Month: December 2020

By Jessica Vilda Horsan
Dec. 15, 2020

Mielka Raputra Bardin is no fashion newbie. He has spent the past 14 years building a fashion label in Bandung specialising in graphic-designed T-shirts, sweatshirts, bags and accessories. But now he was ready to launch his own independent label.

The 37-year-old fashion entrepreneur lives and works in the city once famed as the Paris of Java. Bandung happens to be Indonesia’s third largest city with a growing fashion industry and a burgeoning reputation as the Capital of Cool. This is where Bardin went to university and co-founded the successful fashion brand Wellborn, where he remains a partner.

Still, Bardin had always dreamt of designing his own creations and collections, emulating the avant-garde style of the designers he idolized – the Japanese icon Yohji Yamamoto and Belgian designer Raf Simons.

About a year ago, he began planning to launch his own brand of trendy streetwear. He envisioned that his Super Sentimental Secret Theory, or SSST, would use a business model like that of Wellborn, where he would work with physical stores on a consignment arrangement, and have an office and warehouse. But the pandemic hit, stores shuttered and the fashion business nosedived. As domestic consumption plummeted, and exports slid, Indonesia’s textile-apparel sector contracted by more than 8 per cent in the second quarter of 2020.  

Lockdown and stay-at-home measures pushed shoppers to prioritise buying essentials such as food, and personal care and hygiene products. Runway chic lost out to comfortable homewear.

“Fashion definitely took a back seat. It was the last thing on everyone’s mind,” Bardin said. “Many people thought I was crazy to try to launch a new fashion brand at the height of the pandemic when demand for fashion brands was at its lowest. But I said it’s now or never. With all the hard work we have been putting in, the only way is to keep moving forward, and to adapt.”

Adapting means pivoting his business a hundred percent online, and making eCommerce one of his core strategies. He jettisoned the consignment plan, gave up on the idea of having an office and found a warehouse that could be monitored remotely via video conferencing. Using social media, he built an online presence for SSST, creating posts that showcased models wearing “the total look” (that is, with matching pieces, shoes and other accessories) rather than just individual pieces of clothing. His resilience paid off. To his surprise, he started making sales after a month, despite the pandemic’s impact on the fashion industry. 

 In November, Bardin and his team hit the fashion jackpot when they were invited to showcase their collection in Jakarta Fashion Week, via a Lazada partnership with Indonesia’s annual premier fashion event. They were one of only five local brands selected by Lazada’s Show of Hearts initiative, chosen for their unique, novel styles as well as their designer’s passion for creativity and their compelling backstory.

“This has been an exceptionally difficult year for the fashion industry,” said Jacopo, executive vice president of the fashion category at Lazada Indonesia. “But we meet local Indonesian designers like Mielka, and we are inspired by their stories of resilience, passion and drive. Show of Hearts, as part of this year’s Jakarta Fashion Week, is a tribute to their can-do spirit of persevering against all odds and never giving up. We want to provide them all the support that we can to empower them to follow their hearts.”

The Show of Hearts designers’ collections are featured on Lazada’s curated fashion channel, Style Space. During the fashion week, the Style Space runway shows were also streamed on LazLive, Lazada’s in-app livestreaming technology. “Our one-of-a kind ‘See Now Buy Now’ feature makes it easy for users to immediately click and buy what they like during the livestream show, effectively turning our platform into a sales channel for the designers,” said Monika Rudijono, Lazada Indonesia’s chief marketing officer. “With our Shoppertainment technology and long-term partnership with Jakarta Fashion Week, we hope to continue helping more designers like Bardin. It’s a manifestation of Lazada’s commitment to support local creative talents and the fashion industry in Indonesia.”

SSST was the only new brand among the five selected this year by The Show of Hearts. The other four were 3Mongkis, HAM! Jeansku, Nadjani and Warning Clothing. It is extremely rare for new brands to be invited to participate in Jakarta Fashion Week, since it was inaugurated in 2008.

Seizing the opportunity to be part of the country’s biggest annual fashion week, which had to also pivot digitally this year, Bardin and his team worked on an exclusive collection to showcase during the virtual runway shows. They were broadcast via Jakarta Fashion Week newly created channels – JFW.tv, JFW Youtube and JFW Tiktok – as well as on LazLive, where nine of the 16 shows for Jakarta Fashion Week were livestreamed. Over three days from Nov 27 to Nov 29, LazLive’s sessions garnered over 460,000 views.  

This was Bardin’s very first virtual fashion show.

“Technology has been instrumental for us in growing SSST,” he said. “We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Lazada for this year’s Jakarta Fashion Week. The collaboration has helped us build our brand’s existence in the fashion industry and we got really great exposure from the show.”

Jessica Vilda Horsan is a senior manager in Lazada Indonesia’s public relations team.

By LazBeat Staff
Dec. 15, 2020

Since Lazada was founded in 2012, it has built a strong reputation for creating large-scale shopping events that deliver unbeatable deals, promote new products and generate huge opportunities for brands and businesses to reach large swaths of consumers.

Such mega campaigns have become mainstays of the retail calendar in Southeast Asia, especially among increasingly digitally savvy consumers. A survey by the mobile survey platform Jakpat in 2019 found that 75 per cent of consumers in the prime 15–39 age group in Indonesia bought something online during 12.12, an annual e-shopping event Lazada created, which is also known locally as Harbolnas.

This was a mere seven years from the time Lazada came up with 12.12. At the time, the company was just a nine-month-old start-up in Jakarta looking to get its business off the ground and to change customers’ ambivalence towards online shopping. “We needed to find a way to really boost our business. And we of course, looked to around the world, especially to China where in 2012, 11.11 – or Singles’ Day as it was called back then – was sort of the first time it really became a bit of a global phenomenon,” said Magnus Ekbom, Lazada Group’s chief strategy officer.

Inspired by China’s massively successful online shopping festivals, Lazada launched its very first and very own 12.12 that year. This was Indonesia’s first eCommerce festival. Aptly named Online Revolution Week, it accelerated the country’s embrace of online shopping. Lazada brought together seven eCommerce companies, including the Lippo Group’s Matahari Mall, and niche marketplaces such as Kururuyuk.com to drive the campaign forward.

The maiden 12.12 was a huge triumph by the standards of the time, bringing in approximately 1,500 orders in Indonesia, Ekbom recalled. Its growth since has been astronomical. Not only is 12.12 now a multiday affair covering all the six markets in which Lazada operates, but during this year’s campaign, hundreds of thousands of orders were made in just the first few minutes.

Engaging Consumers, Empowering Merchants

Lazada’s mega campaigns have continued to expand way beyond 12.12. It launched its first 11.11 Shopping Festival in 2013 and Lazada’s campaign portfolio now also includes the 6.18 Mid-Year Shopping Festival and 9.9 Big Brands Sale.

These massive events have grown not only in number but also in purpose. Ekbom explained: “In the beginning, it was more about first-time buyers and first-time sellers finding a way to start trying eCommerce for the first time. Now, this is a professional business on a global scale.”

Indeed, such large-scale online shopping events have an especially pronounced impact on businesses and the regional economy. A McKinsey study in late 2018 estimated that in Indonesia alone, eCommerce is expected to create – directly and indirectly – more than 26 million full-time jobs by 2022. And as more merchants recognize the benefits of moving online, mega campaigns have become one of the most effective ways to turbocharge their success.

Just ask Aseel Abri, 21, who ventured into eCommerce while still in high school, and now runs Bacter Online Shop, selling gemstones from Loloda Village in North Maluku, where he has relatives. This province in eastern Indonesia is one of the country’s least populated.

Abri is involved in Lazada’s many seller programmes. When he took part in his first mega campaign last 11.11, he received more than 700 orders a day. Ordinarily, he gets only 10 to 20 a day. Since then, he has also participated in 12.12, with similarly stellar results and has become one of Lazada’s top sellers with thousands of monthly orders – a feat that has also boosted the income of Loloda’s villagers.

He said: “I joined 11.11 because I was curious about Lazada’s mega campaigns and I wanted to test the waters. I was really surprised by how much exposure it brought to my business. It really helped build up my reputation and my customer base.”

For merchants like Abri, Lazada provides not just a platform during mega events but also the support essential to achieving success. So, for example, to help merchants navigate 11.11 and 12.12, Lazada creates one-stop campaign portals updated often with the latest information, including performance trackers, tips and strategies to boost engagement and transactions as well as a variety of video tutorials.

In the lead-up to its biggest campaigns, the Lazada team also hosts seller conferences and regular livestreams to help merchants prepare. In addition, Lazada leverages its data capabilities and Alibaba’s digital infrastructure and ecosystem to alert top brand partners about the usage of their promotions to consumers, whether an item is out of stock or if any milestone is achieved. These real-time updates across all six markets are communicated via DingTalk, a messaging app, and powered by Lazada’s “Business Advisor Enterprise” data solutions, which equip the brands with the visibility to make timely responses that optimise their selling opportunities.

Besides this wealth of eCommerce tools and resources – vouchers, free shipping offers and real-time campaign analysis data – Lazada’s Shoppertainment features in recent years have also proven instrumental in fueling exposure and transactions for brands and businesses. During this year’s 11.11, merchants were able to use livestreaming, in-app games and even an interactive “Voucher Rain” segment during Lazada’s Super Show to engage with consumers. Thanks to these tools and other forms of support provided, more than 8,000 small-and-medium merchants generated over US $10,000 in sales during the 24-hour period.

While such Lazada blockbusters rake in massive volumes of transactions, to Ekbom, they are far more than just big sales events. “These campaigns have been used over the years as a driving force for new customers, new sellers and new brands to come online and to have a big event – something to have as a lighthouse, milestone and achievement throughout the year,” he explained. “It’s all about pushing the boundaries and setting new benchmarks. That is really what we do during our mega campaigns.”

Featured photo above shows a collection of campaign posters since 2012.  

By LazBeat Staff
Dec. 15, 2020

The 2020 pandemic has shifted the retail landscape in Southeast Asia, pushing many more people to shop online, and prompting businesses to pivot digitally to cater to this change. LazBeat talks to eCommerce expert Sarabjit Singh, an associate partner with McKinsey, about some of the trends that have emerged. Based in Myanmar, Singh specialises in building online businesses with retail and consumer companies. He also offers insights into the challenges and opportunities that he expects 2021 will bring for eCommerce in the region.

What are 2020’s top three eCommerce trends for Southeast Asia?

The biggest trend by far was the explosive growth of eCommerce. In our survey of Indonesian consumers in September, we found that 2.5 times more consumers now do most of their shopping online than in pre-COVID-19 times. The pandemic introduced millions of new customers to online shopping, and many are planning to stay online post-COVID.

The resulting economic uncertainties inspired a big shift to value this year, moving the composition of online shopping baskets away from discretionary products. Online purchases of essentials such as groceries drove some of the highest growth in online sales. And value-for-money become even more important in a region that was already very price conscious.

As eCommerce grew increasingly social in 2020, nearly half of all users spent more time on social media. We haven’t yet seen mega platforms in the region that offer a core value proposition around social. But trends such as live sales and influencer marketing point to a merger of social and commerce that can only strengthen.

How have businesses adapted to these changes? What were best practices and keys to success?

The increase in eCommerce demand caught many players unprepared initially. Platforms had to restrict their assortments because of limitations in product availability. Average delivery times doubled in Malaysia and grew by between 10 and 30 per cent in other regional markets.

Since then, the best players have recovered by strengthening their supply chains, securing supplies of essential products sought by most consumers, and investing in logistics capabilities to meet customer expectations of waiting times and delivery experience. When customers shop online for the first time and have a positive experience, this can build loyalty immediately and increase the chances of their returning and spending even more. These are key drivers for customer lifetime value.

Businesses are responding by building partnerships across physical and online retail, from consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies working with hyperlocal online delivery partners to go direct to consumer (D2C), to offline retailers exploring omni-channel solutions by tying up with eCommerce platforms. Such partnerships are bringing forth an exciting array of fresh innovations in online shopping experience for consumers.

Entering 2021, what’s the industry outlook? Where are the challenges and opportunities?

The eCommerce momentum generated in 2020 is expected to continue into the new year, not just on the back of sustained customer demand but also as a result of large investments that have flowed to this sector.

Growth will not come without its challenges. Logistics and supply chains will continue to come under pressure from COVID-related restrictions (possibly for one or two quarters, and perhaps longer depending on how effective the vaccines prove). Such increases in buyers and sellers online are also likely to accelerate risk of fraud and identity theft, and growing competitiveness will further squeeze profit margins that are already razor thin.

And yet, this is the very crucible from which winners will emerge.

Massive increases in eCommerce demand have created perfect conditions for innovation in user experience, products and services, and in business models. Companies that can seize this opportunity will likely position themselves to be market leaders for years to come.