Due to the popularity of mobile Internet and payment, the rise of e-commerce and online shopping has also led to fierce competition. In addition to the original e-commerce platforms such as momo, PChome, Shopee, and Yahoo…, Uni-President Supermarket’s new e-commerce “iOPEN Mall” recently announced the launch! Since its business model specializes in [B2C] and [C2C] and is similar to Shopee shopping, it is expected to directly threaten Shopee.
What are the features and discounts of “iOPEN Mall”? Is there any chance of threatening Shopee shopping? Here is an analysis:
1.iOPEN Mall features and discounts:
In order to seize hundreds of billions of online shopping opportunities and reduce the digital transformation risks of small and medium-sized enterprises, Uni-President Supermarket has launched a new shopping mall “iOPEN Mall”. Through the OPEN POINT ecosystem with more than 16 million members, the group’s logistics and warehousing across Taiwan, and 6,700 7-ELEVEN stores, it will create a shopping mall created by local companies where everyone can start a business online.In order to attract sellers, from now until December 31, 2023, iOPEN Mall features an early bird project with zero store opening fees, zero system fees, and zero transaction fees in the first year. It also offers a shipping discount of $35 for normal temperature items and $99 for frozen items.
Uni-President Supermarket said that since the trial operation of the web version of iOPEN Mall in March this year, the number of merchants opening stores has doubled month by month, attracting tens of thousands of products to be put on the shelves in a single day. It has also cooperated with the Small and Medium Enterprises Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to hold 6 digital transformation lectures in 3 months, encouraging millions of micro-enterprises in various business districts across Taiwan to join.
The following are the seller discounts and related service charging standards provided by iOPEN Mall in the first year of opening the store (see “for details” Official website“):
2.iOpen Mall VS Shopee Shopping:
Compared with Shopee, which is already the largest and most trafficked C2C e-commerce platform in Taiwan, the biggest advantage of iOPEN Mall is that it has zero store opening fee, zero system fee, zero transaction fee in the first year, and the lowest 50% off shipping fee for parcel pickup at normal temperature and frozen stores.
However, it is difficult for an e-commerce platform to succeed without traffic. Although in the short term, it can attract many sellers who are unhappy with Shopee’s continuous increase in transaction fees and shipping costs, Uni-President Group has never been a vegetarian. In addition, Taiwan’s manpower and shipping costs continue to rise. After the early bird discount ends, sellers who come to the new e-commerce platform for free will once again face the end of being cut off by the new e-commerce platform and not knowing where to go.
Furthermore, Shopee Shopping is not only the C2C website with the largest scale and traffic in Taiwan, but the shopping website is filled with many cheap Chinese goods and even counterfeit goods. This will be a bloody jungle battlefield that the upright retail aristocrat ~ Uni-President Group cannot easily intervene in.
Overall, iOPEN Mall will be able to attract Uni-President Group suppliers and sellers who want to avoid transaction fees by leveraging Uni-President Group’s retail purchasing discounts and adopting free transaction fees and preferential shipping rates. but,It is basically difficult for iOPEN Mall to shake Shopee Shopping’s C2C dominance in Taiwan. The only contribution will be to prevent Shopee Shopping from continuing to increase transaction fees and shipping costs.!
Source: KOCPC Chinese