Lazada ramps up efforts to boost seller and brand growth

Singapore

ALIBABA-backed e-commerce firm Lazada on Thursday announced a series of products and services aimed at accelerating the growth of its brands and sellers, and resolving the pain points that merchants face in marketing, branding and sales.

New solutions and an improved business dashboard will be launched to direct more traffic to sellers' storefronts and generate near real-time information. This will help merchants make faster and better decisions to sell more efficiently, said Lazada in a statement.

LazMall brands and sellers will also be able to take part in a series of campaigns curated by Lazada, with these drives aimed at boosting their brand image and engage customers.

LazMall is a dedicated space for shoppers to get access to trusted, high-quality brands and products.

New tech tools such as in-app live streaming, news feed and in-app games will be rolled out. Sellers will also be able to customise their storefronts.

Pierre Poignant, chief executive officer of Lazada, said: "No seller is too small to aspire, and no brand is too big to be a super e-business. That is why we are thrilled to roll out super-solutions to help our brands and sellers become more nimble in digitising their businesses and to better reach customers."

The initiatives were announced in conjunction with the firm's seventh anniversary celebration.

Lazada also formalised partnerships with 12 global lifestyle, tech and fashion companies. The collaboration enables these brands to tap Lazada's tech and logistics infrastructure and e-commerce expertise to strengthen their online presence.

The firm inked memoranda of understanding with Chinese smartphone manufacturer Realme and electronics brand Coocaa; one other memorandum was signed with Huawei earlier this month.

Mr Poignant said the next three years will see a lot more integration of the online world with the offline one. For instance, Lazada has implemented drop-off points for sellers to send their packages to logistics branches.

The company also co-organises events with brands called Super Brand Day, where pop-up stores are set up and exclusive products and offers are dangled in front of consumers.

Social media and online sales elements are included to drive user acquisition.

That said, Lazada has no plans to follow in the footsteps of US giant Amazon and open physical stores.

Jing Yin, president of the Lazada Group, said the company will double down on investing in logistics, tech and payments to increase efficiency and create long-term value.

The company has 31 warehouses across the region and will open its largest fulfilment centre in Thailand this year.

It also has high hopes for what it calls "shoppertainment", a combination of shopping and entertainment. To this end, Lazada will offer shoppers content to consume, in the form of live-streams and games on its app.

"That is how we believe we will gain the eyeballs of South-east Asia," said Mr Yin.