By LazBeat Staff
Nov. 16, 2020
In a year that has seen Covid-19 create unprecedented challenges across all sectors of society, Lazada Group’s 11.11 Shopping Festival was designed to give merchants and consumers alike a reason to spread joy, said Lazada co-president and regional head of commercial, Jessica Liu.
At the Alibaba Global Pulse Press Conference on Oct 29 in the lead-up to 11.11, Liu offered an overview of the highly anticipated shopping event. She also explained how Lazada, Alibaba’s flagship eCommerce service in Southeast Asia, was fully committed to empowering micro, small and medium-sized local businesses to find new opportunities through e-commerce, while also helping international brands connect and engage with consumers from this diverse and dynamic region.
Liu sees eCommerce as the future of Southeast Asia. “Building a trusted, safe and reliable platform for consumers is our number one priority,” she said. “We have an unrivalled advantage in the region because our digital commerce infrastructure is powered by Alibaba’s technology, and our fulfillment and logistics capabilities are comprehensive and advanced in the region,” she added.
11.11 Performance
In the lead up to 11.11 and during the platform’s biggest retail event, Lazada’s capabilities were on full display. It is well known that 11.11. drives massive order volumes. And this year Lazada surpassed its 11.11 shopping festival records, with more than 40 million users and 400,000 brands and sellers participating in the one-day sale event across the region. The majority of these brands and sellers were local small-and-medium enterprises, and of these, more than 8,000 of them garnered over USD10,000 in sales in a single day. This yearly 24-hour shopping feast has been a golden opportunity for sellers to recover and regain growth in a year when retail has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic.
LazMall, Lazada’s premium platform for authentic brands and the region’s largest virtual mall, also broke record by exceeding its 11.11 sales performance last year in under half a day. It welcomed four new joiners, including Tefal, to its list of 26 brands who made the ranks of its LazMall Millionaires Club, which are brands that achieved sales exceeding USD1 million in one day. Electronics brand Samsung also became one of the first two brands to hit over USD10 million in sales.
Data insights from the eCommerce platform proved especially helpful to participating brands and businesses in the wake of new consumption patterns shaped by pandemic restrictions. For example, demand surged for health-related products, children’s toys, home décor, kitchenware and home-office equipment once lockdowns were imposed across the region. That prompted many sellers to stock up on these categories in the run-up to 11.11, Liu said at the Oct 29 conference.
This year’s blowout 11.11 success was also a shining example of Lazada’s immensely successful “Shoppertainment” strategy, a stellar blend of retail and entertainment. A month earlier, Lazada had kicked off its 11.11 campaign by announcing South Korean actor Lee Min Ho as its first regional brand ambassador – a move that underlined its continuing commitment to bringing A-list entertainment to shoppers on its platform. Not only did the mega sales event feature more than 200 million shopping deals, it also exploited to the utmost Alibaba’s digital technologies to create highly personalised and engaging consumer experiences. These ranged from data-driven product-discovery journeys and exclusive 11.11 catalogues to a star-studded show and an interactive game that allows users to win redeemable rewards worth close to USD2 million.
By launching its new game Happy Bounce in the lead-up to 11.11, Lazada saw increased user engagement of over 3.5 times as consumers spent more than 70 million minutes playing Lazada’s in-app LazGames titles. Along with Fun Farm, both new games saw players collect more than 20 million vouchers in 24 hours. LazLive, Lazada’s livestreaming technology, gathered over 11 million views on Nov 11 alone and saw more sellers adopt the service, which resulted in a 380% year-on-year growth in GMV generated from their sessions. In Vietnam, the platform’s Super Show gala event attracted nearly 10 million views across all channels, including TV networks, YouTube and LazLive.
By leveraging all of Lazada’s digital innovations and delivery capabilities, Liu said at the Oct 29 event that this year’s 11.11 would empower sellers and delight customers across Southeast Asia.
“Together with local businesses and renowned brands, we have curated the best-value deals for the eighth edition of our 11.11 Shopping Festival that will no doubt bring non-stop happiness to our shoppers in the region so they can treat themselves and their loved ones this year,” she said.
Looking at the record-breaking results that Lazada’s 11.11 has achieved, Liu’s words rang true for businesses and shoppers throughout the region.
Featured photo above shows Lazada’s Jessica Liu on the panel with other Alibaba executives, including (from left to right) Alibaba Group’s chief marketing officer Chris Tung, president of Tmall import and export Alvin Liu and the general manager of Cainiao Global Supply Chain James Zhao.