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 love that at work, no one calls me boss. Instead, I am seen as the big brother to some 100 younger colleagues in the category that I lead. I am by far the oldest person in my team, with others being in their 20s and 30s. I am aware of the generation gap and the potential problems it can create with my teammates, so when a 22-year-old intern approaches me to ask for professional advice or openly share their personal issues, I know I must be doing something right.
Just recently, a young colleague shared that his wife had been complaining about him not spending enough time with his family because of work. I told him that being a perfectionist, as he was, could be a double-edged sword. He needed to learn to trust his subordinates, empower them, delegate work and carry out initiatives that shorten the workflow. When he was able to do that, his productivity increased and his family life improved.
As the ‘big brother, it’s important to me to make everyone in the team feel at home. I remember that when I was a child, my grandfather always told me to genuinely care for and look after others and to put ourselves in others’ shoes before we make any decisions. That has become second nature to me. Even though we are mostly working from home these days, I try to ensure that I can still take care of my team – whether it’s through sending care packages or being available over the phone or through messages or video conferences. I hope that one day we can meet again to grab a beer, enjoy some local dishes and catch up in person, just like we used to.”
Featured photo above shows Lazada Vietnam’s electronics category team. Canh Ky Huynh is pictured in the centre wearing a blue áo dài.
This profile was compiled by Bao Uyen Bui, who was from the Lazada PR team in Vietnam.
It’s been more than a year since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, and many countries are still grappling with new waves of infections. To help in the ongoing battle against COVID-19 in Southeast Asia, Lazada Group has continued to introduce new initiatives and measures to protect and support frontliners, businesses, customers and other vulnerable communities across the region.
Standing with Frontliners
Since the onset of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia, Lazada has spared no efforts to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those who work on the frontlines. The eCommerce company recently launched its Stronger Together with LazadaCARES initiative to protect its frontline workers and employees, including by sponsoring their vaccinations where available. Lazada also opened vaccination centres in several major provinces in Indonesia to offer free shots to logistics workers, local small-business staff as well as to the general public. After one week, the programme helped inoculate tens of thousands with their first doses of the vaccine. A similar programme was also introduced in Malaysia as part of a state-wide vaccination initiative in Selangor.
WATCH: Lazada offers vaccinations at its main Cimanggis warehouse in Indonesia
Aside from raising vaccination awareness and rates across the region, Lazada has been working to equip frontline medical heroes with the support they need to battle the virus. In response to the pandemic’s third wave in Thailand, Lazada donated THB1 million to Rajavithi Hospital, THB500,000 to King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang as well as personal protective equipment and facemasks to 20 hospitals across the nation. In Vietnam, it donated 30,000 COVID-19 test kits to the Ho Chi Minh City Fatherland Front Committee to support local hospitals and medical facilities and has sent nutritional gifts to doctors, nurses and soldiers.
Helping Business Recover and Grow
Another major part of Lazada’s COVID-relief measures has been to empower micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and to accelerate their digital transformation in the face of offline disruptions. New phases of stimulus packages have been rolled out in countries struck by recent waves of the virus, offering MSMEs benefits such as reduced or waived platform fees, dedicated support, training and access to seller tools.
Online shopping promotions and campaigns have also proved crucial to MSMEs, allowing them to continue selling to consumers even amid lockdowns and social-distancing restrictions. This summer, Lazada became the first official eCommerce partner for the Great Singapore Sale, where it helped brick-and-mortar small businesses develop omnichannel shopping experiences that greatly boosted their consumer reach. Similarly, Lazada Malaysia’s month-long Lazat Bazaar online food festival provided local small businesses, merchants and grocers a safe way to bring their products to shoppers during Ramadan and Hari Raya Puasa. The platform also partnered with the country’s Ministry of Finance and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation to launch Shop Malaysia Online and Go-eCommerce – two initiatives aimed at helping 40,000 local MSMEs unlock new opportunities through joining the digital economy.
Lazada partnered with the Singapore Retailers Association to become the first eCommerce partner for the Great Singapore Sale.
Measures have also been taken to not only stimulate businesses but entire sectors; in both Vietnam and the Philippines, Lazada entered into partnerships to promote local agriculture – a traditionally offline industry that has been heavily impacted by the pandemic – with the aim to help farmers and local sellers bring their products online and to equip them with the digital tools and knowhow to ensure their continued long-term growth.
Serving Customers and the Community
Just as important as efforts to support businesses and frontline workers is Lazada’s commitment to protecting customers and local communities. Since the early days of the pandemic, Lazada has made sure the public can access daily essentials safely and easily by implementing contactless deliveries and payment methods. The platform has also introduced incentives such as free deliveries in several key markets so that consumers can shop and also save while staying at home.
Lazada has also leveraged its platform and mobilised resources for community-wide efforts to fight the pandemic. In Malaysia and Vietnam, for example, it launched online donation campaigns so Lazada shoppers could easily make monetary contributions and also send care packages or meals to thank frontline heroes. It has also tapped its LazadaForGood digital-donations channel to help raise funds and bring essential items, such as facemasks and food supplies, to local communities across the region that have been hard hit by the pandemic. Ramping up such efforts, the company has through its Stronger Together with LazadaCARES initiative continued working with local government entities in the six markets it operates in to donate medical equipment and supplies to those in need.
Fiona Poh from Lazada’s regional communications team, Jessica Horsan from Indonesia, Nutcha Singnarong from Thailand and Linh Chi Nguyen from Vietnam contributed to this story.
Despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19, businesses across Southeast Asia have expressed their optimism about growth and recovery prospects in digital commerce, according to a new survey conducted by Lazada Group.
The newly released Digital Commerce Confidence Index is an industry-first bi-annual report that explores the views, prospects and challenges of online sellers in Southeast Asia. According to the inaugural index, of the 750 merchants surveyed during the first half of 2021 from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, 70% expected their business to expand by more than 10% in the third quarter of the year. Of these sellers, 33% said they were extremely confident that their sales volume would increase by more than 30%, reflecting their favourable sentiments towards the opportunities presented through digital commerce. Overall, on a spectrum from 0 to 100, the index achieved a score of 64, reflecting the optimism of business owners across the region.
While the economic effects of the pandemic continue to ripple across the world, the positive outlook of online sellers captured in the report point to the explosive growth of digital commerce and its role in helping businesses not only survive but thrive during challenging times. According to the index study, 52% of those surveyed experienced high-level business growth during the first half of 2021, as more consumers moved to shopping online from their homes.
Online sellers from the electronics and fast-moving consumer goods categories benefited the most from this boom in the stay-at-home economy, with 53% of surveyed merchants reporting strong business performance in the first six months of the year.
Growth momentum was also recorded across all other retail categories, fuelled in large part by sellers’ increased leveraging of technology and digital solutions, such as online shopping festivals and livestreaming, to overcome offline disruptions and continue connecting with consumers. The enhanced engagement capabilities of online shopping have in turn boosted sellers’ business confidence, especially among those in fashion – a segment that has long relied on the touch-and-feel interactions of offline retail but has increasingly embraced digital engagement tools with great success. While 48% of merchants in this sector said their businesses grew during the first half of 2021, 75% anticipated business improvement in the third quarter of 2021, with close to 40% predicting the growth to exceed 30%.
To best capture new opportunities in digital commerce, sellers highlighted the importance of developing unique and differentiated offerings, leverage technology to drive more user traffic, and to harness data insights effectively. To win in an increasingly competitive online environment, sellers will need to differentiate themselves by delivering greater value and enhanced experiences to consumers by leveraging technology to engage shoppers.
“We are excited to launch the Digital Commerce Confidence Index, aiming to shed more light on forward-looking indicators and sentiment among SMEs in Southeast Asia,” said Magnus Ekbom, Lazada Group’s chief strategy officer. “Many SMEs have embraced new technology and acquired digital capabilities to transform and future-proof their businesses. Despite the challenging health situation and ongoing challenges, our index shows that sellers remain both resilient and optimistic about the future.”
When life gave him lemons, Pham Van Giang made lemonade. Only, in this case, he did it with lychees. Born into a farming family in Hai Duong, a province in northern Vietnam famed for producing the sweet red berry, Pham saw his livelihood threatened when the pandemic broke out. With his usual supply chains disrupted, he turned to Lazada to ensure the fruits of his labour could still reach hungry consumers.
As a proud member of Vietnam’s farming sector, Pham has always looked for ways to help agriculture grow and flourish with the times. To elevate the quality and status of locally harvested fruit, he spent close to two decades developing a large-scale lychee-growing model in his hometown of Thanh Son and encouraged more than 70 households to follow Global G.A.P. guidelines, a trademark set of standards for good agricultural practices. These efforts have resulted in lychees that are plump, luscious and completely clean of pesticide residue.
Hai Duong lychees have been loved by both local and overseas consumers, and the pandemic gave farmers like Pham a chance to explore and expand even further in the domestic market. In May, Pham joined an initiative between Lazada Vietnam, the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, the Hai Duong Industry and Trade Department and the Hai Duong Agriculture & Rural Development Department to bring his home province’s agricultural specialities to shoppers across the country via eCommerce.
As part of the National Trade Promotion programme, the initiative aims to spotlight farm-fresh produce from Vietnam’s rural areas and also accelerate the digitalisation of the agricultural sector to ensure its long-term growth.
“Going online is not a short-term decision but part of a long-term strategy, and COVID-19 has accelerated this,” said Mai Xuan Thin, the founder and CEO of Red Dragon, a supplier who helped Pham and many other local farmers take part in Lazada’s initiative.
The initiative marked Red Dragon’s first time using a B2C eCommerce platform, and the results proved sweet, thanks to Lazada’s robust infrastructure, which allowed the platform to transport and deliver fresh lychees from the farms in Hai Duong to customers within 24 hours of harvesting.
Close to half a ton of Hai Duong lychees were sold within the first four hours of them being made available on Lazada, with some orders reaching customers in less than an hour.
Freshly harvested Vietnamese lychees have grown in popularity on Lazada
Mai said that eCommerce has opened new opportunities for Red Dragon and the farmers it represents. “We will continue to bring more Vietnamese agricultural products to Lazada so that domestic consumers can enjoy locally grown yet world-class fruits in the fastest and most convenient way possible,” he said.
“In just a few days of our soft launch of the lychee products on Lazada, we have seen very encouraging results,” said James Dong, the CEO of Lazada Vietnam.
The fruit’s popularity on the eCommerce platform has boosted income for local farmers. Following the success in Hai Duong, Lazada launched a similar initiative last month to support farmers in Bac Giang, another Vietnamese province known for its lychees.
“Leveraging the technology and logistics capabilities and infrastructure that we have, we offer businesses pivoting online during this pandemic advanced digital solutions and services, as well as access to customers and a network that they did not have before,” Dong said. “This is a great start to what we hope will be a long-term collaboration for all the parties involved in this endeavour to delight Vietnamese consumers with delicious, fresh and healthy produce, and boost businesses for local brands and sellers that will help in the overall digitalization of the Vietnamese economy.”
Featured image above: Pham Van Giang tends to his lychee plants in Hai Duong province.
Linh Chi Nguyen is a senior manager in Lazada Vietnam’s public relations team, which is responsible for corporate communications and media relations.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to the eCommerce industry’s explosive growth and this trend is here to stay, with the sector playing a key role in post-pandemic recovery both regionally and globally. But as the growth outlook of online shopping continues to rise, so has attention to topics related to the sector’s impact on people and the planet. As such, it’s become increasingly important for companies involved in digital retail to focus on corporate sustainability to ensure not only the long-term health of the sector but also of the world.
Online Shopping and the Planet
Online shopping offers unparalleled convenience, product assortments and accessibility to consumers. While eCommerce was already steadily growing, the pandemic accelerated its adoption among shoppers. In 2020, there was 15.5% year-on-year growth in retail eCommerce sales in Asia Pacific. In Southeast Asia alone, the online commerce market was worth US$62 billion, over a third of which was generated by new shoppers.
But the convenience of eCommerce comes with certain environmental costs, especially when it comes to logistics operations. According to Forbes, online retail has about four times as many touchpoints as its traditional offline counterpart. Not only is adequate packing material necessary to ensure parcels reach consumers in pristine condition, greater demand for services such as speed deliveries also mean that orders are often shipped in multiple packages. Considered together, these factors can create a sizeable carbon footprint that could, if unchecked, outweigh its benefits over offline commerce.
Digital commerce companies can – and should – lead in reducing this environmental impact. During last year’s 12.12 campaign, for example, Lazada rolled out measures to reduce plastic packaging material or replace them with eco-friendly options. Compared to the year before, we managed to reduce the amount of plastic packaging materials by up to 65% across our regional fulfilment operations. Meanwhile, on Earth Day this year, we partnered with Starbucks to offer Starbucks®️ x Herschel accessories and drinkware made from recycled coffee grounds on LazMall. Our colleagues in the Philippines took further initiative to use compostable materials such as recycled pre-cut cardboard fillers to pack Starbucks products purchased via LazMall.
To raise awareness about sustainability, LazMall featured a line of Starbucks®️ x Herschel products made from recycled materials.
eCommerce and Corporate Sustainability
As eCommerce continues to grow by double digits annually, it is crucial to understand its business operations and the unintended sustainability costs that arise as a result. In 2020, the rise of environmental, social, and governance – or ESG for short – issues on the agendas of stock exchanges, regulators and investors has shown that businesses should factor in sustainability and other non-financial topics that impact valuation.
This is where corporate sustainability comes in. It analyses the risks, opportunities and impact from an integrated perspective within companies’ existing business models and core activities. To this end, a value-chain approach can help map out key stakeholders involved in the eCommerce ecosystem and each activity’s impact on business operations and the surrounding environment and community.
Key to defining the priority levels and impact of many issues within a company is the concept of materiality. A well-done materiality assessment is grounded with in-depth qualitative sustainability intelligence from stakeholders – often drawn from ongoing industry insights shared in interviews and engagements – and allows a business to understand internal and external stakeholder priorities and deliver more strategic actions from value-chain focused and business-ecosystem perspectives.
Materiality in relation to sustainability may be a fairly new concept to many companies but is crucial to corporate sustainability management and therefore needs to be connected and incorporated into other strategic business processes, such as enterprise risk management as well as strategic and financial business planning. Diving into sustainability conversations within the company or the wider stakeholder group may seem challenging at first, but it’s essential for corporate sustainability teams to be able to empower business leaders with professional sustainability frameworks, standards and tools for problem solving and value creation.
Shaping Sustainable eCommerce at Lazada
For the past several months, the discussions that I’ve had with both internal and external stakeholders about online shopping has led to more opportunities to engage with business operations, value chains and the wider eCommerce ecosystem, including platform and digital marketing solutions, logistics, technology, digital financial payments and more. It is important for business leaders to open up cross-company dialogue on sustainability.
On Earth Day in April, Lazada hosted a round-table discussion on Shaping Sustainable eCommerce in Southeast Asia. This leadership session convened more than 60 spokespeople – business partners, customers, financiers, innovators, public policy makers and others – to discuss potential collaborative opportunities and actionable initiatives that could help make eCommerce greener, cleaner and better overall. The event was led by 10 Lazadian leaders, and spokespersons were grouped into five moderated tracks to discuss pressing ESG topics that shape, and are shaped by, Lazada and the region’s eCommerce system.
The five discussion tracks covered sustainability issues arising from operating an eCommerce platform in Southeast Asia.
The roundtable marked the first of many conversations within a thriving and growing thought leadership community. In the weeks and months ahead, we will dive even deeper into many of the actionable insights and partnership opportunities shared during the event.
As businesses in Southeast Asia and around the world continue the race to triumph over the immediate impact of COVID-19 while also building a better post-pandemic future, there is no better time than now to put sustainability at the core of strategic plans.
Janet Sarah Neo is a Lazada vice president and leads corporate sustainability for the group.
COVID-19 has had a profound impact on every aspect of our lives, from how we shop and how we work to our mental and physical well-being. As the situation continues to evolve, there has never been a more pressing need for businesses to reexamine and reconfigure their strategies. To attain sustainable growth in this changed world, businesses must take a 3Rs approach.
Rediscover Categories
It takes an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic, and after a year of living with COVID-19, we’ve definitely seen the development of some new consumer purchasing behaviors. It is imperative for businesses to discover and embrace these changes. Taking the fast-moving consumer goods category as an example, NielsenIQ observed record growth for products such as cooking ingredients, staple foods and cheeses, as consumers shifted from dining out to eating more at home during the pandemic. Consumers are also downtrading on some categories, like tobacco, while trading up on categories for loved ones, such as their babies, parents and pets. In Indonesia specifically, gifting behavior during the festive season shifted from indulgent products to staple items, according to Kantar.
Other than impacting consumer habits, COVID-19 also redefined the outlook of the FMCG category significantly. For fashion, RedSeer predicts that Southeast Asian consumers will deprioritize style and put more emphasis on function in the future. They’ll also be better disposed to sustainable and preloved products.
Reposition to Grow
Changes brought on by the pandemic have implications to the plans and competitive environments of businesses. As such, companies need to fine-tune their value propositions, pricing and assortments, and future-proof their business models by leveraging technology.
For example, during the second annual collaboration between Lazada and Jakarta Fashion Week last November, many fashion labels and designers leveraged the eCommerce platform to reach wide swathes of consumers beyond their offline stores. The event also included “The Show of Hearts”, a livestreamed Lazada Style Space fashion show that gave participating businesses the opportunity to increase their engagement with shoppers, thereby increasing brand awareness and loyalty.
Fashion labels and designers tapped Lazada’s partnership with Jakarta Fashion Week to connect with style-loving shoppers.
Renovate Strategic Plans
Last but not least, businesses must stay nimble to identify changes and unlock opportunities during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. The ability for businesses to tweak and refresh their strategies effectively will be a competitive advantage.
The long-term social, economic and health impacts of COVID-19 are still unfolding. Although vaccinations are underway, local economies in Southeast Asia are still facing a lot of uncertainties and challenges given the uneven inoculation pace in the region. Businesses need to be prepared and always look out for bright spots in the economy, including new opportunities that come with the rise in demand for online sales and services.
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.
“You know the saying ‘never judge a book by its cover’? Well, this rings true for me quite often because a lot of people wouldn’t peg me as a guy who does parkour. People would say to me, ‘I can’t imagine you jumping over guard rails and leaping across rooftops.’ It must be my glasses – they probably make me look more corporate than I am.
The fact is it’s been more than 10 years since I’ve been involved with the sport. I instantly fell in love with it the very first time I did it. At the beginning, I thought the idea of doing parkour itself was cool since it instantly became a topic of conversation. However, I quickly realised that the sport also helps you overcome your fears and empowers you to confront them. It doesn’t matter if you are 15, 35 or 55, when you are ‘in the zone’, nothing matters except the obstacle and technique. You focus on what you want and break it down into achievable steps. It’s very much like how life is.
I started MoveParkour in 2017 to teach others the sport as a way to make it more accessible. When the pandemic hit, it was certainly a challenge because parkour is such a physical sport, and no one had ready-made obstacles they could use at home. We began recording online tutorials by using everyday things, such as chairs and books. We even showed how you can train on flat ground.
To this day I’m still amused by the surprised looks on people’s faces when I talk about parkour. I explain to them that the sport benefits you not only physically but also mentally. It teaches you resilience, discipline and risk management, and it improves mind-and-body coordination, or as I prefer to call it, connection. These are all useful skills to help a person navigate the real obstacles in life.”
This profile was compiled by Anoushka Bhar from the Lazada PR team in Malaysia.
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.
“When I started my journey with Lazada in 2015, working in logistics, I never thought that there would come a time when my job would be not only a lifeline for my family and me but also for the many people homebound due to the pandemic. One of the key lessons my parents taught me and my siblings growing up is to always be of service to others, and now I understand why. Knowing that customers are getting their essentials delivered to them safely and keeping my team safe and healthy provides me with a satisfaction that no money could buy.
This feeling helps me through the daily challenges that we face as frontliners. There have been times when I’ve been anxious about going home to my family after a long day’s work, fearful that I might unknowingly spread the virus in my household. There have also been other challenges during lockdown, like getting to work without public transportation (the answer is bicycles!), keeping everybody working in the warehouses safe and connecting with our families when we are apart. During the early months of the lockdown last year, our team members and I stayed at the warehouse facilities to minimize the risk of exposure to our families and communities as well as to ensure that we can still ‘get to’ work every day. Even though it was one of the hardest times, it was also the best of times. We talked and relaxed together as we prepped for the next work day ahead. We were always close as a team, but those dark days brought us even closer together. While many of us missed our own families, we were glad to have one another.
The pandemic is far from over, and I’m mindful that each day, many of these same challenges remain with us. But knowing that there are people on the same journey with you is what makes all the difference.”
This profile was compiled by Mina Cunanan from the Lazada PR team in the Philippines.
When Somsak* was sentenced to two years in prison for pickpocketing, he never thought he would get a second chance to make an honest living.
“I was at my lowest point. I didn’t think I would be able to survive after prison,” he said.
After serving his sentence for a year, a prison guard introduced him to an initiative run by the Ministry of Justice’s Department of Corrections that teaches inmates how to make handicrafts for sale. Named Wansook, which means “happy days” in Thai, the initiative aims to give convicts new opportunities through digital commerce and partnerships with eCommerce platforms like Lazada.
“Even though these inmates may have made mistakes, those who have continued to improve themselves throughout their imprisonment deserve a second chance. The Ministry of Justice believes it is important that inmates have the ability to support themselves financially post-incarceration, as this will allow them to re-integrate into society and lower the likelihood of any re-offense,” said Sitthi Suthiwong, the deputy director-general of the Department of Corrections’ development section.
The DOC had previously run a similar initiative offline, but sales were low due to limited access to consumers. Since the department launched its flagship Wansook store on Lazada at the end of last year, it has seen a major boost in sales, with products such as handbags, keychains and small pieces of wooden furniture – all crafted by those serving time – becoming especially popular with shoppers from all across the country. In just four months of the store’s opening on Lazada, sales surged by 3,000% to reach THB100,000 per month.
Part of the proceeds have gone towards funding occupational skills development for the inmates, and the rest has been kept as savings to help them rebuild their lives upon release.
This campaign has given inmates like Somsak a new lease on life. “I can now look forward to life again after imprisonment and do my best part to contribute in meaningful ways to the community and to help others like myself,” he said.
The Power of Second Chances
Power Pat promotes the official Wansook store on Lazada.
Highlighting how important a new, honest start can be to reformed criminals, the DOC and Lazada enlisted the help of Worayot Bunthongnum, better known as Power Pat, to drive up awareness for Wansook through a special sales campaign. The superstar singer was once sentenced to 50 years in prison and was released for exemplary behaviour after serving 16 years.
Between April 17 and 19, the singer encouraged shoppers to visit the Wansook store and then invited the top three spenders to join an exclusive mini concert hosted by Lazada. A replay of the mini concert was also livestreamed on LazLive. In just three days, the campaign helped drive more than THB100,000 in sales.
“I can only be where I am today because of the support of others, and especially of my fans,” Bunthongnum said. “For that, I am grateful and want to give back and encourage those who are in the shoes that I was, to not give up on themselves, and to give second chance a chance. This is why I’m delighted to be working with Lazada on this campaign, as I know that everyone deserves another shot and so many of these inmates are so talented and so willing to improve themselves. Seeing such great sales results is not just financially rewarding for them, but a validation of their work, talents and skills.”
Wansook is part of Lazada Thailand’s Stronger Together campaign, which was launched last year to help local communities overcome economic challenges. The initiative is also only the first step in helping inmates leverage eCommerce and technology to build better futures.
“As a platform that empowers sellers, we believe that the digital economy can open doors for everyone, no matter your background or past,” said Werapong Goo, Lazada Thailand’s executive vice president of eCommerce. “With our expertise and resources in eCommerce and technology, we hope to be able to further this partnership by helping to train and equip inmates with digital and business skills. We want to help inmates find online business opportunities after their release. This will not only benefit the inmate, his or her family and community, but the wider Thai economy.”
*Name changed to protect the individual’s identity.
Pimchaya Boonyarattaphan (Kwang) is a manager in Lazada Thailand’s public relations team and is responsible for corporate communications and media relations.
Digital commerce has seen explosive growth in Southeast Asia in recent years, but a report published last month by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation showed that it could still grow by more than $280 billion between 2025 and 2030 if more women were empowered to participate in this burgeoning industry.
The digital economy in Southeast Asia has tripled in the five years since 2015 and reached $105 billion in 2020. Of this figure, $62 billion was generated through eCommerce alone. This exponential growth has been fuelled by several factors, including greater mobile-first internet penetration across the region, the maturation of digital retail platforms and the proliferation of more-engaging online shopping experiences.
Gender Gaps in the Market
Such growth, however, has not been evenly distributed between the genders. According to the IFC report, titled Women and eCommerce in Southeast Asia, women make up half of all active eCommerce entrepreneurs in the region yet still only accounted for $26.35 billion of its eCommerce market last year, compared with the $35.65 billion contributed by their male counterparts.
The report leveraged data provided by Lazada and is the first in the region to focus exclusively on the contributions women make to eCommerce and how online platforms can further drive their success.
The disparity between women and men in eCommerce became even more pronounced as a result of COVID-19. In the Philippines, for example, women-owned businesses generated higher sales figures than their male-owned counterparts in the second and third quarters of 2019 but the number dropped to just 79% of men’s during the pandemic. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the gross merchandise value rose for men-owned businesses but fell for those operated by women.
While women are active contributors to the region’s eCommerce ecosystem, many still face significant disadvantages compared to their male peers. One big obstacle is discrimination, which may limit their access to certain rights and legal protections in different parts of the region. Women-owned small businesses were also more likely to have unmet financing needs due to barriers to formal loans and external financing from investors. A gap in digital inclusion – the female population in Southeast Asia was calculated to be 11% less likely than men to have access to the internet – means that some women are also still simply unable to participate in the digital economy.
A Fairer, Stronger Economy
Rectifying such gender inequalities would benefit not just women but the entire regional eCommerce market, according to IFC’s findings. Specifically, if the gross merchandise value of women-owned eCommerce businesses reached parity with those operated by men, an additional $280 billion could be gained between 2025 and 2030. It’s a gain that would continue to accumulate in future decades, said Stephanie von Friedeburg, IFC’s senior vice president of operations.
“In other words, for every year that gender gaps go unaddressed, just under $46 billion in market value is lost,” von Friedeburg added.
Research also showed that women make up a higher proportion of digital commerce consumers – a trend accelerated by the pandemic – and having more women sellers could help better cater to their needs.
“There is little doubt that the ability to compete online will increasingly define whether a company succeeds or fails,” said Stephanie von Friedeburg, IFC’s senior vice president of operations. “Ensuring that women are well-placed to compete online will not only strengthen businesses but also drive development.”
Various sectors of society can play a role in helping achieve gender parity in the digital economy, but eCommerce platforms are especially well positioned to invest more in women entrepreneurs. On an operational level, eCommerce companies can support women with sex-disaggregated data as well as more financing offerings and training opportunities to ensure that their businesses can thrive. More should also be done to encourage and incentivize women to leverage paid promotions and to enter high-value segments so that they can increase their contributions to the overall market.
IFC’s report showed how women leverage eCommerce to participate and thrive in the digital economy.
“We have witnessed many women become self-employed as business leaders and sellers on Lazada across Southeast Asia, and we are fortunate to be a part of the journey helping many women who have stepped out of traditional roles to shine on eCommerce,” said Lazada Group Chief Executive Officer Chun Li.
According to IFC’s report, close to a third of Lazada’s businesses in Indonesia and two-thirds of the platform’s businesses in the Philippines are owned by women. The platform has long been committed to championing inclusivity and gender equality in eCommerce and technology. In 2018, it became a founding member of Digital2Equal, an initiative from IFC and the European Commission that aims to create more opportunities for women in emerging markets. This year, it launched its inaugural Lazada Forward Women Awards to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of female entrepreneurs.
“With the exponential growth opportunities available in the region, we are committed to providing women entrepreneurs with easy access to knowledge and tools to embrace and benefit from the digital economy,” Li said.
The World Bank Group and IFC will host an event on June 16 (8 p.m. SGT) to discuss inclusivity in eCommerce. Click here to watch.
