Most sellers on Shopee and Lazada spend hours on their product photos and almost no time on their product titles. This is the wrong order of priorities.
Your product title determines whether your listing appears in search results at all. Your images determine whether someone clicks. Your description determines whether they buy. Most brands optimise in reverse — beautiful images, weak titles, incomplete descriptions — and then wonder why traffic is low and conversion is lower.
This guide covers the best practices for every element of a product listing on Shopee and Lazada, in the order that actually matters.
The most common mistake in product titles on Shopee and Lazada is starting with the brand name. Your brand name is not what Thai buyers type into the search bar. The keyword they use to find your product category is.
A buyer looking for a natural face cream does not search for your brand. They search for something like "ครีมบำรุงหน้า ออร์แกนิก" or "natural face moisturiser Thailand." If your title starts with your brand name, you are wasting the most valuable real estate in your listing on a word that generates no search traffic.
Go to the Shopee or Lazada search bar and type your main product category in Thai. Look at the auto-suggest dropdown. Every suggestion is a real search term that buyers are using. Note the top five to ten and build your title around the ones with the highest relevance to your specific product.
Check your competitors. Search for your product category and look at the titles of the top ten results. What words appear most frequently? Those are the keywords the algorithm is rewarding.
A high-performing product title on Shopee and Lazada follows this structure:
Primary keyword in Thai, product type, key benefit or differentiator, size or variant, brand name.
For example, for a natural face moisturiser: "Brand name + ครีมบำรุงหน้า ออร์แกนิก สูตรเข้มข้น บำรุงลึก 50ml"
This title leads with what buyers search for, includes the key benefit, specifies the size, and ends with the brand. Every word earns its place.
Do not use special characters, excessive punctuation, or ALL CAPS. The platform algorithm does not reward these, and buyers find them harder to read. Do not repeat the same keyword multiple times. This is keyword stuffing, and the algorithm penalises it. Do not use vague descriptors like "best" or "premium" without supporting detail. They add length without adding relevance.
Shopee and Lazada both support long titles but the first 50 to 60 characters are the most important. This is what appears in search results before truncation. Make sure your primary keyword and product type appear within the first 50 characters.
Your main image appears in search results. It is the first and often only thing a buyer sees before deciding whether to click. On mobile, which is how the majority of Thai buyers shop, the main image is tiny. It needs to stand out against a page of competitors at thumbnail size.
A strong main image has a clean white or light background, shows the full product clearly, has no distracting elements, and ideally includes a brief text overlay highlighting the single most important benefit or differentiator. Test your main image on your phone at thumbnail size before publishing. If it does not stand out, it needs work.
Your image gallery is your sales pitch. Buyers cannot touch, smell, or try your product. Every question they would ask in a physical store needs to be answered by your images.
Structure your gallery with a purpose for each slot. Image one is the click driver — clean product shot on white background. Image two shows your key benefits with text overlay. Image three shows scale, texture, or ingredients. Image four shows the product in use or in a lifestyle context. Image five shows social proof — certifications, awards, press mentions, or a strong customer review. Image six shows the packaging and what the buyer receives when the order arrives.
Both Shopee and Lazada support product videos. A 15 to 30-second video showing the product in use consistently improves conversion rate. It does not need to be a professional production. A clear, well-lit demonstration of the product being used is enough. If you have a sustainable story behind your product, a brief clip showing your production process or materials builds significant trust with the right audience.
Your product description serves two audiences: the platform algorithm and the buyer. For the algorithm, it needs to contain your primary keyword and related keywords naturally distributed throughout the text. For the buyer, it needs to answer every question that might stop them from clicking "add to cart."
Start your description with a two to three sentence summary of what the product is and who it is for. Follow with bullet points covering the key benefits, ingredients or materials, size and dimensions, how to use, and who it is suitable for. End with a short paragraph about your brand story if it is relevant to the buying decision — for sustainable brands, this is almost always worth including.
Before publishing any listing, check that your description answers these questions: What exactly is this product? What does it do or what problem does it solve? What are the key ingredients or materials? How do I use it? What size or quantity am I getting? Is this suitable for my skin type, body type, or use case? What makes this different from cheaper alternatives?
If any of these questions are unanswered, you are losing buyers who would have purchased if their specific question had been addressed. For a full breakdown of the conversion mistakes that cost sellers the most revenue, read our guide on why your Shopee or Lazada store is not converting.
Your price needs to be competitive within your category on the platform, not just reasonable in an absolute sense. Buyers on Shopee and Lazada compare prices constantly. If your product is priced significantly above comparable listings without a clear and visible reason — better ingredients, sustainable production, premium packaging — buyers will choose the cheaper option.
Check the price range of the top ten results for your main keyword before setting your price. Understand where you sit in that range and make sure your listing clearly communicates why your price is justified if it is above the average.
If your product comes in multiple sizes, colours, or scents, set these up as variants within a single listing rather than as separate listings. A listing with multiple variants accumulates reviews across all variants, building social proof faster. It also gives buyers the convenience of choosing their preference without leaving your listing.
Label your variants clearly. "Size S" means nothing. "30ml — one month supply" or "100ml — three month supply" tells the buyer exactly what they are getting and helps them choose the right option for their needs.
The platform algorithm uses review count and review score as ranking signals from the day your listing goes live. A product with fewer than ten reviews ranks significantly lower than comparable products with strong review history, regardless of how good the listing content is.
Getting your first ten reviews should be a deliberate strategy, not something you wait for passively. Follow up with every buyer using the platform's built-in review request tools. Respond to every review that comes in, positive or negative. A professional response to a negative review signals to the algorithm that you are an active, engaged seller and often converts hesitant buyers more effectively than additional five-star reviews.
Both Shopee and Lazada have a buyer Q&A section on every listing. Answer every question promptly and thoroughly. Over time, this section becomes a searchable resource that answers the questions your description may have missed. Buyers who read Q&A answers are typically close to a purchase decision — a clear, helpful answer is often what converts them.
Platform promotions increase your listing's visibility during the promotional period. But as we cover in detail in our guide on Shopee and Lazada fees, every promotion has a cost that comes directly from your margin. Join promotions deliberately, based on which products have enough margin to absorb the required discount, not based on every recommendation the platform sends.
For a new listing with no review history, organic ranking will be low regardless of how well optimised the content is. A small, targeted sponsored ad budget in the first four to six weeks helps generate the initial traffic and conversion data that the algorithm needs to start ranking your listing organically. Once you have ten or more reviews and a conversion rate above 2%, organic traffic will begin to support the listing and you can reduce paid spend.
Once your listings are live, set aside time once a month to review their performance. Check the click-through rate on each main image — a low click-through rate means the image is not stopping the scroll. Check the conversion rate on each listing — a low conversion rate despite good traffic means something on the page is failing to close the sale. Check your keyword rankings for your primary terms — if you are not in the top 20 results, your title may need updating based on current search data.
If you want to understand how to read these metrics in your seller dashboard, our guide on how to use your Shopee, Lazada, and GA4 data to grow revenue covers exactly what to look for and what each number means.