From April 2025, major e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop have all raised their selling fees, creating a significant challenge for brands and retailers. Specifically, TikTok Shop has adjusted commission rates from 1-3% to 1-4% for regular stores and from 1.5-5.78% to 1.21-7.7% for official brand stores. Meanwhile, Shopee has raised its platform fee for standard stores to as high as 10%, three times the previous fee of 3-4%.

This change has caused a sharp increase in selling costs on e-commerce platforms, from 30% to 50%, putting considerable pressure on brand profitability.

The Trend Toward Shifting to Brand Websites (Brand.com)

To reduce dependency on e-commerce platforms and optimize costs, many brands are beginning to shift towards developing their own e-commerce websites (brand.com). Selling directly through their websites not only allows brands to control the entire customer experience (CX) but also helps secure customer data and eliminate additional fees from e-commerce platforms.

Additionally, brands can directly harness customer data from transactions, aiding in the development of marketing strategies, driving long-term growth, and building strong customer relationships. Although Southeast Asian consumers still prefer shopping on e-commerce platforms due to competitive prices, convenience, and product diversity, the opportunities offered by brand websites cannot be overlooked. Businesses can use e-commerce platforms to attract customers and direct them to their own websites, while also building customer loyalty through exclusive offers.

1. Leveraging CRM Data for Loyalty Program Development

A key element in this transition strategy is the management and utilization of customer data. Brands realize the importance of collecting data from both e-commerce platforms and direct transactions on their own websites. This data not only helps develop personalized marketing campaigns but also supports the creation of more effective loyalty programs (point systems, exclusive offers for loyal customers).

However, many businesses currently face challenges in using CRM systems to optimize customer data. Most CRM systems today only store basic information, lacking powerful tools for analyzing behavior, predicting needs, or executing automated marketing campaigns.

To address this issue, many brands have invested in building in-house CRM systems. However, these self-developed CRMs often encounter several issues, including:

• Data Storage Only, Lack of Analysis Tools: In-house CRM systems mainly focus on storing basic information like names, phone numbers, emails, and purchase histories. They often lack the ability to analyze customer behavior, predict needs, or execute automated marketing campaigns.
• Fragmented Data Integration: Customer data comes from multiple sources such as e-commerce platforms, websites, offline retail points, and social media. Traditional CRMs often lack seamless integration across all these sources, leading to fragmented data.
• Lack of Personalization: Brands aiming to implement personalized marketing strategies need a system capable of real-time data analysis. Self-built CRMs often lack AI algorithms or machine learning capabilities to segment customers based on behavior and shopping habits.
• Limited Loyalty Management: Loyalty is not just about points or discounts; it’s about creating a comprehensive customer journey. Many CRMs only support basic membership features, lacking multi-channel point accumulation or flexible reward redemption.

2. Combining CDP & Advanced Loyalty Solutions

To overcome the limitations of traditional CRM systems, many businesses are turning to Customer Data Platforms (CDP). A CDP is a platform that integrates customer data from multiple sources (e-commerce platforms, websites, POS, social media, etc.) into a single system. It not only helps analyze customer behavior but also optimizes marketing strategies and loyalty program management more effectively.

By integrating loyalty systems into CDP, brands can personalize loyalty programs based on customer behavior and preferences, while synchronizing loyalty data across brand websites and e-commerce platforms, ensuring a seamless customer experience.

Benefits of CDP in Loyalty Management:

• Multi-source Data Integration: CDP integrates data from various sources such as e-commerce platforms, websites, POS, and social media.
• Behavior Analysis and Shopping Prediction: CDP analyzes customer behavior and predicts shopping needs.
• Optimized Marketing Campaigns: CDP enables email, SMS, and chatbot marketing campaigns.
  Flexible Multi-channel Loyalty Management: It helps create a seamless experience across different channels.
• Personalized Loyalty Programs: CDP allows for the customization of loyalty programs based on customer behavior and preferences.
• Seamless Loyalty Data Synchronization: Synchronizes loyalty data between websites and e-commerce platforms.
• Automated Customer Segmentation and Tailored Offers: CDP segments customers automatically and proposes suitable offers for each group.
• Multi-channel Loyalty Campaigns: Brands can run loyalty campaigns across various channels, including email marketing, push notifications, and SMS.

3. Combining Points Programs on Platforms and Brand Websites

Major e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop all offer points and rewards programs that help increase consumer loyalty. However, brands can also create their own point systems on their websites and integrate them with platform programs to enhance flexibility and attract repeat customers.

For example, Shopee offers a “Loyalty Customer” program with membership levels such as Silver, Gold, and Diamond, giving customers special offers once they reach certain order milestones. Lazada also has a points system and rewards for buyers at official brand stores. TikTok Shop organizes promotional campaigns to boost product visibility and support sellers.

By combining points programs across both brand websites and e-commerce platforms, brands can enhance loyalty and encourage customers to shop on multiple channels.

4. Sustainable Growth through User Experience

In a highly competitive environment, building a strong and sustainable e-commerce ecosystem on brand websites is essential for long-term brand success. Brands need to focus not only on discounts and promotions but also on optimizing the customer experience (CX) to create differentiation. Controlling the entire shopping journey—from user interface to payment and delivery—will help build brand loyalty and provide an exceptional shopping experience, surpassing e-commerce platforms.

While e-commerce platforms still play a vital role in sales strategies, developing a dedicated sales channel on brand websites is a smart choice for businesses to optimize costs, control data, and build long-term customer relationships. Implementing CDP solutions and advanced loyalty strategies will help brands not only optimize business performance but also foster sustainable growth for the future.