Thanks to Lazada, online shopping caught up fast in the country

I was fooling around Google the other day and chanced upon a Wikipedia entry about Compuserve the company that built the first electronic mall back in the 1980’s light years ahead of our very own Philippine online shopping mall lazada.com.ph. During that time people perhaps never even thought that they will be shopping in virtual stores at the comfort of their own homes twenty years later. It amazes me how fast the concept of online shopping has caught up in our local market considering that we are still a developing country. It is very interesting how fast people got into the idea of getting online and purchasing things from stores that they can’t even get into. For a lot of people, online shopping has simply become a way of life.

And why not, online shopping, acquiring services online and doing other things on the Internet saves time, money and effort on the consumer’s part. The Internet, on top of those benefits I have mentioned also offers a greater range of selections when it comes to products. It also lets consumers do their own fact finding and research rather than solely depend on what the product salesman has to say about the item the consumer is buying hence more freedom, more independence that results to improved quality of life in general. The internet is basically a very tough opponent to beat if you own a business and does not want to get in on the Internet bandwagon. To survive and stay afloat, it’s either you join it or get squashed by its gargantuan force.

Rocket-Internet’s introduction of Lazada to the Philippine market has got a lot to do with the general population’s open armed adoption of the idea of purchasing things online. This company is one of the first companies in its online retail category to make online shopping as accessible and convenient as it is as of the current time. They pulled off the accessibility factor by introducing better services like more alternative ways to pay, faster delivery times, great deals and promotions and lesser information requirements when signing up for a new online shopping account. Take for example the cash on delivery payment service that Lazada offers, this payment service alone opened up the opportunity for the company to reach new market frontiers particularly the class C and D segments. They were able to tap into those markets with the cash on delivery payment option alone because it is much easier for most people. Previously, when there were no alternative payment options such as cash on delivery, the only way was to go through the credit card route, an online payment method that is obviously not as accessible for most people unlike cash on delivery. Like what I have said, online shopping has become a way of life; it levels out the playing field for consumers and vendors alike because you can do it anytime, anywhere. The market is still developing and Lazada is definitely going to be on the forefront of local e-commerce progress.