Thursday, September 26, 2013

Lazada Philippines: Radical change of online users


I remember the days when I only go online to conduct a research. This was the time when Internet was just starting to get noticed by online users. I never imagine that it would reach to a point where it will become part of our daily activities nowadays. I believe it first got its true value when Internet translated communication to their platform. We were no longer required to pay a lot of money to connect long distance to our loved ones. It was the initial reason on how Internet started to become part of our lifestyle. Eventually, Ecommerce arrived online. However, it was only available to few countries since their technologies were already capable of supporting online transactions. As for our country, online shopping started to rise ever since Lazada Online Mall was launched in the country and other online stores showed up from everywhere. Ecommerce was actually slow in growth a year before they have arrived in the Philippines. The local online users never thought of online shopping as their alternative option in shopping in the past. Local online users usually visited local online classified websites when they are looking for a second hand item.

Traditional mall are usually the go-to source of customers who wants to buy brand new items. Actually, it is expected from us since we grew up shopping on traditional offline malls by our parents. We actually need to realize that online shopping can reserve our time and money. So what can we get from online shopping? Local customers can actually shop anywhere you want with online shopping. It can actually save consumers more money on gas expense since they don't need to go location of traditional malls. This was the greatest challenge of Lazada when they launched here in the Philippines. It was actually hard for any online mall to tap the untapped online community of the country. Not being able to pay online since most of the population are credit cardholders at all. It's quite hard for the local online consumers to trust online deals right away.

It's no secret that we know the existence of online scams and frauds. The local Ecommerce industry in the country is now expanding. Despite only having more than a year of operation under its belt, Lazada had already established its brand on the local online scene. To prove that they are a legit online mall, they were seen on TVC on top local channels at primetime. Given the limitations in Ecommerce, how did they solve it? They introduced Cash on Delivery or C.O.D. as an alternative payment method to their customers. This is a payment method that is actually rare to see available in any online business.

Actually, it's a payment method that is quite risky for any online business. Payments are not usually required right away with payment method. Cash payments can be done by customers once Lazada delivers their orders at their very home. Customers can hold into their money up until their orders arrived at their address. The intention is to make sure that their customers will be at ease with their online shopping with them.

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