At present, Shopee is undoubtedly one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia, with millions of active users, online sellers are able to tap into an active consumer base by becoming a seller on Shopee and listing their products there.

However, while Shopee is a great platform to start your online selling career, it may be hard to get a head start when you see the amount of existing sellers already dominating the platform. The question now is, how do you gain traction as a new seller? Easy, by becoming a Shopee Preferred Seller.

Read: Selling on Shopee – 6 Biggest Success Factors For A Shopee

What is a Shopee Preferred Seller?

Shopee Preferred Seller Criteria

Shopee Preferred Seller is a credential that is given to active Shopee sellers that were able to maintain a high shop rating, good customer service with little to no failed or canceled transactions either by the seller or the customer. 

To be specific, to be a Preferred Shopee Seller means that you are successful in implementing Shopee’s vision to provide buyers with the best online shopping experience. In that aspect, it is essential to follow the Shopee Community Rules and Regulations which we will discuss in the latter part of this guide.  

Meanwhile, these are the basic Preferred Shopee Seller criteria that you need to fulfill:

 

Monthly Net Orders 50
Monthly Unique Buyers 30
Chat Response Rate  75%
Shop Rating 4.5
Penalty Points 0
Pre-Order Listing Less than 10%

 

Below are some tips that can help you meet Shopee’s criteria. 

1. Taking High-Quality Product Images

Shopee Preferred Seller

As opposed to real-time shopping, eCommerce platforms like Shopee does not enable the customer to get a feel of the product. With that, product images become one of the customers’ main basis of whether or not they should complete an order. 

Make sure to upload at least three product images that show people what the product looks like from different angles. This helps buyers picture out what the product is actually like when they receive it. 

It might be worth investing in either a DSLR camera or a flagship smartphone with an excellent camera. The background helps a lot in boosting the overall quality of your images. That being said, it is necessary to look for the perfect area to set up your mini photography studio – preferably a table near a window.

Photography Equipment That You Need To Prepare:

  • A DSLR camera or a flagship camera phone

DSLR cameras are equipped with functionalities that will greatly help you improve the quality of your shots. If you don’t already have one, however, a good camera phone will do. There is a common misconception that the camera is what takes the picture. In reality, the camera is only one part of the equation. What makes up a good photograph is the right exposure, lighting, post-processing, and styling. These are things that you can manually control using the rest of the equipment below. 

  • White sweep

A sweep refers to small equipment used as a backdrop by most photographers. We recommend utilizing a white sweep since it further highlights your subject (which is the product). You can easily order one from Amazon but you can also go to your local art store or drugstore and buy white poster board. Make sure that the poster board is pure white since off-white colors dominate some markets these days. 

  • Tripod

Shopee Preferred Seller

You need a tripod to keep your images from getting blurry when you are trying to get the sharpest shot. 

A lot of people are used to setting their phone cameras to automatic. To take good product images, however, you need to play with the settings a bit. Regardless of whether you use a DSLR or a phone camera, you will be required to set your camera to a very small aperture. This lets you have the most depth of field possible. The depth of field defines how sharp or focused an image will be. 

When you set your camera to a small aperture, holding the camera leads to having a blurry image. So, the answer to this is to use a tripod. 

  • White bounce cards derived from white foam

Your options in capturing the perfect product images are to either use white lights or set up your camera near a window. 

If you decide to use natural light, sometimes the light won’t be equal. You might notice that on one side is bright whereas the other side is shadowy. To bring balance to your lighting, you need to use a white bounce card to enable light to bounce back to the shadowy area. 

  • Tape

This lets you set your product and tripod in place before beginning your photoshoot. 

2. Crafting Effective Product Descriptions

To write an epic product description means to enable your customers to get a general idea of what to expect with your product in terms of features and functionalities. 

Unprofessionally written product descriptions can go two ways: it can either be too technical or too sales. Due to some people’s attempt to be specific when it comes to product expectations, they have a tendency to become overly technical. Summarizing product features is good. However, one must not cross the line of utilizing too many terms that potential buyers do not understand. By doing so, the product description becomes incomprehensible and misleading. 

The use of simple, everyday words makes it easier for people to understand what the product offers. Beyond that, it also inclines customers to choose your brand due to the friendly tone. On the other hand, this can also go the other way. If one personalizes the product description too much, it will start to look less and less professional. 

To strike the balance between professionalism and customer-friendliness, here are some tips that you can apply:

  • Talk about the benefits and not just the specifications

By doing so, you are able to put the technical specs into action. This way, the customer learns about the product as if he is hearing it from a friend. 

  • Be descriptive

Use words that truly explain the essence of the product. You can do this by not just stating a benefit but also providing examples and situations. 

  • Use appropriate keywords 

Use keywords to make your product search engine friendly. However, be careful not to stuff your product description with keywords that make it difficult for customers to understand your product. 

  • Determine your buyer persona

When you know what your ideal customer is, it becomes easier for you to determine what tone and writing style will speak to them the most. 

3. Give Your Products More Visibility Through The Boost Now Promotions

As per the Shopee Preferred Seller criteria, you need to get at least 50 net orders per month. Apart from that, you also need 30 new buyers to claim your slot as a Shopee Preferred Seller. 

Boost Now is a free marketing feature in Shopee that you can use to expand your audience. By participating in the Boost Now promotion, Shopee will create ads for you that will be made visible through various pages on the platform. 

How To Boost Your Products:

  • Go to your store in the Shopee App
  • Scroll down until you get to the bottom of the screen. Click View All Products. 
  • Choose “Get More Views For Your Product Now – For Free” 
  • Click on the box with a + sign to add a product to boost
  • Select your products and click Boost

You can boost five products at a time. If you need to boost more products, you can come back again after four hours. 

4. Cross-Channel Selling And Marketing

Cross-channel selling refers to promoting and marketing your Shopee store through social media pages. Due to the number of people selling and looking for things to buy on Facebook or Instagram, involving your Shopee store with these social media channels can help you increase your sales. Thus, you increase your chances of becoming a Shopee Preferred Seller. 

Social media also makes way for self-promotion. An example of this would be posting genuine reviews that you got from your customers through Facebook Messenger. You can use social media as a channel to gain customer trust. Meanwhile, Shopee remains to be the channel used by your customers to purchase your products. 

In the eCommerce scenario, to be seen is to be sold. This is most likely why SE Asian countries account for most social media penetration when it comes to online selling. 

These are the statistics that support that claim (the data below were taken from research conducted by Hootsuite):

  • Singapore -79%
  • Malaysia – 78%
  • Thailand -74%
  • The Philippines – 71%

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5. Using Shopee Seller Assistant

Shopee Seller Assistant is a builtin feature within the Shopee app that lets sellers manage their online store in the easiest way possible. We discussed the features of the Shopee Seller Assistant in the Shopee Seller Centre Ultimate Guide (insert link here). Now we’ll talk about how you can utilize it to attain the Prefered Shopee Seller title. 

  • Know When You Need To Update Your Inventory Even When You Are On-The-Go

Shopee Preferred Seller

Go to the Seller Assistant and then click on My Product. As you go through the products page, you will notice the Stock and Sold Out tabs. Simply tap on the Sold Out menu to see which of your products need to be resupplied. Go to the Stock menu to see the products that you currently have in your inventory. 

  • Establish Good Customer-Seller Relationships

Shopee Preferred Seller

The My Customers tab in Seller Assistant gives you an overview of all your current customers as well as the previous ones from the time that you sold your first product. 

The name of the customer will be shown as well as the product/s that was purchased. 

This feature of Seller Assistant lets you recognize loyal customers so you can reward them with vouchers and discounts. In turn, this encourages people to buy more items from you. 

  • Update Clean Categories Through Seller Assistant

Shopee Preferred Seller

As you click on Shop Categories in Seller Assistant, you will be directed to the Seller Centre website. From there, you can review your current categories to see if they need to be changed or if it is necessary to add new categories. 

Updating your categories enables you to be more efficient in guiding potential buyers in looking for the product that they need or want. 

6. Honoring The Shopee Community Rules

Shopee Preferred Seller

To qualify as a Prefered Shopee Seller, Shopee needs to see that you comply with the rules and regulations that it has put into place as an attempt to maintain order within the platform. 

Shopee lets you use their selling platform for free so long as you follow the do’s and don’t below:

What You MUST Do

  • Maintain a good selling record
  • Show respect to your customers regardless of any feedback that they leave on your product page
  • Only use Shopee for selling and not advertising (some people leave an URL on their product page that encourages buyers to go to a different website for their online shopping needs)

What You Mustn’t Do

  • Create multiple listings for the same product
  • Publish misleading information such as price, shipping information, and product description (Some sellers exaggerate product features as a way to increase profit)
  • Post infringed content
  • Show abusive behavior
  • Scams

Becoming a Prefered Shopee Seller is a stepping stone to expanding your brand and increasing sales. Maintaining your record is, of course, a different story. This is something Split Dragon can help you with. We specialize in software that provides you with the data you need to stay at the top of your game. 

Want to stay on top of the competition?

Split Dragon offers support with your e-commerce needs using conversion-Focused tools and data-driven solutions. Contact us today to see how we can help you with tailored strategies that will drive your company’s success! 

Read Next: How to Attract Customers on Lazada and Shoppee

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