Lazada expands reach of international merchants in Southeast Asia

• To identify and nurture the top 300 brands among all cross-border operations
• Looking into launching new categories, offering bulky products like furniture

SOUTHEAST Asian e-commerce company Lazada is boosting its cross-border operations for international brands and merchants to expand their reach to consumers, as the platform's cross-border sales quadrupled over the last three years.

Among the moves are to bring onboard quality international brands and identify and nurture the top 300 brands among all cross-border sellers in each of the six countries that Lazada operates in, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

This will allow the specially selected brands to grow their business and enjoy benefits such as higher visibility of their products when users search and browse the site. Also new is a refreshed selection of cross-border assortment on the Lazada platform.

"We want to serve as that bridge between our quality cross-border merchants and some 560 million consumers in Southeast Asia," said Lazada Group's co-president Jing Yin (pic), who was speaking on March 7 in Shenzhen at Lazada's first cross-border seller conference of 2019.

"Backed by the best expertise and infrastructure from Alibaba, as well as our in-depth understanding of Southeast Asia, we are able to equip our cross-border sellers and brands with the knowledge and tools to ride this massive growth in the region," Yin told more than 1,000 merchants, who also heard from other Lazada executives on how the platform will help them to better reach customers in Southeast Asia.

The rise in e-commerce spending in Southeast Asia reflects the increasing demand for cross-border products as the GMV from Lazada's cross-border category grew by 4.6 times between 2016 and 2018.

According to industry estimates, the booming e-commerce market in Southeast Asia is on track to hit US$240 billion by 2025, surpassing previous estimates by US$40 billion.

One of the key initiatives announced at the conference was a revamped Global Collection. It is a dedicated channel to showcase assortment by Lazada's cross-border merchants from all around the world.

Global Collection 2.0 taps on algorithm-based search functions to filter the wide cross-border assortment to spotlight sellers offering popular and good quality products so customers can find them easily.

With the new Global Collection, customers will get their parcels much faster. They can get their parcels within seven working days from the day they place their orders if they choose the standard shipping option.

To give sellers a bigger boost, Lazada also offers them more opportunities to better engage and serve customers through new campaigns and equip them with better tools and insights to sell more effectively on Lazada.

For instance, sellers will get a weekly report on the most-searched words and items on Lazada to enable them to better cater to the evolving wants and needs of consumers.

First launched in 2013, Lazada's cross-border business has grown to become one of the most diverse marketplaces featuring brands and merchants from all over the world.

The top five markets which cross-border sellers come from are mainland China, Hong Kong, Korea, the United States and Europe, with women's fashion, home & living and kids' fashion ranking among the most popular cross-border items.

Propelled by Alibaba's tech infrastructure and a wide logistics network, Lazada is looking into launching new categories, offering bulky products like furniture and home appliances.

Last year, Lazada set a new record, with its last-mile delivery fleet across Southeast Asia delivering more than one million parcels in a day. To deal with the biggest-ever spike in demand, Lazada's 100+ logistics partners, including third-party shipment providers, also boosted their delivery services to get purchases in customers' hands quickly.

Lazada also chartered three planes to deliver more than 200 tonnes of parcels from cross-border sellers to shoppers in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand in time for the holiday season.