Online shop website or Shopee store: which suits a Johor Bahru business?

For most Johor Bahru businesses the answer is both, in the right order. A Shopee store gets you in front of buyers who are already searching, but Shopee sets the fees and the rules, and the buyers stay Shopee's. Your own online shop costs more effort to bring visitors to, but the customer list, prices and brand are yours. Start where your buyers already are, then build the other.

What does Shopee charge sellers?

As of 13 Nov 2026, Shopee Malaysia's Terms of Service (last updated 9 October 2026) list several fees on each completed order. There is a transaction fee, which the terms set at 3.5% of what the buyer pays, before Shopee's own discounts. There is also a commission fee worked out as a percentage of the product's settlement price, with the rate depending on the product category. Shopee publishes the category rates in its Seller Education Hub and says it may change them by announcing it there. A platform support fee and, for some orders, a service fee can apply too. SST is charged on top of these fees, and the seller pays it.

Shopee takes these amounts from the buyer's payment and pays you the balance after the order is completed. Before you price a product, open the Seller Education Hub and work out what you keep from one sale after every fee and your share of shipping.

Who owns the customer list on Shopee?

In practice, Shopee does. Its terms forbid sellers from collecting information about other users, and from directing or encouraging a buyer to complete a sale outside Shopee. So you cannot print "order direct on WhatsApp next time" on a Shopee parcel and expect to keep the account in good standing.

This matters when you want repeat sales. On your own website, a buyer who checks out gives you their name, email and phone number, with their consent under the PDPA. You can email them about new stock, send a birthday voucher, or ask for a review. On Shopee, every repeat order goes through Shopee, and its fees apply again.

Can a JB shop sell to Singapore buyers?

Yes, both ways, but the work is different.

Shopee Malaysia runs a Malaysia-to-Singapore Direct Programme. Its terms say the seller needs a West Malaysia pick-up address and must meet Shopee's performance requirements, and that Shopee arranges the cross-border delivery, including customs clearance. The products must follow the laws of both Malaysia and Singapore, and the seller pays any import and export taxes unless someone else agrees to. For Singapore buyers, a refund request under SGD27 means the item is disposed of rather than sent back to you. The programme also has its own fees, listed in the Seller Education Hub.

On your own website you arrange it all. You choose a courier that delivers to Singapore, show the delivery fee before checkout, and pick a payment gateway that accepts Singapore cards and can show prices in SGD. Tax is the part to check early. IRAS, Singapore's tax authority, says overseas businesses with yearly global turnover above S$1 million that sell more than S$100,000 a year of low-value goods to Singapore consumers must register for Singapore GST. Most small JB shops are far below that, but ask your accountant before you grow.

When should a JB business run both?

Running both makes sense when:

• you already get Shopee orders and want buyers to come back to you directly for their next order,
• you sell to businesses or regular customers who want invoices, bulk prices or a catalogue link,
• Singapore buyers keep asking whether you ship to them,
• you want to show up on Google for your own brand name, rather than only inside Shopee's search.

Keep the same product names, photos and prices on both, so buyers who find you in one place recognise you in the other. Prices do not have to match, since Shopee's fees are part of your cost there.

What to do

1. Work out your margin per product on Shopee after every fee in the Seller Education Hub, and compare it with the payment gateway fee on your own site.
2. Write down where your buyers come from today: Shopee search, Facebook, WhatsApp, walk-in or Singapore.
3. If you are new, start on Shopee to test which products sell. Put your shop name on your packaging, next to the product name.
4. When repeat buyers appear, set up your own shop with your domain, local payments, a delivery table and a clear refund policy.
5. For Singapore, read the Direct Programme terms before you join, or ask your courier and payment gateway about Singapore delivery and SGD payments for your own site.
6. Keep buyer data under PDPA rules: collect only what you need, ask consent for marketing, and never copy Shopee buyers' details into your own list.

Planning your own shop? Our guides on what an online shop needs and how much an ecommerce website costs cover the next steps.

How SyncTech can help

We do ecommerce website design for Johor Bahru shops, with local payment options, delivery rates for Malaysia and Singapore, and product pages Google can read. If you already sell on Shopee, we can plan the site to work alongside it.

Source and credit

We are sharing information from Shopee Malaysia and IRAS. This guide is written by Synctech in our own words.

• Shopee Terms of Service, Shopee Malaysia Help Center, last updated 9 October 2026: https://help.shopee.com.my/portal/4/article/77215-Shopee-Terms-of-Service
• Malaysia-to-Singapore (MY-SG) Direct Programme Terms and Conditions, Shopee Malaysia Help Center: https://help.shopee.com.my/portal/4/article/163668
• Overseas businesses supplying remote services and low-value goods to Singapore, IRAS: https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/goods-services-tax-(gst)/gst-and-digital-economy/overseas-businesses

Retrieved 13 Nov 2026. Shopee and IRAS are trademarks of their owners. Synctech is not connected with them. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Fees and rules change, so check Shopee's Seller Education Hub, your accountant or a lawyer before you decide. If anything here is wrong, email support@synctech.com.my and we will correct it.