Sunday, September 29, 2013

Lazada: Ecommerce boom in the Philippines


Ecommerce initially had a slot start in South East Asia. It struggled mainly because the market was still raw and the technology doesn’t support it yet. I mean, majority of the consumers during the early 2000 didn’t have sufficient technology support for the standard means that Ecommerce requires. It also doesn’t help that the economy for most countries in this region is not doing well unlike nowadays. Actually, Ecommerce only started when a lot of the local online competitors slowly showed up after Lazada came into the picture while the online shopping trend begun in the Philippines. Looking a few years back when they weren't around online, Ecommerce was a flat industry in the Philippines. Not everyone found online shopping as a helpful option for addressing their shopping needs then. When local online users want to buy something, they prefer cheaper second hand items on local classified websites.

Brand new seekers conventionally go to traditional offline malls when they want to buy something. We were actually raised that way wherein we go to traditional offline malls when we need to buy something. With online shopping, local online consumers can actually save their time and money. How can online shopping actually give us more benefits?  Online shopping can be conducted wherever the customer pleases. Travel expense can now be saved since customers will no longer need to visit traditional mall locations. This is a shopping woe that the Philippines’ Online Shopping Mall wanted to solve for the local online customers in the country. It's also challenging for them to be able to tap the untapped market in online of the Philippines. Since most of the population are not credit cardholders, only few can pay online conventionally. It can't be helped that most of us questions the reliability of online transactions. For most of us, we are aware that in online transactions, frauds and scams may also be possible. We are now entering the era in the Philippines where Ecommerce is making a mark.

Lazada is just over one year of operation but they managed to make an impact on the Ecommerce industry. One proof to realize that they are as legit as they can be is they can be seen on TVC during primetime from top local TV networks in the country. A solution was formulated by them in order to break the Ecommerce silence in the country. What they did is they offered Cash on Delivery or simple called C.O.D. as an alternative payment method. Online malls usually don't offer this kind of alternative payment method to online customers. This payment method is risky from a business standpoint for most online business owners. Orders are not actually required to be paid upfront by customers with Cash on Delivery payment method. Customers will only need to pay in cash once their orders arrive at their doorstep. It's a worry-free setup since customers can hold their money until their orders arrives at their home. The reason for this is to ensure customers that they won't be scammed if they deal with them.

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