KUALA LUMPUR: Shopee, an online shopping platform said there has been no notable changes in prices of the 19 million products on its platform, following reintroduction of the sales and service tax (SST), according to Shopee regional managing director Ian Ho.
Shopee has around 400,000 sellers and over 500 large brands on its online shopping platform.
“Shopee sees no real impact of SST in the online retail space yet. Our 12 million users are still shopping, in fact more than before over the last five days and strong sales growth is seen across all categories from fashion to electronics, health and beauty, and groceries,” Ho said in a statement.
He said a large number of traders informed Shopee that manufacturers have not passed on the cost of SST to them and as such, they will remain prices unless otherwise.
“Many brands and even SMEs shared that they are committed to invest on the growth of e-commerce and as such, will be absorbing the cost of SST.
“Shopee has been recording solid day-on-day sales growth over the last five days despite reimplementation of SST due to our 9.9 Super Shopping Day, a campaign devised to add value to consumers,” Ho said.
He cautioned that Shopee is unsure how long the prices will remain low.
“However, it is clear that at this juncture in time, the market is enjoying an extended period of pre-SST prices on most goods online. Hence, this is an opportune time to purchase especially the high ticket items like mobile phones, laptops, computer accessories and home appliances before the real impact of SST kicks in,” he added.
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