Month: December 2021

Categories
Business & Commerce Entertainment

Behind the Scenes of Lazada’s Super Shows

Lazada Super Shows

By LazBeat Staff
Dec. 16, 2021

On the evening of November 10, LazLive lit up with star-studded performances in the countdown to 11.11, the biggest one-day shopping festival in Southeast Asia. The spectacle, an example of Lazada’s famed Super Shows, garnered more than 7 million views through the eCommerce platform’s in-app livestreaming channel and was also broadcast through social media and TV networks across the region.

Originally launched region-wide to celebrate Lazada’s birthday in 2019, Super Shows have become integral parts of the eCommerce company’s large-scale shopping festivals. They are the epitome of Lazada’s “Shoppertainment” strategy, bringing together A-list celebrities, amazing products, incredible deals, giveaways and tech-powered engagement tools to drive up excitement – and sales – for brands and businesses.

“Super Shows are there to create additional noise and increase awareness about Lazada’s mega campaigns,” explained Neil Trinidad, the chief marketing officer of Lazada Philippines. “It’s the hype and anticipation the day before leading up to midnight of the actual event day. You want to drive those watching the Super Show to the Lazada app, have them add the products we feature into their carts and have them place their orders.”

This strategy has proven extremely successful. This year’s 11.11 Super Show generated three times the gross merchandise value from its live broadcast compared with last year. A significant amount of this GMV came from sales generated from voucher redemption during the show.

A key reason for this success is the amount of thought and effort that goes into every Super Show. it can take close to three months for a show to go from conceptualisation to actual broadcast. To ensure cohesiveness across all six markets where Lazada operates, the regional branding team usually comes up with the overall concept and headline acts, and the local teams will then identify additional celebrities, ambassadors, key opinion leaders and other features and mechanisms to tailor the show to their target audience.

The Lazada 11.11 Super Show.

Every show is also carefully designed to best amplify the mega campaign it’s promoting, explained Su Woon Ng, senior manager for content at Lazada. “For example, Lazada’s Birthday Super Shows tend to be performance-heavy concerts, while the ones for 11.11 usually have a more gamified format where brands are well-integrated within the segments. But the consistent features across all our gala shows are the interactive giveaways and brands’ seamless integrations within the show concepts. It’s a strategy that helps build our shoppertainment identity in the region,” Ng said.

Already behemoth undertakings, the production of Super Shows has become even more complex in the last two years as a result of the pandemic. While previous shows took place in front of live audiences, Lazada has had to shift these shoppertainment extravaganzas online with a hybrid format that includes pre-recorded performances and segments interlaced with Lazada’s many live customer-engagement tools, such as Voucher Rain, Balloon Rain and Shake It.

The virtual format has allowed audiences to still enjoy Super Shows in a safe way amid the ongoing pandemic and has even boosted traffic and guided GMV on the Lazada app. The challenge, however, is that viewers can leave at any moment during a livestream, which is why it has been of the utmost importance for Lazada to ensure all its virtual Super Shows are jam-packed with exciting and innovative content that engages with audiences and retains their attention.

This year’s 11.11 Super Show, for example, featured more than 80 celebrities, including K-pop group Seventeen, who wowed viewers across Southeast Asia as Lazada’s first regional Happiness Ambassadors. In addition, in Thailand, Lazada featured contestants from its first reality talent competition, LAZ iCON, during its 11.11 Super Show, much to the delight of fans in the country, who by early December had cast up to 20 million votes for their favourite contestants on the app. Similar localisations were made to other Super Shows across the region.

“All the challenges of putting together a Super Show and trying our best to make that magic happen are worth it because the end results are so rewarding,” said Trinidad. “Our Super Shows are celebrations and a way of giving back to our consumers for continuously supporting our brand.”

Sophia Hung, Ting Ting, Kim Martin Viray, Kris A. Aquino and Chanakarn Asawasathapon from Lazada’s regional and country marketing teams contributed to the article.

Categories
Business & Commerce

Lazada Singapore Lights Up Orchard Road
with Online-to-Offline Pop-up

Lazada Pop-Up Showcase Singapore

By LazBeat Staff, with additional reporting by Catherine Yang
Dec. 16, 2021

It’s a bright December day in Singapore, and the main shopping precinct of Orchard Road is aglow with the holiday spirit. This year, as part of the Orchard Road Business Association’s Christmas on A Great Street campaign, an all-new shopping experience is using digital technology to connect brands and consumers for real-life festive fun. Bathed in the warm and welcoming scents of renowned aromatherapy brands such as Pristine Aroma, the Lazada Pop-Up Showcase gives shoppers a chance to literally step into the world of LazMall and LazMall Prestige with in-person showrooms that display exclusive products from more than two dozen brands.

“We talked to different brands to get them to participate in this pop-up store. With their support, we managed to bring this to life and to see this wonderful pop-up with all these products,” said Josephine Wong, the manager of LazMall’s channels and experience.

The pop-up is split across two showrooms that run until January 2. At the LazMall showroom, guests can peruse items from popular brands such as Casio, Garmin, Lego, Metro, Muji, Playline Friends, Pristine Aroma, Rebecca Minkoff, Restrosuperfuture and WMF. During the campaign’s launch on December 1, shoppers were also treated to a preview of the Lazada-exclusive Dick Bruna x LeSportsac collection featuring beloved characters Miffy and Black Bear.

“The Lazada Pop-Up Showcase was the perfect opportunity to debut our Winter 2021 Dick Bruna Collection,” said Kien Koh, LeSportsac’s head of marketing and public relations for Singapore. “After months of connecting with our customers mostly online, it’s great to see the smiles on shoppers’ faces when they see our products in person.”

Lazada Orchard Road Pop-Up
The LazMall pop-up showroom on Orchard Road.

Meanwhile, at the showroom for LazMall Prestige, Lazada’s channel for premium labels, shoppers can browse through a carefully curated selection of products from the likes of Bacha Coffee, Bang & Olufsen, Estée Lauder, Furla, HERA, Lancôme, Longines, Michael Kors, Moët Hennessy, Sulwahsoo and Vertu.

Aside from the impressive line-up of brands, what sets the pop-up apart from traditional brick-and-mortar stores is the fact that it’s integrated within Lazada’s eCommerce ecosystem, using the platform’s technology to make holiday shopping even more fun and convenient. For example, instead of waiting in line for the cashier and then lugging their heavy purchases home, shoppers can simply scan a QR code next to any product to buy it online via the Lazada app and have it delivered directly to their doorsteps.

The showcase is the latest effort from Lazada to pioneer online-to-offline – also known as O2O – retail experiences across Southeast Asia. In April, the eCommerce giant unveiled Come Home to Lazada, a furniture and homeware pop-up concept at Singapore’s Raffles City Shopping Mall that brought together the joys of in-person shopping and the conveniences of online retail. The platform has also done a similar O2O pop-up at Thailand’s Siam Center shopping mall.

“After the amazing success of the pop-up event at Raffles City Shopping Mall earlier this year, we wanted to celebrate the expansion of LazMall Prestige, our premium product channel, on LazMall. And as the official eCommerce partner of the Orchard Road Business Association, there is no better way to connect with shoppers than in the heart of Orchard Road with an online-to-offline engagement,” said Lazada Singapore Chief Operating Officer Carey Chong.

LazMall Prestige Orchard Road Pop-Up
The LazMall Prestige showroom displays exclusive products from premium brands.

Indeed, while eCommerce soared in popularity as a safe and even essential way to shop during lockdowns and other health and safety measures during the height of the pandemic, as more countries slowly open up and looked ahead to a new normal, O2O experiences offer an immersive way for brands and businesses to reach and connect with consumers.

“We are delighted to be part of this pop-up showcase. As the retail landscape continues to evolve, we are excited to partner with Lazada to explore more innovative ways to engage with our consumers both online and offline,” said Belinda Kwai, the global marketing manager of Bacha Coffee.

Being so much more than a point of purchase, the Orchard Road pop-up also features fun activations, such as an Instagram-worthy photo wall with Lazada’s heart-shaped logo, gift-wrapping workshops as well as a mystery-gift vending machine where shoppers can buy miniature products from top-tier brands for just SGD2 apiece. Lazada app users can also take advantage of a “Deals Nearby” function, which shows a list of participating F&B outlets in the area where they can enjoy discounts at in between their holiday shopping.

“We wanted to create something that could spread joy in Singapore this festive season,” explained Paige Lee, the strategic partnerships manager of Lazada Singapore. “With this pop-up, we hope that shoppers can find the perfect gifts for their loved ones and enjoy the holidays together.”

Categories
Inside Lazada

Koonlanan Hongsakul (Earng), 24,
Community Manager, Lazada Thailand

Koonlanan Hongsakul

Dec. 16, 2021

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.

Listen to Earng in her own words (English version)
(Thai version)

“Since my high school days, I have always enjoyed outdoor activities and extreme sports, such as scuba diving, freediving, surf skating and wake surfing. Realising that I had a passion for extreme sports, my dad suggested that I try race car driving. He’s an avid motorsports fan and foresaw that I would take a liking to racing. I guess it was also my parents’ way of providing an outlet for the speed demon in me – they would rather I race on the tracks in a car built to protect me and with a safety team that is always on standby than have me speeding down Bangkok’s highways!

One of my favourite things to do while I was still taking racing classes was to hit the Bira Circuit in Pattaya with my dad as part of our weekend activities. In 2020, I decided to participate in the Idemitsu Super Turbo racing event at Chang International Circuit in Buriram. That was my racing debut. I came in third in the division 3 NA junior race and fourth in the overall division 3 race. I’ll never forget the rush, the adrenaline, the feeling of being with other race car drivers and the sense of overcoming a challenge. After that, I was hooked. 

To excel in the sport, practice is important. Usually, two days before a race, I’ll drive for two hours to Bira Circuit or five hours to Chang International Circuit so I can practice on the race track.

A lot of people think that racing is about speed, but it really is about staying focused, anticipating and navigating the bends in the road, and applying just the right amount of brake. Brake too much and you lose momentum. Brake too little and you might crash into a wall. I’ve crashed a couple of times. The thing about crashing is that you always know when it’s about to happen, but there is really nothing you can do except to let go of the wheel. I’ve learned the hard way that if I don’t let go in time, I usually end up hurting my wrists on impact.

There still aren’t a lot of women in motorsports, but I have seen more girls taking it up in the last few years, which is encouraging. There are also pro drivers like Nutjung Tanchanok and Nattanid Leewattanavalagul who are making their mark and they are an inspiration to girls like me.

I’m grateful to have this opportunity. I hope I can continue racing for as long as I can, because the one thing racing has taught me is that no challenge is ever too tough to overcome. It’s always possible to learn to do something you thought was impossible.”

This profile was compiled by Norasikin Bte Ahmad from the Lazada Regional Communications team.

Categories
Inside Lazada

Zulkifli Zain, 33, Transport Operations,
RedMart and Lazada Singapore

Zulkifli Zain

Dec. 16, 2021

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.

“Ten years ago, nobody believed in online groceries. Everyone was just going to supermarkets and wet markets. But I wanted to see what online grocery shopping was all about, and if it really could be a good alternative to my weekly trips to the supermarket, so I took my sister’s advice and dove into the deep end by joining RedMart.

I was then fresh out of National Service and was just a young kid trying to learn the ins and outs of the business. I saw how quickly RedMart grew, from getting 20 orders a day to 80 daily orders in five months.

At that time, we were at the Pasir Panjang warehouse, which was about 90 square metres. It was very small, and the racks were stacked about 5 metres high from floor to ceiling. We only had one ladder, which was bulky and heavy. We wanted to work fast, so we often climbed the shelves on our own without the ladder. Those were the days! Now with automation and shelves that are at accessible heights at our new 350,000 sq ft warehouse, we no longer have to scale them. We also used to have to remember where items were located, but now the system does it for us.

We are usually at our busiest during year-end mega campaigns, namely 9.9, 11.11 and 12.12. I remember my first mega campaign with Lazada. I couldn’t even imagine what to expect, but everyone in the transport team was so hyped about it. We did a lot of pre-campaign planning, where everyone would gather and run through checklist after checklist to make sure that everything from the technology to the network to operations were in tip-top condition and ‘battle-ready’.

On the day of the sales event, I remember standing in the middle of the warehouse and looking around to see everything running like clockwork. All the pre-planning was worth it. Everyone knew exactly what to do, who to look for and what to expect. That was when I understood why shopping festivals like 11.11 and 12.12 were important. They bring everyone together to produce this beautiful artwork.

Not everyone has what it takes to work for a start-up company. It was an amazing opportunity and I’m glad I took the plunge! Now, like thousands of households in Singapore, I get my online shopping and groceries delivered to my doorstep!”

This profile was compiled by Sherwin Loh from Lazada Singapore’s public relations team.