During an interview last year, Lazada Group CEO Maximilian Bittner told Enterprise Innovation that the challenges in setting up general merchandize destination websites in Southeast Asia, are huge. However, the opportunity is equally big, given the steady rise of mobile phone ownership and growing economies in the region.
Since the launch of the e-commerce sites in five Southeast Asian countries in 2012 - Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam - the company has been striving to address the specific needs each market.
Balci is pursuing the same track in the Philippines with its strong focus on the customer experience.
“We started investing in mobile early. When we came to the Philippines, we knew that despite mobile penetration being low, it is increasing very high,” Lazada said.
One of the important issues on online shopping the company has addressed in the Philippines is the low penetration of credit cards.
By offering to accept cash on delivery, it has allowed shoppers with no credit cards to shop online. Currently, majority of its customers said in a recent survey that paying for purchases upon delivery is what they like most about shopping on Lazada, followed by option to pay on installment and other flexible payment schemes. It has also thrown in other perks such as extensive warranty commitments and free returns.
In a price sensitive market, another strategy is providing dedicated deals and discounts on the mobile platform.
“Everyday, we curate a group of products and we offer them at the lowest prices on mobile in order to give the customer an incentive to use this new way of shopping,” Balci said.
This is on top of the big deals that the online shopping mall regularly provides customers such as the mobile power sale this week.