Lazada – a dependable online mall

Dating back a couple of years ago, Ecommerce was never on the radar for local consumers. Everything changed when last year, Lazada Online Mall was launched in the Philippines. They are owned by the famous Samwer brothers and are operated under Rocket Internet. Aside from Philippines, it's a venture that is also launched in other South East Asia countries. They wanted to penetrate the market of South East Asia in Ecommerce. They are actually successful in other countries and wanted to replicate it in South East Asia.  Some countries outside South East Asia have already enjoyed online shopping since the early years if 2000s. Initially, the Ecommerce industry was really slow in growth in the country before they were launched. Not having enough online audience and accompanied by low number of credit card owner made Ecommerce suffer.

Not everyone have decent Internet connection. Among the population in the country only a fraction of them have credit cards. It is usually via credit card that online stores accept online payment. By offering Cash on Delivery or C.O.D. to the local online community, it helped everyone to try online shopping. In my own opinion, Cash on Delivery alternative payment method helped improve Ecommerce in the country since it allows the untapped market to become online customers. After they have arrived in the country, other offline businesses are not entering the online scene. As soon as the Philippines’ Online Shopping Mall showed the ropes to local businessmen, it triggered them to go online as well. Due to challenges before in Ecommerce, successfully penetrating the local market was almost impossible. Even if we had some online users who are capable to deal with online, almost none of them like shopping online. They are actually afraid of paying online as it exposes the confidential details. It made it difficult for Ecommerce to grow as how it should be. Classifieds online website were one of the first websites in the country.

The online scene was really challenging for the local online malls initially. Online malls really struggled in the local online community since there was no legit business that wants to enter the Ecommerce industry. In order for them to overcome this drought they invested on full blown online marketing efforts. They populated the local online space with their online marketing execution. This helped them in building there brand at a much a higher pace. They became one of the key players in their industry because of their all around shopping service. Customers can also avail free delivery availability on top of the Cash on Delivery alternative payment method. Any products or an item bought at Lazada comes with manufacturer's warranty similar to what traditional malls offer to their customers. There is so much in similar in offline and online shopping that the difference of what you will be getting, as a customer will be overlooked already. It just shows how amazingly they transformed their online store as the leading online mall in the Philippines.