Lazada PH: Would you go traditional or online in shopping?

Internet is becoming more sophisticated as years go by. Businesses have entered the Internet platform as well. This includes shopping online, which was a stagnant industry in the Philippines just a few years back. However, things have turned drastically in Ecommerce. It is now an accepted online option for most of us.  Competition in online malls started to show up and online shopping started to be noticed by local online users ever since Lazada came into the picture in the Philippines. Surprisingly, the local industry of Ecommerce in country was really struggling prior to their arrival. Not everyone found online shopping as a helpful option for addressing the customer’s shopping needs then. Before, local online users prefer visiting local online classified websites when they want to buy something in second hand condition.

A customer would typically go to traditional offline malls when they want to buy something that is new. We were actually raised that way wherein we go to traditional offline malls when we need to buy something. Time and money can actually be saved if only local consumers choosing online shopping over traditional offline shopping. So why do we need to choose online shopping nowadays? They can do online shopping wherever they find most suiting for them. It can actually save consumers more money on gas expense since they don't need to go location of traditional malls. It is one of the issues that The Philippines’ Online Shopping Mall was facing when they established their online mall website in the country. The goal for them is to actually tap the untapped market online in the country. Since most of the populations are not credit cardholders, only few can pay online conventionally. There's also a factor that most of us don't trust online transactions.

Moreover, online frauds and scams are pretty known in online by the local online community. We are now entering the era in the Philippines where Ecommerce is making a mark. They contributed dearly to the Ecommerce industry in less than two years of existence in the country. They just recently showed up on TVC on top local channels in the country during its primetime, which shows how credible they are.

How were they able to come up with a solution to break the Ecommerce limitation in the Philippines? They introduced Cash on Delivery or C.O.D. as an alternative payment method to their customers. It's a online payment option that is not offered by online stores usually. Any online business finds this payment method very risky from their end. Orders are not actually required to be paid upfront by customers with Cash on Delivery payment method. What makes this convenient is that customers can pay Lazada after their orders are actually handed over to them. Scams won’t likely to occur since customers will get to keep their money up until they can see their orders delivered in real time. The reason for this is to ensure customers that they won't be scammed if they deal with them.