How to Set Up a Shopee or Lazada Store in Thailand as a Foreign Brand

Setting up a Shopee or Lazada store in Thailand as a foreign brand is not complicated. What is complicated is succeeding on the platform once you are live. Most foreign brands underestimate that gap completely.

Here is what you actually need to know before you start.

What You Need Before You Open the Platform

Three things need to be in place before you touch the registration page.

A registered Thai company. You cannot sell as a foreign individual without complications. You need a DBD certificate — Department of Business Development — which proves your business is legally registered in Thailand. Without it, your income becomes personal income and your tax situation gets messy fast.

A Thai business bank account. Shopee and Lazada pay out every two weeks directly to your bank. You need a Thai business bank account to receive those payments. This is typically set up at the same time as your company registration.

Product images and a marketing budget. You need at least five product images per listing, ideally a short product video too. And you need a marketing budget from day one. The biggest misconception foreign brands have is that opening a store means orders flow in automatically. They do not. Without paid promotion inside the platform, you are invisible.

Shopee, Lazada or TikTok Shop — Which One?

Thailand has three main marketplace platforms right now.

Shopee holds almost half of Thai ecommerce market share. It is the safest first choice for most sellers. More merchant-friendly than Lazada and the seller backend is manageable in English even though the platform runs in Thai.

Lazada has a large user base and is more foreigner-friendly — you can communicate with customers in both Thai and English. The interface is cleaner. However, Lazada is losing market share to TikTok Shop, and the platform rules are stricter.

TikTok Shop is the fastest growing platform in Thailand. Video commerce has grown nearly 200% year on year and can drive up to 20% of total revenue. Fashion, beauty and home categories perform especially well here.

My recommendation: start with one platform. Master it, build your sales record and your reviews, then expand.

The Setup Process Step by Step

Step 1 — Register your account. Go to seller.shopee.co.th or seller.lazada.co.th. Choose business registration, not individual.

Step 2 — Choose your store type. On Lazada you can register as a standard marketplace seller or as a LazMall seller. Mall status requires your trademark registered in Thailand. Most foreign brands start standard. One important note: cross-border selling is not possible. If your company is registered in Singapore, you cannot sell into Thailand from there. You need a Thai-registered entity.

Step 3 — Upload your documents. DBD certificate, Thai business bank book, warehouse or office address. If you sell food or regulated products, your FDA licence is required as you scale.

Step 4 — Create your product listings. Each listing needs a product title, at least five images, a product video, description, stock and variants, and pricing. Lazada requires at least a Thai-language title. Images do not need to be highly produced. They need to clearly show the product, how it works, and its real-world use. Authenticity converts better than over-styled photography in the Thai market.

Step 5 — Set up your store homepage. Both platforms give you a free store homepage. Most buyers never visit it — 80% of traffic comes from product search — but setting it up with your brand story and logo builds trust for the buyers who do.

Step 6 — Enable automated customer service. Both platforms require you to respond to customer chat within 10 minutes. Set up automated replies before you launch. They handle the most common questions and keep your response rate compliant.

Step 7 — Activate your marketing. Registration is free. Selling requires investment. The moment your store is live, activate at least a basic keyword advertising campaign. Without it your products will not appear in search results.

What It Actually Costs to Sell

Registration is free. Once you start selling, the real costs add up quickly.

Fee Amount Commission per sale 5 to 10% depending on category Payment gateway fee 3% per transaction Free shipping if offered 3 to 5% Promotional events Additional 5 to 10% commission

A real example. You price a product at 1,000 THB. You offer a 50 THB voucher. After payment fee, commission and platform subsidised shipping, you receive approximately 860 THB. On heavy promotional days with maximum discounting, that number can drop to 750 THB. 25% of your selling price goes to the platform.

This is not unusual by global standards. But you need to factor this into your pricing before you launch, not after.

The Rules That Will Get You Banned If You Ignore Them

Both platforms track your seller performance constantly. Fail to meet their standards and you get penalised or permanently removed.

The critical metrics are your seller rating (must stay above 70%), your cancellation rate (keep it as low as possible), and your shipping speed (all orders must ship within 48 to 72 hours of purchase).

The platforms also track chat response time, return rate, and review score. In the first 90 days — the incubation period — every metric feeds an algorithm score that determines how much organic traffic the platform gives your store going forward. Get this right and the platform becomes your best marketing channel. Get it wrong and you stay invisible regardless of how much you spend on ads.

After You Launch

Most foreign brands that launch in Thailand and do not see results within the first three months make the same mistakes. They did not optimise their Thai product titles. They joined every promotion without calculating the real margin impact. They did not generate reviews fast enough. And they set up free shipping without realising it adds 5% commission per order.

The setup is the easy part. The strategy is where most brands need help.

Kelly Hezemans is the founder of iBoost Online, an ecommerce growth consultancy for sustainable fashion and lifestyle brands in Southeast Asia. Based in Phuket, Thailand, Kelly works with brands in Singapore and Thailand on Shopify, Shopee and Lazada growth.

Learn more at iboostonline.com