My Comparison of The 2 Largest Shopping Sites

[fastpitch17]

I always bought primarily through Tokopedia but for the past few months have been buying through them and Shopee. What I found personally.

Shopee has many more items than Tokopedia. The majority seem to be the very cheap Chinese stuff. Shopee has more clothing for women but again, seems the cheaper quality items. Shopee does have better selections for men. Shopee is plagued with sellers using pictures of nice products only to turn around and ship some cheap thing with the same name.

Shopee is loaded with drop shippers. Much more so than Tokopedia. Causes problems with returns or complaints.

If you cancel an order on Shopee before it even ships the seller can refuse your cancelation and they do. Cancel on Tokopedia before item shipped, it's canceled.

Items have taken 2 to 7 days longer to first ship than the same items on Tokopedia. All the time. Don't know the reason except a possible delay because of drop shipping. Order for next day delivery on Shopee and it could be 2 days before they ship. Tokopedia, 9 times out of 10 it is shipped out same day as ordering.

Shopee delivery, SPX has an asshole manager here. Items shown as delivered we did not get. Contacted SPX to inform them that they need to go back and get misdelivered packages and bring to us. Manager said packages shown as delivered so that was that. A nice lady brought them to us 2 days later. I have no complaints about the guys doing the deliveries. They are working 8 AM until after 10PM many days.

Ordered 7 ft Christmas tree through Shopee seller. Informed me they were out of stock and she would substitute. I seen her message on Shopee less than 2 hours later. She had other trees that size so I told her I would choose one of those. She wrote that since I was late in replying she was already substituting it. I asked with what and she would not answer. I seen it was not listed as shipped so I canceled. She refused my request on the grounds it was already shipped. Again I asked what was sent. No answer. It was the next day before it showed shipped. I waited for delivery hoping it was one of the other 7 foot trees they offered. Delivery driver presented me with a package that was thinner than my arm and maybe 50cm long. I refused shipment. Not even close and no indication I was getting any money refunded. I reported it and still the seller fought me on it. I won. Not my only complaint on Shopee. One complaint on Tokopedia that when through them and they got it settled in 2 days. Any other complaint I go to seller and they have all remedied any problems.

I am going to mostly pass on Shopee and stick to tokopedia.

 

[snpark]

Lazada
Toko
Shoppee

In that order
But depends what you want
Toko good for electronic stuff

 

[ukcouple]

I agree with most of what you said. The thing is that most of the online shops that are on shopee are also on tokopedia so any differences between the two are how the two platforms handle cancellations, complaints and delivery costs.

If it's available, i always opt for instant delivery. The free shipping option on tokopedia can take 3 or 4 days to arrive. The extra cost for instant is worth paying ( but i suppose thats only available in Jakarta.)

You don't mention Blibli, Bukalapak or Lazada.

For expensive items I always check Blibli first because they have their own warehouses so you can be sure you are getting genuine items with quick and cheap delivery. The excellent JD had the same business model but sadly they left Indonesia.

 

[Balifrog]

Bought a few things on Shopee, clothes for the Miss and small kitchen accessories.
For the clothes quality is a bit hit or miss.

I am looking for a KITCHENAID ARTISAN mixer. Price here in a specialized shop is 9,5 Million.
I find it (exact same, at least the picture) for prices between 6 and 12 Million on Shopee...
A bit worried about ordering this kind of value item on Shopee.
Redflags :

• too big price differences
• no comments on previous sales
• some shop seem to have zero followers, zero comments...kind of a ghost shop ?
• some shops dont accept credit or debit card, only bank transfer or cash at Mitra (?)

Common sense would say "stay away" but hey 7 M instead of 9,5 is tempting. Well, as long I receive the right item....

Any experienced Shopee expert advice ?

 

[Hawk256]

Any experienced Shopee expert advice ?

No expereince with Shopee but I have bought several items for very low prices on Tokopedia and some from shops with no reviews. So far I have always recieved the item I paid for. Only one problem in 5 years where a shop tried to pass off a refurbished toner cartridge as new. Tokopedia easily sided with me. They even refunded the money I spent to ship the item back to the seller. I have had better luck with Tokopedia than I did with Amazon in the US. YMMV.

 

[fastpitch17]

I agree with most of what you said. The thing is that most of the online shops that are on shopee are also on tokopedia so any differences between the two are how the two platforms handle cancellations, complaints and delivery costs.

If it's available, i always opt for instant delivery. The free shipping option on tokopedia can take 3 or 4 days to arrive. The extra cost for instant is worth paying ( but i suppose thats only available in Jakarta.)

You don't mention Blibli, Bukalapak or Lazada.

For expensive items I always check Blibli first because they have their own warehouses so you can be sure you are getting genuine items with quick and cheap delivery. The excellent JD had the same business model but sadly they left Indonesia.

Not sure about most of the sellers being on both sites. I see tokopedia sellers in Shopee but a bunch of Shopee sellers not on tokopedia. The biggest thing is the delay in when products ship. I think some of this is due to using drop shippers and perhaps needing to wait and get things from different ones to ship together. That or the platform is slow with getting orders to sellers.

Instant delivery is great and what I use if ordering from local merchants. Unfortunately, many products are much higher priced here than in Jakarta. If seller uses Paxel for next day I always use them. Same price for next day as regular for other shippers. Half or better than half for next day from others. Otherwise I go regular or the free shipping option.

Those are the only two I use. Used Lazada years ago and lost money so have avoided them. I know little to nothing about the others. I do know I will never shop from a site where seller gets paid before I say all is good.

I guess another thing about Shopee are their points. Gets me when checking out they ask if I want to use somewhere under 2,000 points to 19,000 points. No, I want to use 2,00,000 points but I don't get that benefit. Tokopedia I can use points from go pay or ovo if I like.

 

[Balifrog]

Instant delivery is great

What is it with todays society who wants everything instantly or under 24h delivery ?
Shaking my head here.
When I order books, car models, kitchen gear or miscellenaous hardware I don't care if it takes 3 days or 3 weeks.
It's nothing that I need dramatically urgently.

 

[fastpitch17]

What is it with todays society who wants everything instantly or under 24h delivery ?
Shaking my head here.
When I order books, car models, kitchen gear or miscellenaous hardware I don't care if it takes 3 days or 3 weeks.
It's nothing that I need dramatically urgently.

Instant only when it's from my own city. Less handling, better chance of no damage. Next day with Paxel I know when it's arriving. JNE next day many times takes an extra day and is twice the price. Next day with Paxel the same cost or a bit less than the other 's regular. Most of my next day deliveries are parishables.

 

[fastpitch17]

Bought a few things on Shopee, clothes for the Miss and small kitchen accessories.
For the clothes quality is a bit hit or miss.

I am looking for a KITCHENAID ARTISAN mixer. Price here in a specialized shop is 9,5 Million.
I find it (exact same, at least the picture) for prices between 6 and 12 Million on Shopee...
A bit worried about ordering this kind of value item on Shopee.
Redflags :

• too big price differences
• no comments on previous sales
• some shop seem to have zero followers, zero comments...kind of a ghost shop ?
• some shops dont accept credit or debit card, only bank transfer or cash at Mitra (?)

Common sense would say "stay away" but hey 7 M instead of 9,5 is tempting. Well, as long I receive the right item....

Any experienced Shopee expert advice ?

Common sense would say that if someone in a selling site wants cash directly, avoid them. Only guarantees are the sites that hold payments until the buyer releases them with no complaints. You know the old saying, if it's too good to be true, it normally isn't.

 

[Pak Tani]

I have been using both the Shopee and Tokopedia platform as a seller for a couple of years now. When I signed up in 2018, I didn't need to show any proof of ID, only phonenumber and email address. I don't know if things have changed but it made things pretty easy (and if you want, anonymous).
Sales were almost 1:1 in the beginning but now Shopee generates me around 5 x more sales than Tokopedia. I think some new sellers don't bother to sign up at other platforms besides Shopee because this is the busiest platform of all.
For sellers both platforms are pretty similar, just the user interface is a bit different. When someone places an order the seller is immediately informed by notification and email. The seller is then given 24 hours to accept the order. After accepting the order, at Shopee the seller has 2 working days to send the shipment. So there can be a 3 working days delay in the shipment being sent. Add the shipping time and things can easily take up to 5 working days before you receive them. Tokopedia does not allow any delay in shipping by slow response to accepting an order. Here the order needs to be shipped within 2 working days after the order was placed. So you are right, Tokopedia can be more convenient for buyers.
Also whenever you need something fast, chat te seller first to ask if they can send today.
Some sellers are 'professional' or real companies, some are just side businesses of someone who has 3 crying babies and a house to clean. Don't expect the latter to pack your 90gr Silverqueen in bubblewrap, print out the shipping label and rush it to the courier for a profit of Rp2rb.
I must say I am impressed how well things seem to work. Personally, none of my orders have ever gone missing and only few complaints. The most annoying for sellers is the low ratings from people who cannot be contacted.

As a buyer I have bought several phones through Shopee and never had any problems. I do pay attention to the rating of the shop and the product before I order anything. If a product or shop has had few sales or a rating lower than 4.7 I will probably pass and look somewhere else.

 

[fastpitch17]

When someone places an order the seller is immediately informed by notification and email. The seller is then given 24 hours to accept the order. After accepting the order, the seller has 2 working days to send the shipment. So there can be a 3 working days delay in the shipment being sent. Add the shipping time and things can easily take up to 5 working days before you receive them. So if you need something fast, chat te seller first to ask if they can send today.

When I order from Shopee I have available to me after ordering a "will be shipped by" date and many times this is a week into the future so I doubt the sellers have 2 days to ship just looking at what the platform says. Items ordered can sit there with " order accepted" for days and days. Then the projected ship by date can change again. As for contacting sellers, good luck if you get an answer in a day or two. I have spent from order to delivery more than once at around 2 weeks.

Maybe the seller is not a licensed business and selling some product being dropped shipped from some supplier. The customer still expects proper service and really doesn't care if they need to change the baby or clean the house. If they want to have a business they should have it. Just conduct it like a business. If you can not handle taking care of it maybe you should close the business and take care of your priorities. Too many sellers think they are the main show and customers should appreciate them.

 

[Pak Tani]

If you've ever wondered where the free ongkir comes from...
For instance at Tokopedia, the seller pays 2,4% of the sales to Tokped by default. If he chooses to activate free shipping, he pays another 4%. Extra Ongkir Plus adds x%.
Similar to Shopee where the seller pays Shopee 6% on orders sold with free ongkir. Around 8% or more for orders sent with Free Ongkir Extra. He pays a small percentage for the Star logo and a little bit more for the Star+ logo.
The platforms use this to pay for the deals they made with the different couriers (and to make the shareholders happy)

 

[Pak Tani]

The ship by date is 2 working days, the seller gets an extra day to prepare your order if it falls on a Saturday, Sunday or tanggal merah. He wins another day if he requests the order to be picked up in the afternoon; he knows the courier will not be coming to pick up until the next day. The order is marked as 'shipped' though.

If a seller is slow in responding to a question of a potential customer, expect him to be slow in sending your stuff let alone handling a complaint. Look somewhere else. Also dropshippers, people selling stuff they don't have, only when there are no other options available.

Addit: if it took longer than 2 working days, the product you ordered was perhaps pre-order.

 

[gemima]

I use Tokopedia only (cant get the shopee app on my phone; its linked to my Irish google account).
I have bought so much stuff from there the last few years - exercise bike, multiple premium smartphones, huge christmas tree, kitchen stuff (instant pot/ air fryer), alcohol and even furniture. I probably have at least 1 tokopedia delivery per day to my house (maybe I have a tokopedia shopping addiction). I make sure I buy from reputable sellers (with reviews, 1000s of sales and good ratings). I cant fault tokopedia and I really miss the service when I'm away from home.

I have never had any duds outside of cosmetics - there are a lot of convincing cosmetic fakes from China so I only buy expensive cosmetics from sephora or direct from the online shop of the brand.

 

[Samoerai]

For instance at Tokopedia, the seller pays 2,4% of the sales to Tokped by default. If he chooses to activate free shipping, he pays another 4%

Hmm, don't understand: a seller on Tokopedia pays 4% on top of the default just for activating the option "free ongkir"? Yet, the seller still has to pay the "ongkir" of the product to the customer?

 

[Pak Tani]

Hmm, don't understand: a seller on Tokopedia pays 4% on top of the default just for activating the option "free ongkir"? Yet, the seller still has to pay the "ongkir" of the product to the customer?

No, the seller doesn't have to pay any ongkir apart from the 4% of his sale.

This is why you often get free ongkir above Rp20rb, Rp50rb or more. The 4% of the sale must be at least worth something.

 

[serious_fun]

Istri ku uses the Shoppee app and hasn't had any problems.

We've only purchased C.O.D., so no ripoffs.

 

[Samoerai]

We've only purchased C.O.D., so no ripoffs.

Cash on delivery (COD) is a method of collecting payment from customers when their orders arrive.

 

[snpark]

Cash on delivery (COD) is a method of collecting payment from customers when their orders arrive.

Oh is that what it means?
Thanks for clarification

 

[Samoerai]

COD

The fish?

Oh is that what it means?
Thanks for clarification

Yes, I am not familiar with some abbreviations in the English language, like IMHO, FOMO, TGIF and such. I have to look it up. Maybe others too.