Lazada sees opportunities in upcountry expansion

The company has set up two subsidiaries: Lazada Express, the logistics arm; and helloPay, the mobile payment arm.

Having logistics and mobile payment services will help Lazada facilitate its customers and boost sales.

In June, Lazada relocated its local representative office to a new facility to support its existing 800 employees here. The company has 6,000 employees located in Southeast Asia.

“Thailand and Indonesia are the two largest e-commerce markets in terms of sales for Lazada in Southeast Asia,” said Alessandro Piscini, chief executive of Lazada Thailand.

Lazada has an online footprint in six countries in the region.

However, Mr Piscini said Thailand’s online retail industry remains tiny, accounting for less than 1% of the total retail market, compared with 10% each in China, Japan, South Korea and France.

“We believe Thailand will soon grow at the same pace as other developed markets, helped by an expected surge in mobile data users because of the arrival of 4G commercial service nationwide,” he said.

Lazada sees a strong opportunity for online shopping upcountry because the number of retail stores there remains small, Mr Piscini said.

As of Nov 30, Lazada’s sales from the provinces accounted for 60% of its annual gross merchandise value (GMV), worth 10 billion baht.

“Thailand’s sales represented 25% of Lazada’s total sales in Southeast Asia,” he said.

Lazada recorded GMV of US$1.1 billion from the six Southeast Asian countries, with a combined 8 million buyers.

Lazada Thailand provides more than 2 million product items from 7,000 online merchants on its website. The top three best-selling categories are health, beauty, and home and living.

Mr Piscini said Lazada had expanded its warehouse operation by 60% to support the business growth.

Lazada and a group of partners announced the Online Festival yesterday, to be held from Dec 10-12. The company will offer discounts of up to 90% across 14 product categories.