Selling on Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop: Do You Still Need Your Own Website?
A practical framework for connecting marketplace sales, a brand website, customer service and ongoing engagement.
Your marketplace stores are generating orders. Campaigns bring visitors, customers ask about your products, and your team is preparing for the next sales event. Then someone asks: should we build our own website?
The answer depends on what the website would help the business achieve. For brands entering Southeast Asia, including Chinese companies expanding into the region, the decision involves demand, customer trust, contribution per order and operating readiness.
What is Brand.com? In this article, Brand.com means a website operated by the brand itself. It may provide product information, official store links and enquiries, or include a direct online checkout. These are different levels of investment and responsibility.
1. What the evidence tells us about marketplaces and brand websites
Momentum Works estimates that Southeast Asia’s platform e-commerce gross merchandise value reached US$157.6 billion in 2025, up 22.8% year on year. Its 2026 report covers Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. These figures describe platform GMV, rather than seller profit or the whole retail economy.[1]
The same research estimates that content commerce generated US$49.7 billion, approximately 32% of platform GMV in 2025, compared with 20% in 2024.[1] This supports treating content as a material part of the regional commerce environment. It does not establish which channel will be most profitable for an individual brand.
Brand websites can also play a role before checkout. Shopify’s guide to marketplaces and Brand.com reports that 83% of shoppers research a product or company through its website before purchasing on a marketplace.[2] This is a finding presented in that guide, rather than a current population-wide estimate for every Southeast Asian country.
Consider a possible journey: a shopper discovers a product through a video, checks the brand website for specifications and warranty information, then purchases through a marketplace offering their preferred checkout. The website contributes to the decision even when it does not record the sale.
Evidence note: Regional GMV estimates and consumer research answer different questions. The Shopify guide’s public landing page does not provide the full sampling details. Use its finding as directional context; validate investment decisions with your own country, category and customer data.
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2. Give each channel a clear job
Before allocating another budget, specify the customer need each channel should address. The following framework is a planning tool; the actual role should be tested against local performance.
| Channel | Potential role | Question to investigate |
|---|---|---|
| Shopee / Lazada | Product search, comparison and purchasing. | Which listings convert with a viable contribution per order? |
| TikTok Shop | Connect content-led discovery with purchasing. | Which content and creator activity produces viable orders? |
| Brand.com | Brand verification, product education, enquiries and appropriate direct sales. | What useful task can customers complete here? |
| Opted-in messaging | Relevant updates, assistance and continued engagement. | Why would customers welcome the message, and who handles replies? |
For a brand expanding across countries, the answer may differ by market. Use local customer questions, delivery arrangements, payment requirements and service capacity to decide what belongs on each channel.
3. When does your own website make business sense?
Customers already search for your brand
Review enquiries and search data for requests about authenticity, official stores, manuals, warranties and local support. A focused website can give those searches a useful destination.
Your products need explanation
Products with compatibility, installation, sizing or technical considerations benefit from organised buying guides. Start with the questions your sales and service teams repeatedly answer.
You have distinct buyer needs
A consumer may want a single item, while a distributor needs commercial information and a business enquiry route. Your website can explain these arrangements without forcing every visitor through the same buying path.
You are ready to operate direct checkout
Direct sales require payment processing, fulfilment, returns, customer support and ongoing maintenance. If readiness is limited, begin with a brand information website and official store links. Add checkout when you can explain both its customer value and its operating model.
4. Compare the full cost of an order
Lower transaction charges alone do not establish that a website order is more profitable. Evaluate acquisition, product costs, fulfilment and service together.
The following USD figures are hypothetical planning assumptions, not current platform fees or industry benchmarks. Revenue is after seller-funded discounts, excluding tax and customer-paid shipping. Use a consistent accounting basis when replacing the assumptions.
| Item | Marketplace | Brand.com |
|---|---|---|
| Net sales revenue | $50 | $50 |
| Product cost | −$20 | −$20 |
| Platform / payment charges | −$6 | −$2 |
| Allocated advertising cost | −$4 | −$9 |
| Seller-funded fulfilment | −$3 | −$4 |
| Expected returns and support | −$2 | −$2 |
| Contribution before fixed overhead | $15 | $13 |
Under these assumptions, the website has lower transaction charges and higher advertising costs. The marketplace order contributes $2 more. Different acquisition costs or repeat-purchase behaviour could change the result.
Repeat the calculation for new and returning customers separately. Then consider fixed costs such as website development, software subscriptions and staffing. For a time-bound pilot, compare total contribution with incremental fixed costs to assess whether the new channel is economically worthwhile.
5. Prepare service operations before adding volume
Imagine a customer asks about a delayed order. The agent needs the order reference, the warehouse needs to confirm what happened, and someone must commit to the next customer update. Across multiple stores and countries, unclear ownership can create repeated manual checks.
Define where staff find order information, who handles cancellations and refunds, what decisions agents can make, and when a case needs escalation. Document the next customer update as part of the case.
CXBOX COMMERCE extends Zendesk with supported marketplace conversations, order context and tools including vouchers, order notes and cancellation or refund-request notification tickets. Capabilities depend on the connected platform and account configuration.[3]
Zendesk customer service software provides the service workspace around which teams can organise case ownership and follow-up. The objective is to give the person handling the request enough context and authority to take the next useful action.
Where the challenge concerns processes and responsibilities, DEMETER ICT’s Customer Experience Optimization services provide a relevant starting point for discussing the workflow alongside the technology.
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6. After the first purchase, build a reason to stay connected
A completed order creates an opportunity to consider what communication would be useful next. A new product announcement may interest one customer; setup guidance or a replacement-part reminder may be more relevant to another.
Start with a specific audience, a useful reason to communicate and an appropriate data source.
| Scenario | Possible message | Required preparation |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded product interest | A relevant collection announcement. | Reliable interest attributes and an eligible audience. |
| Tracked campaign-link click | A configured follow-up about the linked product. | Supported click tracking and a tested workflow. |
| Defined interaction inactivity | A carefully timed re-engagement message. | A supported inactivity condition and sending eligibility. |
| A known replenishment cycle | A reminder timed around expected replacement. | Purchase data, timing logic and a suitable integration. |
CXBOX HUB adds audience segmentation, personalised outbound campaigns and engagement insights to a Zendesk-connected operation. Its retail and e-commerce engagement workflows include configured click-based follow-ups and supported inactivity-based re-engagement.[4], [5]
Purchase-based scenarios require the relevant purchase information and integration. Installing HUB alone does not provide cart, replenishment or loyalty data. Likewise, an absence of messaging interaction does not establish that a customer has stopped buying.
Confirm audience permission, channel eligibility and applicable sending requirements before launch. Marketplace order records and permission for external marketing should be evaluated separately.
7. Connect campaign replies with customer service
A product campaign can generate several types of response. One customer asks which model fits an earlier purchase. Another asks about delivery. A third reports an unresolved order problem.
Prepare the handoff before sending. Agree which team handles each request, what information it needs, how quickly it should respond and how unresolved cases are escalated.
Where configured conversation-control handoff is needed between CXBOX HUB, a bot and Zendesk, Switchboard supports that handoff. Department and agent assignment are handled through Zendesk. Test the specific channel and workflow before contacting customers.[5]
| Solution | Role | What to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| CXBOX COMMERCE | Supported marketplace conversations, order context and commerce service tools. | Platform-specific data and available actions. |
| Zendesk | Service cases, team ownership and follow-up. | Routing rules, service processes and permissions. |
| CXBOX HUB | Outbound campaigns and configured engagement follow-ups. | Audience, data sources, connected channels and reply handling. |
These are complementary roles. Their implementation should follow the customer journey and the integrations available to the business.
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8. Start with a measurable pilot
Select one market, a defined product group and a customer journey your team understands. Set a baseline before changing the workflow.
- Define channel roles. Identify where customers discover, research, purchase and request help.
- Calculate order contribution. Use actual costs and separate new from returning customers.
- Prepare service ownership. Confirm order access, escalation routes and update responsibilities.
- Test one engagement scenario. Use an eligible audience, a specific purpose and a tested reply workflow.
- Review the business outcome. Compare contribution, qualified enquiries, repeat orders and service workload with the baseline.
Choose measures that match the objective. A brand information website may be evaluated through qualified enquiries and useful product-content visits. A direct store also needs conversion and contribution measures. Messaging campaigns need appropriate engagement and outcome tracking.
A link click indicates interest in a link. Attributing a purchase requires reliable order data and suitable tracking. For a stronger campaign evaluation, consider a comparable holdout group where practical, rather than assuming every subsequent purchase was caused by the message.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a website if I already sell on Shopee, Lazada or TikTok Shop?
A website can support brand verification, product education and enquiries. Add direct checkout when customer demand, costs and operating readiness justify it. Begin by defining the job the website should do.
Does Brand.com always produce higher margins?
Calculate full order contribution to find out. Lower transaction charges may be offset by acquisition, fulfilment, service and technology costs.
How do CXBOX COMMERCE and CXBOX HUB differ?
CXBOX COMMERCE extends Zendesk for supported marketplace service operations and order context. CXBOX HUB adds outbound engagement and configured follow-up through connected messaging channels. Both require appropriate setup.
Can every marketplace buyer receive WhatsApp or LINE campaigns?
Check permission, channel eligibility, platform terms and applicable requirements first. An order record alone should not be treated as authorisation for external marketing.
Can CXBOX HUB automatically send replenishment reminders?
A purchase-based reminder requires the relevant order data, timing logic and supported integration. Confirm those prerequisites before designing the workflow.
