Entrepreneurs Join Hands with eCommerce Leader Lazada for Southeast Asia’s Biggest Shopping Event

Aspiring entrepreneurs and small- and medium-sized companies are joining hands with eCommerce leader Lazada to reach out to as many as 560 million consumers in Southeast Asia, ahead of the region’s biggest shopping event Online Revolution 2017.

Since its inception in 2012, Lazada has grown to become the number one online shopping and selling destination in the region. Today, more than 135,000 vetted sellers have put their products on Lazada’s controlled marketplace, more than double the number last year. They range from home-based businesses that sell self-made handicraft in Surabaya, Indonesia, to craft beer makers and wine distributors in Singapore, or designers of local fashion wear in Malaysia.

Lazada is hoping to help more businesses go digital and build up their online presence so that they can expand in the six Southeast Asian countries that Lazada operates in. These are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. This will ensure businesses can boost sales in the booming eCommerce market in Southeast Asia, which is expected to grow by 32 per cent every year to US$88 billion in 2025, according to a report by Google and Singapore investment company Temasek.

The digital push comes ahead of Lazada’s annual Online Revolution shopping event. Themed “Shop the Universe”, the online shopping extravaganza will take off on 11.11 and land on 12.12 across the region.

Equipping sellers to grow their businesses

In the run-up to Online Revolution, a series of conferences and events for sellers have been held to familiarize them with the busiest shopping season in the region, and how best to grow their business on Lazada’s platform. So far, more than 5,500 sellers attended these events. Close to 1,000 are expected to attend upcoming seller events in Vietnam, the Philippines and Shenzhen.

To help equip sellers with the tech know-how to grow their business, Lazada has a suite of online tutorials, webinars and workshops to teach them how to sell on the online platform, deck out their online “store front” and use data analytics to attract more visitors. Lazada has also developed a network of service providers to support sellers on various aspects of their online selling operations, so sellers can focus on what they do best to provide the best customer experience to consumers in Southeast Asia. The cherry on the cake? Sellers who sign up with Lazada and manage to generate sales this month get a shot at being featured prominently on Lazada’s homepage and app during Online Revolution 2017. This is as good as getting prominent window display of the shopping malls in Southeast Asia.

Cashing in on Online Revolution

Among those who are hoping to cash in on the shopping spree again is Malaysian business owner Wilson Siew, who signed up with Lazada just days before Online Revolution last year. Even before the sale kicked off, he chalked up 3,000 orders of Xiaomi handsets and gadgets. This time round, Mr Siew said he is expecting to double, or even triple his sales. “Going online is important for us to reach out to more consumers throughout the country and partnering Lazada has given us a lot more exposure. It is very easy to navigate through the website, allowing us to carry out our transactions very quickly,” said Mr Siew.

Lazada’s Group Chief Marketplace Officer Aimone Ripa di Meana said Lazada wants to create an ecosystem in which merchants can expand or start their companies online seamlessly.

“Not everyone is an expert in selling online and as the eCommerce leader in the region, we at Lazada are committed to eliminating as many hurdles for aspiring entrepreneurs so that they can grow with us and serve the millions of customers,” said Mr di Meana. “People see us as an eCommerce app but we are far more than that. We are a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to grow their business. Helping them grow and contributing to the economy is a far more rewarding mission,” he added.