How Lazada is empowering brands to succeed in this age of e-commerce

Two years ago, having an e-commerce platform wasn’t a priority for most businesses. They thought of it as a supplementary channel that they could do without. The Philippine market wasn’t into online shopping anyway. They still preferred buying from brick and mortar stores where they could see, feel, and try on the products they wanted to buy.

But when the pandemic closed down every establishment including malls – something that no one thought would happen in their lifetime – businesses quickly albeit belatedly recognized the need to have another way to reach and serve their customers. If the customers couldn’t go out of their houses, how else would they be able to shop? For a time in 2020, there was only one way: online.

So, the businesses who were already online at the time – be it on Facebook, Instagram, or e-commerce platforms – didn’t just have to go through a steeper learning curve, they were also able to resume operations much quicker than those who were just starting out. Some of these businesses even gained new customers because the consumers didn’t mind trying out new brands. They just went for the few that were available. 

It was a rude awakening for many businesses both big and small but of course, it’s never too late to evolve. And those that did, stayed and even thrived despite the challenges and uncertainties brought by the pandemic. 

At the forefront of this e-commerce revolution is Lazada. They recognize the power of their platform to usher in new businesses into this digital era and to further help those who already went this route to succeed through LazMall.

“We are committed to building LazMall as a trusted destination for authentic products. With the confidence that brands and consumers have placed in us, I’m sure LazMall will continue to see a strong growth trajectory,” said Raymond Yang, chief product officer, head of platform operations, Lazada Group during the LazMall Brands Future Forum (BFF) 2021 last September 1.

“Leveraging Lazada’s capabilities in tech, data, and logistics, and with our partners’ strengths in product assortment, marketing and customer engagement, our goal is to continue to win customers’ loyalty across Southeast Asia. We are fully committed to help our brands achieve long-term success within Lazada’s ecosystem.”

LazMall currently houses 32,000 brands and retail partners which include big brands like Nike, Coach, Starbucks, L’Oreal, Shiseido, and more. Having this one place where you know you could get authentic products even from high-end brands helped gain consumers’ trust and  boosted their confidence to make big ticket purchases online – something that Filipinos used to avoid doing just two years ago. 

The pandemic is far from over but when it does come to an end, the online shopping habits of Filipinos have already been ingrained into them. This means that businesses shouldn’t look at e-commerce as something temporary, it’s here to stay.

That’s why Lazada has an array of tools and products to help customers improve their shopping experience and businesses to engage with their customers more effectively.

“Here at Lazada, we want to enable you to create your own stores with a full suite of customisable features relevant to your brand. You can grow your customer base through our premium decoration tools, user segmentation, and promotional and marketing solutions. You will also be able to closely engage with your customers via search, our Super Series, Livestream and Brand Membership Programme,” said Yang.

“We want to support you through our eCommerce ecosystem with more and better APIs including online-to-offline solutions. This is the promise and commitment we bring to you on LazMall and you can count on us to make a breakthrough in the eCommerce field.”

They also rolled out campaigns like Super Brand Opening and Super New Arrival to help boost awareness of brands that are new to Lazada. And they have so much more in the pipeline including a more targeted customer engagement management function, and AIPL solution of Business Advisor Enterprise version – the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. 

“And our most exciting roll out this year – our latest roll out of the Universal Shopping Campaign. USC combines Lazada’s leading performance marketing solutions into a single package, guaranteeing strong returns of investment.  

Backed by a series of smart algorithms, it enables automatic selection and optimisation of SKUs, keywords, and creatives. Not only is it affordable and time saving, when we piloted it in Vietnam, we saw tremendous uplifts in orders and traffic,” said Yang.

This is just an overview of Lazada’s numerous plans for LazMall and the whole Lazada platform. As always, the ultimate goal is to ensure that businesses stay afloat and that products – whether these are essential or just for fun – would always be accessible to customers today and for more years to come. – Rappler.com