MANILA, Philippines – With Shopee’s 10.10 sale just around the corner, the e-commerce giant is reassuring its customers that all brands and products sold under its Shopee Mall label are authentic.
“Brands under Shopee Mall have undergone rigorous verification to ensure that every product sold is 100% authentic,” Shopee Philippines public relations and corporate affairs head Erin Tagudin said during the Shopee 10.10 Brand Summit.
Since April 2024, Shopee has tripled its money-back guarantee for customers if they receive counterfeit items from Shopee Mall. The return period has also been extended from seven days to 15 days.
“Kung sa [Shopee] Mall nila binili (If they bought it on Shopee Mall), and it was proven fake, they get three times of the purchase value,” Tagudin said in an interview on the sidelines of the summit on Thursday, October 3.
According to the e-commerce platform, Shopee Mall is a “dedicated shopping space that features renowned international and local brands.” Only sellers displaying the “Shopee Mall” or “Mall” label are included in this category.
Shopee said that so far, it has maintained a “perfect record of 0% reported counterfeit items” for its brands and products under Shopee Mall.
“We have a huge team in terms of calibrating the products. Kapag ang seller, nakakuha sila ng (If sellers receive) one, two, three times penalties in terms of that, they’re banned,” Tagudin said, adding that they have a “rigorous security team” vetting vendors who were removed for scamming and who are trying to reapply.
“That’s why we’re also doing this brand summit to showcase that there are authentic items and that they can rely on online shopping,” she added.
The Singapore-based online marketplace sees strong growth in the Philippines, where e-commerce is projected to grow by 19.6% in 2024. Compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, for the market is projected to be 13.2% from 2024 to 2028.
“This surge can be attributed to the increasing preference for online shopping and more robust interest penetration fostered by a growing number of middle-income Filipinos,” Tagudin said.
Filipino online shoppers are particularly spending more on lifestyle categories, with fashion seeing over 60% growth year-on-year, followed by makeup and fragrance (above 40%), and mobile gadgets (above 30%).
Meanwhile, Tagudin also said Shopee has begun working with online vendors to comply with withholding tax requirements mandated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). (READ: BIR: Online sellers on electronic marketplaces must now pay withholding tax)
“We worked together with the BIR to ensure compliance, and we educated our sellers on how to do it,” she said. – Rappler.com
