Alibaba-backed Lazada operates in six APAC markets, and offers a route to market for both local small and medium-sized sellers as well as global brands. We outline three things consumer brands should consider when thinking about selling on Lazada.
With more than 100 million monthly active users, the marketplace saw order volumes double in 2020 compared to the previous year. It’s the perfect time to explore Lazada if you are interested is selling on marketplaces in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Growing customer base
Brands considering selling on Lazada should remember that each of the markets in the Asia Pacific region are culturally unique, at a different stage of ecommerce development; and vary hugely in the number and spending power of their online shoppers.
Although 70% of South East Asia’s consumers have internet access, online sales penetration is still low, with spending power rising as the middle-class population expands. The good news is that ecommerce growth is relatively fast in all of the markets Lazada serves.
During Alibaba’s 11.11 shopping festival in November 2020, Lazada broke its own records, with 400,000 brands and sellers serving 40 million customers in one day. Given these results, Lazada believes it can maintain a sharp growth trajectory as its customer base continues to grow.
New ways of selling on Lazada
We’ve previously written about how social selling has become a popular trend among Chinese and South East Asian consumers, and this includes ecommerce livestreams. Much like other marketplaces in the APAC region, Lazada has been quick to adapt to new ways of selling, with its livestreaming platform LazLive.
Brands selling on Lazada can offer games on the platform as part of its “shoppertainment” strategy to engage the region’s online population, many of whom are relatively new to the market. During 11.11 in 2020, 11 million livestreaming views were recorded and Lazada suggests a strong uptick in sales from this activity.
International route to market
Whilst many of the brands and sellers on Lazada currently are smaller local SMEs, much focus is being placed on courting large international brands who may be seeking a route to market in the APAC region.
In a bid to increase its appeal to such brands, the marketplace have built a premium platform – LazMall – for brand owners, retailers and authorised distributors to sell on.
LazMall reportedly has 70 million unique users buying from 18,000 brands; and regularly innovates to ensure that the customer experience keeps them engaged and buying. In addition, LazMall offers customers a 15-day returns policy and guarantees the authenticity of product – which is crucial in a region where counterfeit products are common.
When creating an ecommerce strategy for the APAC region, we recommend cross-border selling as a starting point; and Lazada is great for enabling this. For this reason, you must think strategically about the APAC trade partner or trade partners you work with to ensure that they have the experience and scale to support you in all the countries that the marketplace supplies.
If you’re interested in selling on Lazada – or want to discuss how we could help to grow your Asia Pacific online sales acting as your authorised partner for marketplaces in the region – contact us today.
