Our “Humans of Lazada” series takes a look at the professional and personal lives of the more than 8,000 people who work at Lazada. Click here for more stories from this series.
“Growing up, my parents sacrificed a lot for my sibling and me. We had a very modest lifestyle, and my parents always made sure that they were able to provide for all our family needs. When I graduated, I took the first job that I felt allowed me to give back to them in a big way. I became a management trainee at Unilever. Working at a big multinational company right out of college was intimidating. I didn’t know anything or anyone, but that was the start of a journey that made me the person I am today. Over the years, I went from being a salesperson to becoming the company’s country marketing manager, driving digital transformation in the food services business.
As rewarding as marketing was, I wanted to do more – to help others navigate their careers, because I remembered those early days, feeling lost. I got certified as a life coach by two leading organisations and had to learn and unlearn many things as well as make financial trade-offs to sustain my new path. I founded a small coaching firm, Purposeful Careers, to help individuals define their strengths and pursue careers that aligned with their personal goals and passions.
My transitional path eventually led me to my current role at Lazada. Now, as a member of the organisation and talent development team, my own job and personal purpose are aligned! This role has allowed me to empower my fellow Lazadians as I work with them to develop their goals, discover their strengths and what makes them passionate about their work. I’m also happy to say that it’s my turn to spoil my family and give them the things they always wanted and deserve.”
This profile was compiled by Mina Cunanan from the Lazada PR team in the Philippines.
Our “Humans of Lazada” series takes a look at the professional and personal lives of the more than 8,000 people who work at Lazada. Click here for more stories from this series.
“After years of flying around the world as an air stewardess, I met my husband, got married and left my job to become a mother of two young boys. I eventually rejoined the workforce, taking on a role as a people care analyst at Lazada. Last year, my husband lost his job as a sales manager due to the pandemic, and I became the sole breadwinner in our family. Having grown up in a family with strong patriarchal values, my husband had a tough time staying at home. He believed it was his duty to provide for the family. The role reversal in our household and him not being able to financially provide presented a new set of challenges for both of us. I tried to encourage him to change his perspective on what it meant to “contribute to the family,” which included managing the house and being there for our children.
Afraid that I would also lose my job, I took on more responsibilities at work at the expense of spending time with my family. I wanted to keep my job by proving my value in the company. Initially, my husband and I fought over my lack of time and emotional availability at home. We finally had a conversation to share our fears and frustrations, and my husband and I grew to understand each other better and managed our expectations. Our situation has since improved. Time at home has strengthened my husband’s relationship with our boys. He recently found a new job and is back at work. My supervisor has also been very encouraging and constantly reassures me of my work performance, which brings me immense relief. Looking back, the past year has been extremely difficult. But as a mother and wife who is also pursuing her career goals, I found the strength to persevere and a sense of pride to be able to provide for my family during one of our most trying times.”
This profile was compiled by Catherine Yang from the Lazada PR team in Singapore.
Our “Humans of Lazada” series takes a look at the professional and personal lives of the more than 8,000 people who work at Lazada. Click here for more stories from this series.
“I have three babies – my 2.5-year-old twins and the fast-moving consumer goods category at Lazada. I joined the company in March 2012. This was before we launched the Lazada site. No one knew what Lazada was, what it did, or what eCommerce was about. We only had around 60 people working in a small office at Copac Square Building in Ho Chi Minh City. We did most things manually, including onboarding new brands, which involved entering the information of signed contracts into the system bit by bit, as well as all our reports and follow-up on orders. Everyone from our CEO at the time to an associate like me rolled up their sleeves to get things done. We still do, but now we have about 400 more people doing that and, of course, the technology to help. During my early days at Lazada, our monthly revenue target was the equivalent of what we get on a daily basis today.
Together with my supervisor at the time, we built the FMCG category from scratch. It was only in 2014 that I started to have teammates. It was like raising a child – one has to be patient. There were days when the child tried to walk, but couldn’t and fell. Then you find ways to encourage the child, bring out the child’s strengths and feel proud when he or she is finally running. That’s how I feel each day watching the category grow, especially the mother and baby segment, which has grown more than 30 times from when we began. Being a mother to two young boys helped me nurture a team at work. I hear my team out and find solutions to any challenges that we may face. Apparently, I have earned a nickname here. People call me ‘mum.’ I think it was always meant to be my calling in life – at home and at work.”
This profile was compiled by Bao Uyen Bui from the Lazada PR team in Vietnam.
On a cool winter’s day in Quang Tri, a province on the north-central coast of Vietnam, a group of students from Hai Thai Primary School gathered together for a special occasion. When asked by the event’s celebrity host what they wanted to be when they grew up, the students, from 6-10 years old, threw their hands up in the air and shouted out their answers, sharing their aspirations to become teachers, police and doctors. Some wrote letters to their older selves, eagerly describing their dreams for the future while others spoke excitedly about becoming architects who could help the local community, especially in light of recent typhoons that devastated their homes and school.
The special event the students participated in was to mark the delivery of reading materials and school supplies as part of Lazada Vietnam’s “Donate the Dream Books” campaign. Implemented in collaboration with the country’s leading book stores Fashasa, Alphabooks and Deli as well as media partner WeChoice, the programme was part of Lazada Vietnam’s second Book Category Day, which ran from Dec. 23-25. During the three-day period, for every order on the eCommerce platform worth at least VND200,000, Lazada and its partners contributed 10% of the order value to purchase books and school supplies for thousands of students at 10 primary and secondary schools in Quang Tri that were affected by the storms.
With overwhelming positive support from the community, the campaign was able to bring more than 20,000 books, 2,000 notebooks, 11,000 school supply sets and 200 backpacks to schools in Quang Tri’s Dong Ha city and Gio Linh town, where many young children had scrambled to salvage books from the mud following severe floods.
“As a leading eCommerce platform with one of the largest online supplies of authentic books in the country, we want to leverage our resources to help the local communities, especially in times of need,” Lazada Vietnam CEO James Dong said. “It was heartening to see the overwhelming response from the community when we launched this campaign. I’m also glad we can have partners who share our same vision of helping these students to return to school and ensuring that they continue to have access to education and cultivate a love of reading.”
Representatives from Lazada Vietnam and its campaign partners travelled to Quang Tri on Jan. 5 to present the donated books and supplies to the affected schools. Joined by local celebrity Khánh Vy, the host of several popular educational TV shows, the representatives visited more than 400 students at Hai Thai Primary School in an afternoon filled with fun activities and the warmth of the children’s laughter.
TV host Khánh Vy meets with students in Quang Tri as part of Lazada’s Donate the Dream Books campaign.
During the ceremony, Hoang Xuan, the principal of Hai Thai Primary School, thanked Lazada, its partners and the community for bringing these resources to the school. “The students now have many new sources of knowledge, and these will empower them to pursue their dreams in the future,” she said.
The students were particularly excited about the books that were donated to them. Like many other schools in the province, Hai Thai’s limited budget is only enough to cover the textbooks required for teaching, meaning students have little access to publications such as storybooks. Those who love to read have to borrow from the district library, which is far away from their homes and schools, or wait for older siblings to bring books back from schools in bigger cities. By donating new books to the children, the campaign has helped nourish their thirst for reading, instilling them with the knowledge and passion to strive for their highest potential.
Hai An, a student from the school, said that she was especially excited about the donations since most of the books in her home were swept away or destroyed by the floods. “I will do my best to study well so as not to disappoint everyone’s contribution and support to my hometown,” she said.
Lazada plans to make the campaign a regular activity and to expand its scope to invite more publishers and bookstores so that more children in Vietnam can benefit.
“This meaningful campaign demonstrates our long-term commitment to nurturing young talents and enabling them to pursue their dreams and a future where they will help other people, give back to the community and contribute to the country’s economy,” Dong said.
Students at Hai Thai Primary School received book donations during a special ceremony filled with fun activities.
Linh Chi Nguyen is a manager in Lazada Vietnam’s public relations team, responsible for corporate communications and media relations.
Last August, Adidas rolled out its “Two Worlds Collide” Super Brand Day on LazMall, Lazada’s premium B2C channel, featuring exclusive “Star Wars” shoes to coincide with the 40th anniversary of “The Empire Strikes Back”. The limited-edition sneakers were inspired by key characters from the “Star Wars” franchise, including Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Yoda, the Stormtroopers and C3PO.
Lazada engaged key opinion leaders to showcase exclusive product launches across various local markets and also created a range of marketing activities that were aligned with the brand’s campaign concept. These included a “shoefie” photograph contest and mini games on Facebook and Instagram to drive engagement, such as one that asked users to help Lazzie, Lazada’s mascot, to find a pair of exclusive “Star Wars” sneakers hidden in a maze in the shape of the eCommerce platform’s logo.
Adidas’ Super Brand Day generated sales that were doubled that of the brand’s 2019 figures for 11.11 and helped drive lasting impact even post campaign, with business-as-usual sales growing by more than 50% after the August event. Over 60% of the consumers that day were also new to the fashion category, demonstrating the ability of such campaigns to increase customer acquisition while boosting traffic and brand awareness.
“We saw fantastic results that stemmed from two hugely committed teams – Adidas and Lazada – working together with an entrepreneurial mindset,” said Amit Dasgupta, Adidas’ vice president of brand and eCommerce in Southeast Asia.
Inspired by Alibaba’s Tmall campaign of the same name, LazMall’s Super Brand Day is a 24-hour shopping event akin to a brand’s exclusive 11.11 event and showcases the best deals and co-branded experience for existing fans as well as new customers. Through creative storytelling and social activations that include games, contests and KOLs, businesses can drive sales and elevate brand awareness at the same time.
Since its first Super Brand Day in July 2018 with M.A.C Cosmetics, Lazada has partnered with more than 50 brands and activated more than 100 selective campaigns. Participating brands have recorded more than 40 times uplift in sales compared to their daily averages, more than eight times in sales compared to mega campaigns like 11.11 and up to six times follower growth in their stores.
Super Brand Day was the first of Lazada’s “Super Series” of campaigns provided to brand partners to elevate their online presence and utilise the best of the eCommerce platform’s ecosystem solutions and resources to drive followers, buyers and sales growth. Also part of the series is Super Brand Parade, a multiday initiative that empowers brands to design engaging, thematic shopping experiences for their consumers.
Super Brand Parade was inspired by a regional campaign collaboration between Lazada and L’Oréal in June 2020 when L’Oréal wanted to create a special campaign to “bring beauty back” to shoppers in Southeast Asian countries that were starting to emerge from lockdowns.
Karan Kansal, L’Oréal’s eCommerce APAC director of consumer products division, explained that the brand didn’t want to create just a sales event but a celebration. That’s why it partnered with Lazada to host a three-day marathon affair, anchored on a “Back to Beauty” theme, that included everything from livestreamed content featuring celebrities to games, special promotions and even augmented reality technology.
“We were thrilled to partner with Lazada, leveraging their technology like LazLive to connect with our consumers online,” Kansal said. “During this Back to Beauty campaign, we showcased livestream tutorials and creative look inspirations to help everyone express themselves, whether they’re staying indoors or heading out. It was a high-impact, integrated marketing event.”
By creating an integrated, customer-focused experience powered by Lazada’s technology and other resources, Super Series events have helped strengthen LazMall’s partnerships with key brands, especially in areas of logistics infrastructure and fulfillment capabilities, said Jessica Liu, Group President and Head of LazMall at Lazada.
Lazada also recently added to the series Super Brand Openings, which aim to help consumers experience the largest online brand launches on LazMall, and Super New Arrivals, which are designed for savvy shoppers to be the first to get the latest products.
“LazMall campaigns deliver benefits far beyond campaign day, by step changing the brand’s daily baseline performance on Lazada,” Liu said. “A key objective for Lazada is to propel the growth of all our brands and sellers. Campaigns, including those in our Super Series, are a proven avenue to drive longer-term buyer and sales growth.”
LazMall’s Super Brand Day campaign posters with various brands.
Emma Paterson is a senior vice president and the head of top brand solutions within the regional LazMall operations team at Lazada.
