggregator of multiple product categories and a plethora of brands, it allowed them to be relatively asset-light! 

What does this mean? Vipshop doesn’t store all the inventory. Before it’s sold, much of it is stored with the brands themselves. 

• This allows Vipshop to offer more products without worrying so much about warehousing and predicting demand (as accurately). 

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🇨🇳 Struggles at SEA

Chinese e-commerce teams have entered the market at different points in the past few years. 

• Including Shein, JD.com, and Alibaba execs who swarmed in to run Lazada. 
• Clearly, they’ve had varying levels of success with JD leaving Indonesia and Thailand in late 2022. 

Coming for Zalora? The closest model in SEA is Zalora. Vipshop’s entry might pose some serious challenges.

But only time will tell whether Vipshop can fare well in Southeast Asia.

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