In the background, sellers provide an invaluable service tasked with interacting with their audience, promoting products, and fulfilling orders, ensuring you get whatever you’re looking for, delivered straight to your doorstep.

These platforms provide the opportunity for individuals wishing to participate in the growing e-commerce space, allowing MSMEs (micro small medium enterprises) to develop and thrive.

To get an exclusive inside look, FMT recently spoke to Yuslita, who has been a Shopee seller for the past 10 months, about her experience.

Like many sellers, Yuslita was an avid user and buyer who decided to explore the idea of reselling a product she enjoyed and believed in.

“I started Shopee with zero-knowledge, joining as an authorised agent for Izzly. I saw other agents using Shopee as their medium of selling, which is why I opened a shop, even though I didn’t know anything about it at the time except as a buyer.”

What started as a side hustle progressively grew with the support and many tools available through their platform.

When her baby was six months old, she started searching for baby products, narrowing her search down to a few brands including Izzly baby food which stood out to her as a reputable brand.

Yuslita said, “I will go for halal products with no sugar, no salt, no MSG, and no preservative and Muslim production.”

That led her kickstarting her selling journey with baby food products as there is a demand in this area, and it became her side hustle for extra income.

Throughout her journey, the platform has fostered an environment geared towards her success through the wealth of useful resources that were available on Shopee University.

With so many vouchers and campaigns at her disposal, Yuslita has now upskilled and learned how to optimise her time and utilise the necessary tools to succeed.

After engaging with Shopee’s Go E-commerce onboarding campaigns and Seller Education Hub, which is available in English, Malay and Chinese, she was selected to participate in the Shopee Seller Accelerator Programme (SSAP) which offered her a relationship manager to monitor and advise her further.

Her experience has also enriched other aspects of her life. At a recent ShopeeUni Focus Group Event she was invited to, Yuslita met several sellers she had previously only communicated with via the ShopeeUni Malaysia Facebook group.

“I think I have better communication and a better environment, communicating with many people right now. We chit chat, share experiences. I have more friends now. For me, communicating with other sellers also helps me to build more confidence, and helps me to gain some knowledge from them.”

Aside from improving her communications skills and growing her network, even with a major in marketing, she said the lessons on how to run her business in real-time has helped improve her management of inventory and cash flow.

With sales in the last 10 months starting at three figures and climbing all the way to five figures during the recent Raya season, Yuslita is looking forward to continuing her growth by attending the upcoming Shopee Seller Summit on June 16.

Speaking at the summit will be ShopeeXpert Victor Chow. He has trained over 1,000 students and shared his knowledge and experience in building an online business that he took from a five-figure to an eight-figure business in under two years.

“Seeing people succeed always gives me a sense of achievement. I hope to make a difference for other sellers by sharing my experiences and helping them accelerate their growth. This led me to create my personal ‘Shopee Class’ to help other sellers gain more perspective in building their businesses. I was thrilled to see some of my students already growing 50-100% in sales, and to my surprise, some have even grown 200% in sales in just less than a month!”

Kenneth Soh, head of marketing campaigns at Shopee Malaysia added, “Shopee’s key differentiator is our commitment to building a healthy and sustainable e-commerce ecosystem that benefits both buyers and sellers in the long run.

“Through digitalising and upskilling local communities, our #ShopeeSapotLokal initiative drives e-commerce growth in a sustainable and inclusive way on behalf of all our sellers and the communities they support.

“We’ve also trained hundreds of rural micro-entrepreneurs to get started on e-commerce via the PUPUK@Shopee programme, a collaborative programme with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).”

Shopee’s mission has always been to better the lives of users through technology. With Malaysia’s economic growth increasingly driven by digitalisation, it presents potential and opportunities for sellers to benefit from this trend to grow their businesses.

Shopee stays committed to helping sellers at all stages, to upskill and be equipped with knowledge and resources to succeed on their platform.

Tickets for the Shopee Seller Summit on June 16 with the theme: “Level Up: Drive Growth Together” are available until June 3 here.