Lazada Philippines: Taking the Local E-commerce Industry to Greater Heights

Reports about our local economy getting stronger and better are certainly wonderful to hear. For the longest time, we were hearing nothing but awful news about the global economy being down. It didn’t help that investors were wary of putting some of their eggs in our country’s basket because of political unrest and chaos in certain parts of the Philippines. Now, it appears to be that a lot of foreign investors are ready to look past the negative and focus more on the positive effects of investing in our country. Take for example Lazada Philippines. It is an online department store from a Germany-based group called Rocket Internet. It had just celebrated its first anniversary in the local e-commerce market and, in such a short span of time, has garnered such a huge following nationwide. Obviously, they have their PR machinery and media contacts that help spread the news about their awesomeness but at the heart of it all, their popularity stems from the fact that they are doing the right thing: innovating the current local online shopping scene all the while offering great service and products. 

How do you define great service? For me, in its simplest, most basic meaning, it is when business operators know how to take care of their customers ALL THE TIME. With Lazada Philippines, one look at their policies will show you just how focused they are on their customers.It is very uncommon here in the Philippines to have a company that is pro-customer unlike in the US where businesses value their customers’ rights. 

For one, they took a stand against the annoying and unfair No Return, No Exchange policy. They are offering a seven-day return policy on all purchases no questions asked. Just follow their guidelines if the item delivered to you is incorrect or you need to return a defective product. Actually, this policy also applies if you have had a change of mind upon seeing the item. Just make sure the items are unused and complete with original packaging and tags. 

 They also have free delivery available for orders worth PHP 1,000 and up and if your purchases didn’t amount to that, you will just have to pay a very minimal shipping fee of PHP 55 if address is within Manila and PHP 99 for addresses outside of Manila which are very easy on the pocket. An extra charge for large and heavy items might be added but worry not as it will be shown in the product page and will be computed once you hit checkout. We should have had something like this online store years and years ago. It would’ve saved me a lot of trouble as I have had my fair share of bad experiences from years of doing online shopping. 

Lazada Philippines, now known as the Philippines' Online Shopping Mall, is giving us a lot of hope for the future of the local e-commerce industry. It is a welcome break from the slightly backward online shopping scene here (read: Facebook and Instagram accounts turned into e-shops). I can only hope that more and more investors and local entrepreneurs follow their footsteps. Otherwise, they might as well step back and prepare to watch as this online department store import takes its throne as the industry leader.