Shopee Shuts Down in India : Check Why?

Southeast Asian E-Commerce giant Shopee will stop its India operations amid global market uncertainties. It promised goods at a much lower price compared to Amazon, Flipkart, and others.

Singapore-based Shopee, an online marketplace started in Oct 2021 in India is now all set to wrap up its operations in the country. In just around 6 months Shopee will be shutting down in India on 29th March 2022 i.e. tomorrow. Currently, its website and app are still live.

Shopee said that this move is due to global market uncertainties. Its peers include Meesho, Snapdeal, Shopclues, Amazon, Flipkart, and others. It has got 10,000,000+ installs and 1,83,828 ratings and reviews on Google Play Store. Its average rating is 4.1/5.

Shopee announced to its local team in a company-wide town hall on 28th March 2022 (today) that it will exit India. Also, it dropped out of France a month ago. One more reason might be India banning Garena Free Fire which was Sea-backed just like Shopee. This ban had a huge impact because its market value dropped by $16 billion in just 1 day!

Shopee also said “We will work to support local seller and buyer communities and our local team to make the process as smooth as possible”.

Shopee showed great promise in India after its launch. It offered great offers and discounts to both customers (ex: free shipping) and sellers (ex: no commission). It had also tied-up with various online platforms for marketing and promotions.

Shopee is established in 9 countries including the likes of Brazil, Poland, Mexico, Columbia and Chile. It is a 7 year old e-commerce company.

What are your views on Shopee’s early exit from India? Please do share below. Even I placed an order (lakme product) on Shopee as it was available for much less price than Amazon and Flipkart, but they canceled it. A special thanks to our Dimer kartikxxx for first breaking this bye bye Shopee news.