Chinese discount retailer Vip.com sets up shop in Southeast Asia with Singapore website, regional app
- NYSE-listed company has launched a website in Singapore and released its app in countries including Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia
- Southeast Asia could be a ‘pivotal point’ for the company, analyst says
The New York Stock Exchange-listed company, which sells mid to high-end fashion items at deep discounts, has launched a website in Singapore, VIPShop.sg, and released its app in countries including Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The discount retailer’s Singapore entity, VIPShop Singapore Pet currently has 49 employees, with Bernard Tay – an Amazon.com veteran in Singapore – as regional head of its Southeast Asia operations, according to LinkedIn. Neither the company nor Tay responded immediately to requests for comment.
Southeast Asia is a hot market for cross-border e-commerce services and is among the top destinations for Chinese companies looking for overseas expansion, thanks to the region's huge population and growth in online retail adoption, said Zhang Zhouping, director of cross-border e-commerce research at Hangzhou-based consultancy 100ec.cn.
The competition between Alibaba Group Holding-backed Lazada and Tencent Holdings-backed Shopee has, however, turned the market into a hard nut to crack for any new entrants, and logistics remains a challenge for all e-commerce players in the region, according to Zhang.
“The logistics infrastructure varies across Southeast Asian countries,” he said, “Companies will have to have bespoke solutions in different countries.