Why Shoppers Pick Shopee or Lazada Instead of Brand Websites, Even When Prices Match

Many brands think shoppers choose marketplaces only for a lower price, but price isn't the only factor.

A recent Zapoll survey asked Malaysian consumers a straightforward question:

If the same product cost the same everywhere, where would you buy it? 68.2% picked Shopee, Lazada, or TikTok Shop. Only 9.1% chose the brand website. Another 15.9% said it would depend on promotions or rewards.

The product and price are the same, but people still prefer different places to buy. This shows that e-commerce brands compete on more than just the product; they also compete on the overall buying experience.

Why shoppers still choose marketplaces

For those who preferred Shopee, Lazada, or TikTok Shop, the top reason was better vouchers or cashback, chosen by 43.3%. The next biggest reason was trust; 36.7% said they trusted the platform more.

Another 16.7% picked marketplaces for faster delivery or easier checkout, and 3.3% mentioned easier returns and buyer protection. So the advantage isn't just a lower price.

Marketplaces can give shoppers several types of value at the same time:

• vouchers and cashback

• familiar checkout

• existing payment details

• customer reviews

• delivery expectations shoppers already understand

• buyer protection

• familiar refund and return processes

Shoppers look at the whole buying experience. The same $100 product can feel safer or better to buy on one platform compared to another.

Brand websites often start out with less trust from shoppers.

The survey also asked respondents what worried them most when buying from a new brand’s website. 34.1% said there were not enough reviews. Another 31.8% said the price didn't feel worth it, while 22.7% weren't sure they could trust the brand. A further 11.4% were concerned about returns or refunds.

These might look like different conversion problems, but for shoppers, they all affect one thing: how confident they feel about their decision.

Someone who has bought from Shopee many times already knows how everything works. They know where to find their order, how payments go through, and how to get help if there’s a problem.

They might already trust the platform’s reviews and buyer protection. A new brand website doesn’t earn that trust right away; it has to.

A customer might want your product but still decide not to buy.

This matters a lot for ecommerce conversion. Imagine someone finds a product on your website, reads about it, adds it to their cart, and then leaves.

The business sees an abandoned cart, but the shopper might not have given up on the product. They could just look for it on Shopee and finish buying it there.

The survey shows how embedded this marketplace behavior already is. When respondents were asked where they had made most of their previous five online purchases, 88.6% said Shopee, Lazada, or TikTok Shop. Only 4.5% said brand websites.

For the business, there’s an important difference: losing the customer and losing the transaction are not always the same.

A shopper might really want the product but choose a different place to buy it. This matters because it can change the business outcome.

Selling on marketplaces can mean paying commissions, platform fees, or extra promotion costs. Brands may also have less direct contact with customers and fewer chances to encourage repeat purchases on their own site.

So when brands look at website conversion, they shouldn’t just ask, “Why didn’t this person buy?” They should also ask, “Did they buy somewhere else instead?”

(Switching channels is one possible explanation. Others leave because they are still comparing products, questioning the value, or waiting for the right time. Our article on why customers abandon carts beyond price explores how to identify what is holding the purchase back.)

Discounts help, but they don’t explain everything.

Marketplaces clearly have an economic advantage. Vouchers and cashback were the most common reason respondents gave for choosing them.

Elsewhere in the survey, 65.9% of respondents said a better discount or voucher was most likely to bring them back to complete an abandoned purchase.

Incentives do matter, but relying only on discounts has limits. Each extra voucher cuts into profit, and marketplaces can offer rewards to thousands of sellers, which individual brands can't match.

This means brands shouldn’t just think, “We need a better discount.” A better question is, “What does the customer get by buying directly from us?”

The brand website needs its own reason to buy

If shoppers can get the same product at the same price on Shopee, your website needs a reason for them to buy from you. This doesn’t always mean offering a lower price than the marketplace.

The value can come from other things. For example:

• Better product proof

  Reviews, detailed product info, demonstrations, and customer results can help shoppers feel more sure about their purchase.

• Clearer buyer reassurance

  Information about returns, refunds, guarantees, warranties, and authenticity should be easy to find before shoppers get to checkout.

• Direct-only value

  Exclusive bundles, samples, loyalty perks, early access, or special product combinations can make buying directly feel different and more valuable.

• Better support

  Some customers like talking directly to the brand for advice, product questions, or after-sales help.

• A more seamless transaction

  A complicated checkout stands out even more when shoppers can use a marketplace they already know well.

The best approach depends on the brand, but the main idea stays the same; just owning the product doesn’t mean your website will be shoppers’ first choice.

Marketplaces do not always have to be treated as the enemy.

For some brands, marketplaces may actually play a useful acquisition role.

A first-time customer might be more open to trying a new brand on Shopee or Lazada because these platforms feel less risky. The real question isn't just moving every sale to your website, but deciding what each channel should do best.

Marketplaces can help you get first-time buyers. Your own website might be better for repeat purchases, higher-margin products, bundles, subscriptions, or building loyalty.

What matters is making these choices on purpose. If not, customers end up deciding your channel strategy for you.

The transaction itself has value.

The most important takeaway from the survey isn’t just that Malaysian shoppers use marketplaces a lot. It’s that 68.2% still preferred a marketplace even when the product and price were the same.

This tells us something important: the buying environment, trust, convenience, reviews, rewards, and familiarity all add value.

So if a brand is having trouble getting customers to buy on its website, focusing only on price might miss the real issue. A better question is:

What is the customer getting from the marketplace that they are not getting from us?

If the answer is trust, convenience, proof, and rewards, then just matching the product and price might never be enough.

Disclaimer: This article is based on findings from a directional consumer survey conducted among respondents in Malaysia via Zapoll. Treat the findings as indicative consumer evidence to inform hypotheses and further testing, not as representative of all Malaysian online shoppers.

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