Selling on Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop Malaysia as a foreign brand: local store or cross-border?

Several of the overseas brands I met at Cosmobeauté this year asked the same practical question: can we just open a Shopee or TikTok Shop store from Taiwan and sell into Malaysia? The honest answer is yes, sometimes, and it is usually the wrong long-term setup. Here is how the options actually work, and how to choose.

The three ways to open a store

The platforms draw the line clearly. TikTok Shop Malaysia states that only businesses or companies registered in Malaysia can register as corporate sellers, and individual sellers must be Malaysian citizens.¹ Overseas sellers reach TikTok Shop buyers through its separate global selling programme.² Shopee Malaysia's business seller accounts are likewise for businesses registered in Malaysia, with sellers based overseas pointed to Shopee's cross-border programme,³ and Lazada's LazGlobal programme lets cross-border sellers reach Malaysia without a local entity.⁴

Why cross-border is a test, not a strategy

Cross-border selling is genuinely useful for one thing: finding out whether Malaysians want your product before you commit to a local setup. As a long-term model it works against you in four ways.

• Price. Since 1 January 2024, Malaysia has charged a 10 percent sales tax on imported low-value goods, those worth RM500 or less, sold online.⁵ Most beauty and lifestyle orders sit well under that line.
• Speed. A parcel from overseas takes longer than one from a Malaysian warehouse, and platforms reward speed. TikTok Shop's Store Rating, for example, includes a fast delivery rate, and higher ratings unlock affiliate programmes and campaigns.⁶
• Trust. Malaysian shoppers can see where a product ships from. For a brand they do not know yet, an overseas dispatch label is one more reason to hesitate.
• Rules still apply. Selling cross-border does not exempt a product from Malaysian requirements. For cosmetics, every product sold here has to be notified to the NPRA through a Malaysian-registered holder, which we cover in how foreign beauty brands enter Malaysia.

The local store question nobody asks: whose account is it?

Most foreign brands go local through their distributor, because the distributor already has the Malaysian company and the stock. That is a sensible setup, with one condition that should be in the contract before anything else: who owns the store accounts and the customer data.

If the distributor owns the Shopee or TikTok Shop account, the brand's reviews, followers, sales history and buyer data all sit with the distributor. If the relationship ends, the brand starts from zero, and the distributor keeps the store that ranks. Agree on ownership, access and what happens at the end of the contract on day one.

What changes once the store is local

Going local solves delivery and trust. It also puts the store inside the platform's full scoring system, which is where a lot of foreign brands get caught out:

• Every TikTok Shop store in Malaysia is scored on an Account Health Rating and a Store Rating that decide campaign access and reach. We break down all eleven factors in why your TikTok Shop isn't growing.
• The mega-sale calendar drives a large share of the year's orders, and campaign registration closes weeks before each sale. See the Malaysian mega-sale calendar.
• Content has to work in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Chinese, for three communities and a festive calendar that runs all year.

None of this can be run well from overseas. It needs a team in Malaysia, working the stores every day.

Where an e-commerce enabler fits

This is the gap we fill for foreign brands. Hansen is a Malaysian e-commerce enabler and management partner: once your product is cleared to sell and stocked locally, we run your Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop stores, plan the campaigns, and produce the short video for your own channels in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Chinese. We do not hold NPRA notifications or import stock, so we work alongside your distributor or your own Malaysian company rather than replacing them.

Foreign brands can hand those two jobs, store operation and short video production, to us completely. The account stays in your name.

From the founder

The brands that do well here stop treating Malaysia as an export destination and start treating it as a market. That means local stock, a local store in their own name, and people on the ground who understand how Malaysians shop, what they celebrate and what language they scroll in.

Cross-border is a fine way to dip a toe in. Just do not mistake the test for the plan.

Louis Teo, Founder of Hansen

A setup that works for most foreign brands

1. Optional test. List a small range cross-border to see which products Malaysians respond to.
2. Choose the local entity. Your distributor's company or your own, with store ownership agreed in writing.
3. Bring stock in. Through the importer, with regulated categories cleared first.
4. Open local stores on the platforms that fit. Our comparison of Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop helps with the order.
5. Run them from Malaysia. Daily operation, campaigns and content in three languages, by a team that is here.

If you have been asked to set up Malaysia

If questions 4 and 5 are still open, talk to us on WhatsApp. We will tell you how we would set up your stores, and what you need to have in place first.