{"id":40952,"date":"2026-10-02T23:04:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dps.media\/90-phan-tram-seller-shopee-chet-dan-loi-thoat-dps-media\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T23:04:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:04:03","slug":"90-percent-of-shopee-sellers-are-slowly-dying-the-way-out-dps-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dps.media\/en\/90-percent-of-shopee-sellers-are-slowly-dying-the-way-out-dps-media\/","title":{"rendered":"90% Seller Shopee \u0110ang Ch\u1ebft D\u1ea7n: C\u00fa S\u1ed1c Chi Ph\u00ed V\u00e0 L\u1ed1i Tho\u00e1t Cho Doanh Nghi\u1ec7p"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stark reality that anyone doing business on an e-commerce platform can clearly feel is that as many as 90% of Shopee sellers<\/strong> are slowly but surely heading toward collapse. The golden waves of explosive sales growth in 2018\u20132019 and 2021\u20132022 are now nothing more than fading memories. Many shop owners who once generated billions of VND in monthly revenue have quietly left the game, switched to real estate brokerage, or thrown themselves into becoming TikTok creators in search of new sources of income.<\/p>

The biggest paradox right now is that orders may still be coming in steadily and the warehouse may still be packing shipments nonstop, yet the business owner's bank balance at the end of the month keeps shrinking, sometimes plunging deep into the red as all kinds of costs pile up. Selling thousands of orders a day, yet having no money to show for it. What does this mean?<\/p>

At DPS.MEDIA, through our work with partners and the implementation of comprehensive e-commerce store optimization services<\/a> for retail partners, we have found that the line between surviving and disappearing from online marketplaces no longer depends on who is willing to offer deeper discounts, but rather on cash flow management and customer retention strategies across independent digital asset channels.<\/p>

The steel punches draining Shopee sellers' profit margins<\/h2>

The era of easy selling, when simply listing a product could generate organic orders, has officially come to an end. In 2026, e-commerce sellers are struggling to cope with an unprecedented surge in costs.<\/p>

Marketplace fees skyrocketing from 2% to as high as 20\u201325%<\/h3>

During 2018\u20132019, marketplaces supported sellers at almost no cost, with payment processing fees ranging from just 1% to 2%. Today, marketplace fees have become an enormous burden. Every successful order now incurs payment processing fees (approximately 3.6%\u20134%), fixed category fees (4%\u20135%), and mandatory service packages for those seeking to remain competitive, such as Freeship Xtra and Ho\u00e0n xu Xtra (approximately 8%\u201312%).<\/p>

Total marketplace fees deducted directly from the listed selling price can easily reach 20%\u201325%. If a product line has a gross profit margin below 30%, sellers are virtually guaranteed to incur losses after paying for packaging labor, cardboard boxes, tape, and warehouse depreciation.<\/p>

Advertising bids (CPC) increasing 6\u20137 times and the Auto-ROAS trap<\/h3>

Organic traffic on marketplaces has been almost entirely eliminated. To gain impressions, stores are forced to compete in Shopee Ads keyword bidding wars. Previously, the cost per click (CPC) ranged from just VND 500 to VND 800, but bids for keywords in home goods, fashion, and accessories have now surged to VND 5,000\u201310,000 per click.<\/p>

Even more concerning, automated advertising features optimized for ROAS targets continuously drain budgets at an alarming rate during off-peak hours. Many store owners wake up after a single night to find tens of millions of Vietnamese dong deducted from their advertising accounts, while the revenue from orders is insufficient to cover the cost of goods.<\/p>

Tax management pressure and the 15-day return and refund policy<\/h3>

In addition to direct marketplace costs, legal compliance requirements have also tightened considerably. According to integrated data from the E-commerce Information Portal of the General Department of Taxation<\/a>, all revenue and transaction reconciliation records for each online store are automatically transferred to the tax authorities, bringing the era of undeclared sales to a complete end.<\/p>

In addition, the regulation extending the return period to 15 days for the reason of \u2018no longer needed\u2019 has caused the return rate to surge from 2% to 8%\u201312%. Returned products are often found with torn packaging, dirt, or even swapped components, forcing sellers to bear the full cost of two-way shipping as well as losses from damaged goods.<\/p>

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The Shoptida Story: When Renting Land Turns into a Trap in the Blink of an Eye<\/h2>

Looking back at the journey of brands that once dominated the marketplaces is the most valuable lesson for anyone doing business online.<\/p>

In 2019, the Shoptida brand exploded onto the scene with remarkable speed, selling just one line of thermal printers and reaching VND 2 billion in monthly revenue. At the time, the founder thought they had mastered every e-commerce sales secret. During the 2021 lockdowns, when everyone was staying home, Shoptida set another record with its power outlet product line, peaking at thousands of orders per day thanks to an affiliate strategy that drove traffic from TikTok to Shopee.<\/p>

However, the game changed at breathtaking speed. The massive influx of overseas manufacturers selling directly at unbelievably low prices squeezed profit margins to the limit. This was followed by waves of quality-standard inspection (TCCL) policy enforcement and increasingly strict algorithm changes, resulting in all three Shop Mall stores being simultaneously locked while they were at the peak of their sales. The entire cash flow, workforce, and inventory became stuck after just a few system notifications.<\/p>

The bitter lesson is this: E-commerce marketplaces are ultimately just rented land<\/strong>. You can spend hundreds of millions of VND on advertising every month to bring customers in to shop, but all of that customer data belongs to the marketplace, not to you. When the landlord decides to raise the rent, change the rules of the game, or reclaim the premises, businesses built on rented land will be the first to collapse.<\/p>

A Way Out for the 10% of Sellers Who Survive: Shifting from Rented Land to Owned Media<\/h2>

Who are the 10% of sellers that still survive and generate sustainable profits on marketplaces today? They are not necessarily the best at \u2018running cheap ads\u2019 or \u2018squeezing every last drop out of promotional vouchers,\u2019 but rather those who realized early on that: E-commerce marketplaces only serve as a customer acquisition channel at the very top of the sales funnel (Top of Funnel).<\/p>

To escape the vicious cycle of cutting prices and bleeding margins, smart businesses adopt a model that shifts customers from rented platforms to privately owned digital assets (Owned Media):<\/p>