Category: Business & Commerce

By Mina Cunanan
Jan. 18, 2021

Katrina Cacal started her entrepreneurial journey when she was 14, selling lip tints and makeup on social media, mostly to her friends and family members. She has since grown her business, expanded her product offerings, opened a brick-and-mortar store in Metro Manila in the Philippines and launched on one of Southeast Asia’s biggest eCommerce platforms.

“What really prompted me to start my business was my experience buying these products for myself. It was inconvenient and the shipping fees were expensive, and so I thought of reselling these products as a means to make it easier and cheaper for other people to buy these goods,” Cacal said.

At such a young age and with no experience in doing business, Cacal struggled at first to get her enterprise off the ground. “At the start I was quite embarrassed to message people I knew, to ask if they wanted to buy lip tints from me. I thought to myself, ‘Would this work out? Should I continue to do my reselling?’ I had a lot of doubts about it at the beginning,” she said.

Her persistence paid off. Word spread, orders multiplied and her customer base grew. To meet her customers’ needs, she branched out into selling clothes, mobile phones and accessories. In high school, she became the go-to person for those looking to buy trinkets and knickknacks. Customers would send her messages online and within a few days, they’d get what they ordered.

With demand growing, Cacal opened a brick-and-mortar store and hired an assistant to help with day-to-day operations. Still, she has to balance schoolwork with running her burgeoning business, juggling supplier meetings with homework and school deadlines. Her day usually starts at 8 a.m., which is when she deals with online orders before starting her day at school. There are days when the balancing act is tough, Cacal admitted, but she’s managed to cope, she said.

That can-do entrepreneurial spirit pushed Cacal to join the LazStart programme initiated in the Philippines last July. Though she had been in business for a few years, she wanted to learn more about growing her venture, especially on a big platform like Lazada.

“I heard about the LazStart programme through Lazada’s partnership with Treston International College, where I’m currently taking up an accountancy course. Since I already had an online business, I thought it would be a great opportunity to gain more knowledge to use for my store,” Cacal said.

The LazStart programme was established to introduce young entrepreneurs in high schools and universities to the intricacies and possibilities of eCommerce. “The programme combines basic concepts and principles of entrepreneurship, as well as modules on upskilling to adapt to digital platforms and help amp up knowledge to build a successful business online,” said Jacqueline Fuentes, chief customer officer of Lazada Philippines.

Cacal explains her enthusiasm for LazStart: “My experience with LazStart was great! It not only gave me an opportunity to meet like-minded people, but I really learned about how to be a better businesswoman and stand out among my competitors.

“LazStart helped me fully understand the online world and how eCommerce works. Before, I wasn’t really familiar with it. I just did my business the way I knew how – through messaging buyers and coordinating payments and logistics manually. The experience I have gained from the programme has really helped me to become a more efficient online seller, and provide better service for my customers.”

After completing the programme, Cacal decided to open her store, Jomarkat General Merchandise, on Lazada.

“I chose to onboard on Lazada because of the convenience it provides me as a seller,” she said, describing how the platform provided her with the operational and logistics support to launch and manage her eCommerce business. “Fulfilling orders has definitely become much easier and faster with Lazada. It takes worries off of booking couriers and making sure the right packages arrive to the right customers,” she said. The tools on the platform have also allowed her to build more trust and better relationships with her customers, she added.

Fuentes of Lazada Philippines said: “We’re happy to see how our programme has helped budding young entrepreneurs such as Katrina jumpstart their businesses online. Our goal with the LazStart programme is to continue to help educate the younger generation on the world of eCommerce, arming them with the skills and knowledge to be successful entrepreneurs in the digital space.”

Starting a business is difficult at any age, but Cacal believes that hard work really is the key to building a successful venture.

“My advice to others like me looking to start is to just do it now,” Cacal said. “There will never be a perfect time to begin, so you just have to trust the process and put in the work to make your business a success.”

Mina Cunanan is an associate in Lazada Philippines’ public relations team handling corporate affairs.

By LazBeat Staff
Jan. 18, 2021

Over the next five years, eCommerce will be a vital stimulant in pushing Indonesia’s digital economy to reach an estimated USD124 billion, and continuing comprehensive digital support, especially for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) will be essential to maintaining rapid growth, according to a recent Lazada study.

These and other findings were shared last month as part of a two-month study, “Accelerating Indonesia’s Digital Economy through eCommerce.” The advisory firm YCP Solidiance was commissioned to conduct the study with the support of the Indonesian eCommerce Association (iDEA).

“Lazada’s vision is to accelerate economic progress in Southeast Asia through commerce and technology,” said Lazada Indonesia’s chief marketing officer, Monika Rudijono. “Through this study, we want to better understand the journey and the building blocks of companies and MSMEs towards digital transformation as well as how we as an eCommerce platform can support these needs.”

While Indonesia’s digital economy is already on a rapid upward trajectory because of the nation’s surging internet penetration rate and the rapid adoption of smartphones, the study found that there are still challenges that prevent smaller players, such as MSMEs, from fully benefiting from and contributing to this burgeoning market. All the large corporations have shifted from analogue to digitised systems, with 90% applying technology as a lever to improve core business processes, but only 13% of MSMEs have begun integrating technology into their operations.

The need to rectify this digitalisation shortfall is especially pressing because MSMEs are the backbone of Indonesia’s economy, accounting for more than 98% of its companies. In 2019, these small but powerful businesses contributed more than US$1,055 billion – or 58% – of Indonesia’s GDP and provided jobs for 85% of its working population.

While more than 80% of the survey’s MSME respondents acknowledge that embracing online technology is important, many businesses face roadblocks on the path to digitalising, such as the lack of access to digital infrastructure, financing and technology know-how. All these are reinforced by a reluctance to change.

This is why eCommerce platforms are so critical in helping Indonesian MSMEs to digitise and digitalise. Such platforms provide access to a variety of operational support and resources. These platforms offer help in financing, logistics, innovation, marketing and market access, thus enabling MSMEs to tackle everyday issues that stymie their inclusion and advancement in the country’s digital economy. The study found that 92% of Indonesia’s digitalised MSMEs agree that eCommerce helped ease their logistics operations while 94% said sales improved as a result of digital commerce promotions. All those surveyed also agreed that their presence on eCommerce platforms enabled them to reach a national audience.

Indonesian eCommerce Association Chairman Bima Laga said that the use of eCommerce has grown so much in the last few years and that the pandemic accelerated online activities and businesses’ shift to digital operations. Laga added: “With the right policy and execution, eCommerce holds a significant role in driving MSMEs to grow together with eCommerce. For us, eCommerce and MSMEs are one entity if we talk about digital transformation.”

Aside from providing a stable digital infrastructure, eCommerce platforms can offer key building blocks to spur on MSMEs that have begun digitising. They can also help large corporations looking to fully integrate digital technologies into their core competencies and business strategies.

For example, to help companies attain such digital growth and all-round transformation, Lazada not only provides onboarding orientation for new merchants but also advanced training for those wanting to leverage the platform’s many features. Sellers can use the platform to access peer learning, mentorship and networking events. The platform also automates customer and seller services, guide sellers on data utilisation and offline-to-online conversion, and other key building blocks, all in one centralised location.

Rudijono said: “Through Lazada Indonesia’s technology and eCommerce ecosystem, we are ready to provide support for businesses, both large companies and MSMEs, so that they can develop their business in a sustainable manner and reach the next stage of digital transformation. We hope that through the synergy in accelerating this digital transformation, Indonesia’s digital economy system will continue to develop rapidly and contribute to supporting the Indonesian economy.”

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.

By Catherine Yang
Nov. 16, 2020

There are farms in Singapore. But they are squeezed into just one per cent of the total land area in urban Singapore.

And there are farmers. Like David Tan, who used to be an electrical engineer, and his partner, Daniel Wong, who used to be a software engineer. The pair are part of a rare species on this island which is sometimes called the Little Red Dot after how it appears on world maps.

Tan and Wong gave up their corporate lives as engineers to become farmers, but with the help of technology.

The adventure began more than a decade ago when Tan visited Singapore’s HortPark, which advertises itself as the first one-stop gardening lifestyle hub in Asia. He noticed how the plants there were watered by drip irrigation to get them acclimatised to the local weather before they were moved to Gardens by The Bay, which was then coming up on Marina Bay.

He was fascinated – that led to the founding of Red Dot Farm in 2008. He also met Wong, a software engineer, and other like-minded people with a keen interest in urban farming and how advancement in agriculture technology can help Singapore tackle food security concerns.

Now we need to plant some essential background here.  Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of what it needs to feed the more than 5.6 million people who live on this island.  When the coronavirus pandemic triggered a tsunami of lockdown measures, global food supply chains were thrown into disarray. The Singapore Food Agency needed to ensure the resilience of the country’s food supply. Barely a year old then, the agency set a “30 by 30” goal in March 2020, to produce 30 per cent of Singapore’s nutritional needs by 2030.

Around the same time, RedMart, Lazada’s online grocery arm, announced a partnership with 20 local farms, to sell their vegetables, eggs and seafood online, and help them to reach a nationwide market.

Red Dot Farm was RedMart’s first urban farm partner, when it joined the platform in 2017 as part of the farm’s expansion strategy. Both brands believe in disruption through technology and automation. So Red Dot Farm was more than ready to start selling its produce via RedMart, and experienced the efficiency and transparency in managing their business on the platform.

Once they launched on RedMart, their sales doubled. RedMart’s data enables the farm to determine what is popular product so that it can adapt its output to match local demand. Red Dot Farm spent the next few years increasing its local produce offerings, expanding the variety of vegetables offered, which now include water spinach, milk cabbage, Chinese kale and more.

Due to the pandemic, a nationwide Circuit Breaker in Singapore in early April forced many food and beverage establishments to close shop temporarily. That hit local farmers hard. They were oversupplied and couldn’t sell enough to make ends meet. Red Dot Farms quickly scaled up to supply RedMart and benefited from a spurt in demand from families cooking at home.

Tan said: “The partnership with RedMart has been instrumental to developing a sustainable distribution strategy for Red Dot’s business. Our sales doubled when we joined RedMart in 2017 and jumped by three times when Singapore entered the Circuit Breaker period. With RedMart, our business has more agility to meet both consumers’ demands and local produce surplus. We are fortunate to work with a supportive team in RedMart and look forward to taking on new challenges together.”.

Red Dot Farm nurtures, grows, and harvests crops including such favourites as red spinach and bok choy without using pesticides. At its base in north-western Singapore, it uses smart solutions such as the Internet of Things for farms and vertical spaces to grow high-quality vegetables. To ensure that plants receive the proper nutrients, Red Dot waters crops using a cost-efficient and smart system of drip irrigation. It harvests rainwater and storm water runoff in tanks that deliver water to the vegetables slowly but efficiently.

In addition, Red Dot Farm is cultivating a new generation of young urban farmers in Singapore and the region. Currently they operate farms in Singapore and Thailand, with plans to expand into Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines, China and even the Middle East. With the expansion of the farms, the founders intend to increase job opportunities, especially for youths looking to provide for their families.

“Even though these farms are overseas, they are Singapore-owned,” Wong said. “The idea is to set up many Red Dot farms in the region. We share our know-how and technology with the farmers so that they can grow high quality safe food for Singapore. The produce is sent back to Singapore to contribute to our food security.”

The farmers, some of them from poverty-stricken areas, also learn to better manage their cultivation and supply their villages with fresh produce that is safe for consumption.

Red Dot Farm has successfully shown how taking on a “glocal” strategy, with its business in different markets across Southeast Asia, has contributed to meeting Singapore’s food security target. They have expanded their offerings to include temperate fruit such as avocados, pomegranates and strawberries. These are grown regionally using the same planting protocols and stringent controls and then imported to Singapore. The business also continues its mission to assist local farmers in the region to improve their livelihoods.

Catherine Yang is a manager in the Lazada Singapore’s public relations team.

Featured photo above shows Daniel Wong (on the left) and David Tan (on the right), founders of Red Dot Farm, an urban farm that was the first to onboard RedMart, Singapore’s largest online grocer. PHOTO CREDIT: Red Dot Farm

By Haniko Martin Tio
Nov. 16, 2020

Just in time for Lazada’s 11.11 shopping festival this year, the revamp of the Alibaba Seller Centre that began in March was completed and ready to make onboarding, listing, managing, marketing and selling products more efficient for sellers.

Lazada initiated the changes, based on a survey with about 6,000 sellers online and interviews with 20 sellers individually that identified the pain points and areas where the process can be improved.  

“We heard our sellers’ feedback loud and clear, we will keep lowering the entrance barriers for eCommerce, especially for sellers venturing for the first time into it,” said Aidan An, executive vice president of seller product. “Our top priority is to optimize the user experience, from onboarding to product listing, to the day-to-day and campaign management process.”

For instance, by leveraging Alibaba’s technology, artificial intelligence (AI) can now automatically populate the product category and more key features to enhance the content quality, An explained. Sellers only need to upload a product image and leave AI to do the rest. That means they can now list their products about four times faster than before. Under a pilot project in Malaysia, simplifying the onboarding process boosted the number of new sellers by nearly 25 per cent within three months.

“I love the new design of the homepage, especially the shortcut icons. It saves time by allowing us to access all the frequently-used features,” said Lim Szu Xin, an authorised dealer of the Autobacs franchise, who has been selling autoparts and accessories on Lazada for about three years. She also has a physical store in Singapore. Selling online has helped her reach a younger demographic of customers, who are more digitally-savvy, Lim said.

Thai seller Thanaporn Chumphonphaisan’s family has been in the garment business for 30 years and owns a factory that makes jeans. Six years ago when revenue started sliding by 90 per cent every month, She closed all her physical stores and moved the business completely online. She reckoned that the revamped platform saves her about 80 per cent of her time every day, because she spends most of her time tracking logistics, such as pick-up status, and details of item in an order.

The mobile app homepage also underwent a significant redesign to better provide actionable data insights for Lazada sellers, so that they can quickly pivot to cater to consumers’ changing preferences – while on the go. The redesign has also boosted the stickiness of the app’s usage. At a later stage, a new order management page will be rolled out more widely. This will offer such handy features as a simplified summary dashboard and overview of logistics status.

“I quite like the product upload design,” said Rehiga Muktilana, a seller who is still in school.  The 19-year-old Indonesian student started selling small household items online only this year after seeing advertisements on social media and getting a recommendation from a friend. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, he said he has seen a demand for portable laptop tables, mirrors and plastic cups.

“The process is easy enough for someone like me who is just starting out the eCommerce journey,” said Muktilana, who aims to be financially independent so he can fund himself through high school and university. 

“Customer first is our core value. We aim to provide our Lazada sellers the best experience in Southeast Asia. That’s why we started this project,” said Gerald Tang, head of seller operations at Lazada. “We will continue to invest in simplifying our product, increasing sellers’ operation efficiency and making it easy for sellers to work with us. Fast onboarding, easy listing, clearer order management, simpler seller tools, and so on, we will continue to listen to our sellers and provide them better solutions, to empower our sellers for both mega campaigns and daily sales.”

Tio is a product operations manager who works with Lazada’s sellers

Featured photo above shows Thai seller Thanaporn Chumphonphaisan (top), owner of garment shop Saza, who went completely online and closed all her physical stores after steep declines in revenue, and Lim Szu Xin (bottom), an authorised dealer of an Autopacs franchise in Singapore, holding up one of the many  products she offers online. PHOTO CREDITS: Saza and Autopacs

By LazBeat Staff
Oct. 15, 2020

Growing up in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region famed for its tea and coffee, Lê Đức Minh and Lê Đức Duy watched their parents and other farmers harvest, dry and pack their tea leaves for sale. They remember how tourists would come from far and wide to the highlands city of Bao Loc to taste the tea, and how their mother would proudly tell customers what care and labour went into producing the quality tea they sold. How only the newest leaf buds were plucked, how these were withered and oxidised to retain their enzymes, so that they would retain their flavour and health benefits.

The brothers, now 26 and 25, have grown the family business, and sweetened it. They work with the region’s bee farmers and producers to meet the growing demand for honey and honey-related products. To reflect their mother’s dedication to quality, Đức Duy and Đức Minh consolidated all their products under a single brand name that honours her: “Cô Cự,” which means “Mrs Cự.”

“We named the brand after our mother to retain the traditional aspects of our business and remind ourselves to continue our parents’ dream and passion of selling authentic, quality products at affordable prices for the Vietnamese people. This is a passion shared by many of the local farmers here.” Đức Duy said.

The brothers have bigger dreams. They want everyone across the country to be able to buy and enjoy their products, whether they are in Bao Loc, or far away. Four years ago, their dreams took them online and into the eCommerce world.  About a year ago they joined LazMall because of its commitment to authenticity and the assurance of quality it offers consumers. Having successfully digitalised their business, they closed all 18 of their physical stores, and now sell their products exclusively online.

Going digital has revived and re-energised their family business, and helped to sustain the livelihoods of the highlands farmers, the brothers said.  Their story has had its ups and downs.

“About 10 years ago, we started to see an influx of products that mimicked ours, but at much lower prices and more inferior quality. The competition hurt our business and our parents had to scale it back. We started to lose some suppliers and customers,” Đức Minh said. “It was tough, seeing our parents’ and the local farmers’ businesses suffer. We decided we needed to look at doing things differently.”

Selling online was a brave new world. The brothers didn’t know how to begin. But they took courses from Lazada University and became involved in the Lazada Sellers’ Club to learn the tools of the trade, as well as tips from other sellers. During the last 11.11 mega shopping festival, the brothers received more than 2,000 orders a day for their honey products.

“Seeing trucks loaded with Cô Cự’s honey products being shipped out is probably one of the happiest moments of our lives,” Đức Duy said. 

During the pandemic, they’ve sold nearly 4,000 litres of honey a month. The brothers believe that as people became more concerned about health and wanting more nutritious products, they were naturally drawn to honey.

Using the same care and dedication to quality that their parents lavished on their tea, the brothers always ensure that their bees are in the pink of health and in the largest numbers before moving the colonies to the “blooming areas” to harvest the honey. The farm staff will also take care to scout for areas where flowers are in full bloom. The brothers use only Italian bees, as these  are thought to be not only highly resistant to disease but are amongst the most productive. This means that the golden yellow honey they produce does not need any artificial treatment and can be stored for more than three years without discolouring.

“The mountainous area of Bao Loc is a great environment for bees. Each package, each product, is a gift of nature to our customers’ health,” Đức Minh said.

Besides ensuring that their facilities comply with regulatory standards for food safety and hygiene, the brothers also work with exporters to ensure that their products meet international standards and are certified as such. This will position them well to one export their products. “Then the world may also learn about and enjoy the tea, coffee and honey from Bao Loc.”