The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Asian e-commerce giant Shopee launched its online platform in Chile and Colombia this week, according to a Reuters report. It has also enabled country-specific social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
The platform, which belongs to Southeast Asian technology giant Sea Group, made its first foray into Latin America via Brazil in 2019, and then expanded to Mexico in February this year.
Shopee is aiming to expand its presence in Latin America and compete with local giants like Mercado Libre and foreign players like Amazon. Since launching in Brazil, Shopee has grown to having a local team of more than 250 people. It’s now also working with local vendors to boost their online presence, but has a long way to go before it presents as a serious competitor to the currently dominant e-commerce incumbents of the region.
Shopee was founded in Singapore in 2015 and then expanded to much of Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Local streetwear brands, festivals and stores selling major global labels remain relatively small but the country’s community of hypebeasts and sneakerheads is growing fast.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Senegalese investors, an Indian menswear giant and workers’ rights in Myanmar.
Though e-commerce reshaped retailing in the US and Europe even before the pandemic, a confluence of economic, financial and logistical circumstances kept the South American nation insulated from the trend until later.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Korean shopping app Ably, Kenya’s second-hand clothing trade and the EU’s bid to curb forced labour in Chinese cotton.