Lazada sees double digit growth in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Lazada, Southeast Asia’s biggest online and shopping platform, expects its Philippine business to grow by double digit and outpace the growth of the market this year as it takes advantage of the rising demand for fashion and beauty products from the young female segment and increasing number of shoppers outside Metro Manila.

“I think we are going to continue to grow faster than the market,” Lazada Group chief executive officer Pierre Poignant said in an interview, citing growth areas in the Philippines.

Among the growth areas seen in the Philippines is the young female segment purchasing fashion and beauty products.

Poignant said the segment has seen massive growth over the past 12 to 18 months.

Another growth area in the Philippines is the rising number of shoppers outside Metro Manila.

“Traditionally, Manila is the engine of growth for the Philippines. But now, we see a lot of growth from Tier 3 cities, small villages,” he said.

To take advantage of the growth areas and grow its business in the country, he said Lazada intends to continue to invest in infrastructure and innovation to better serve both merchants and shoppers.

In terms of investment, he said Lazada is currently scouting for a site for a new warehouse north of the greater Manila area.

At present, Lazada has warehouses in Laguna, Cebu and Davao.

Poignant said Lazada would also invest in technology by bringing new tools and services to help merchants and sellers grow.

“We already provide more than 20 tools to our merchants. We will continue to do this. Our goal is how to digitize economy and empower merchants, entrepreneurs and brands,” he said.

Last March, Lazada launched tools to help both big and small brands and sellers to achieve higher sales and have better engagement with customers.

The new tools include a marketing solutions package and business advisor dashboard to help bring more traffic to brands’ storefronts and near real-time information to enable faster decisions; as well as store builder which allows brands to customize their storefronts on the platform.

Lazada has also made available in-app live streaming, news feed, and in-app consumer games to brands to help them have higher engagement with customers.

Last year, Lazada launched LazMall, a virtual mall within the platform which links customers to international and local brands, as well as authorized distributors and offers premium shopping experience by selling only 100 percent authentic products,  providing 15-day hassle-free return, and next-day delivery.

Poignant said Lazada is hopeful more merchants and brands would join the platform as they see the advantages of such tools to their business.

“Today, we are on-boarding one new brand on LazMall every day in the Philippines. It is picking up. We are calling all brands in the Philippines to join,” he said.