Philippines eyed as next largest market for e-commerce firm Lazada

Lazada Group, an online commerce company founded by the world’s largest Internet incubator, is eyeing to keep a double-digit growth trend for its sales and customer-based in the Philippines, which is well-positioned to become the company’s largest market.

Part of Rocket Internet, Lazada’s e-commerce websites are present in six countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore.

Lazada Philippines Chief Executive Officer Inanc Balci said in an interview with Business Bulletin that the group is eyeing to make the Philippines its largest market out of the six countries it is present in.

“I want to make it [the Philippines] the first,” Balci said.As of now, Balci said Lazada Group’s largest market is Indonesia, while the Philippines only stand at second.

“The e-commerce is growing in the Philippines. We have the 80 percent market share in the general retail e-commerce in the Philippines. [Here] we intend to be the market leader. I would like to grow faster. Sales is growing,” he added.

In September alone, Balci said the company had recorded 37.7 million visits, significant number of which had actually booked their orders. “This significantly increased over the years,” he further said.

Next month, Lazada Philippines will launch its three-year-old annual online shopping event that highlights big discounts on 200 major brands, which includes Canon, Nikon, Nescafe, Epson, Microsoft, Asus, Acer, Lenova, Milo, Pampers, Chuckie, Nestle, Unilever, among others.

As of now, 1 million brands are being sold through Lazada and this should increase before the end of the year.

“From 100,000 in 2012, we now have 1 million brands. That’s going to increase by several times moving forward. We proactively approach the brands,” he further said.

From November 11 until December 12, online shoppers can avail of as much as 95-percent discount from their favorite brands in Lazada through Online Revolution.

With its increased share in mobile app users, it is expected that this year will definitely break last year’s record in terms of online traffic for Lazada in the Philippines.