I’ve got to admit it, 11.11 and 12.12 were probably the least productive days in the office.
While doing our work, my colleagues and I had multiple tabs of our favourite online stores open on our browsers.
Even during lunch, we were sharing discount codes and talking about what we would buy from our favourite brands!
It was then that my colleagues shared that they were most excited for Lazada’s Surprise Boxes.
Out of curiosity, I went to Lazada to check it out, to see what’s causing them so much excitement.
I found out the site had timed sales every two hours that offered Branded Surprise Boxes from Razer, Etude House, and Acer.
The boxes contained $100 worth of products for only $29—which were a steal!
But when my colleagues and I tried to ‘camp’ for one of the brands’ Surprise Box, it seemed like it was sold out almost immediately.
Thinking that it was an error, the skeptic in me wondered if there were really that many people snapping up all those deals.
However, when Lazada sent us some of the stats that they gathered from their month-long Online Revolution sales, my doubts were immediately cleared.
A Successful Revolt (Figuratively)
The campaign ended with a record-breaking USD$251 million (approximately S$337 million) in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), which more than doubled last year’s 12.12 sale.
It also shattered Lazada’s 11.11 record of USD$123 million (approximately S$166 million), set just a month ago.
This year is the sixth edition of Lazada’s Online Revolution campaign, a strong testament of its popularity in price-conscious Southeast Asia.
Shoppers came from big cities like Bangkok and Jakarta, to destinations like Alabel in the Philippines, Jayapura in Papua Indonesia, and Điện Biên province in Vietnam.
Lazada partnered up with 3,000 unique brands including some exclusive partnerships with Apple, Xiaomi, and Unilever.
The partnership with Apple makes Lazada the only eCommerce platform in Southeast Asia that offers consumers the full range of official Apple products.
This emphasised their ability to provide unprecedented access to shoppers, no matter where they are.
On top of these partnerships, Lazada also recently launched the Taobao Collection service that offers a “curated selection of international fashion, tech and lifestyle items”.
The high volume of orders saw the eCommerce company chartering flights to Indonesia and Thailand to deliver the goods—a total of about 1.8 million international items were ordered.
This event also affected local marketplace sellers; about 50,000 of them had an influx of sales.
Stats also revealed that the website had 167 million visits from consumers.
Over at Lazada Malaysia, it entered into a partnership with Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia, making this partnership the first of its kind.
12 limited edition Volkswagen Beetles costing RM1,121,121 each, sold exclusively on the platform, were snapped up in 20 minutes. The cars come in two designs: the Herbie 53 and the Hot Bug.
One car enthusiast drove away in a Volkswagen Beetle in just 26 seconds after Lazada Malaysia’s Online Revolution flagged off at midnight.
The Online Revolution campaign took only three weeks to happen and started on 12 December 2012, as Lazada CEO Max Bittner was inspired by Alibaba’s smashing 11.11 Global Shopping Festival in China the same year.
Lazada’s own expertise and foundation, coupled with “help from parent Alibaba Group’s online know-how, technology and deep ecosystem”, propelled the 12.12 Online Revolution’s success to astronomic heights.
Changing The Game With Retail-tainment
Lazada became the first eCommerce platform to combine offline entertainment and eCommerce, hosting live interactive TV shows featuring celebrities and playing interactive games on popular channels in Indonesia and Thailand.
These events were streamed ‘live’ on Lazada TV to entertain consumers and introduce brands and products in the respective markets.
In Thailand, this move was targeted at millennials who were recorded to spend more than 7 hours a day online, and were found to “like to spend and are eager for promotions” but avoid advertising, according to the Bangkok Post.
It also reported that shopping as an online activity in Thailand rose from eighth place in 2016 to fifth this year.
According to Forbes, the 12.12 sales became such a hit that Indonesia even designated the day to be its National Online Shopping Day, or Harlbonas.
Besides targeting each region’s consumer behaviour, Lazada also encourages and enables “vendors to sell abroad and develop cross-border strategies” with the help of Alibaba.
Bittner added, “The Online Revolution has just begun and it will continue to benefit consumers as well as the entire eCommerce ecosystem.”
The reach Lazada has over eCommerce stretches over to traditional commerce as well. Its influence can even be felt in shopping malls, as in brick-and-mortar ones.
As part of their collaboration with Capitaland in August, Lazada Singapore held an offline consumer engagement event from 6–10 December to drive engagement and interest for 12.12 at JCube.
It has five ‘live’ “Click And Collect” lounges in Plaza Singapura, JCube, Westgate, and Bugis+ that lets customers collect parcels and return items. The lounges also serve as collection points for sellers.
Lazada aims to roll out ten more of these lounges by March 2018.
Many brands seen at Capitaland malls are now available on Lazada.SG.
The online marketplace in Singapore currently hosts more than 300 official stores, including The Body Shop, Lego, Shiseido, MAC, Puma Golf, and New Balance.
Television channel Animax, owned by Sony Pictures, and known for its animated shows for young adults, is also on Lazada.SG selling popular merchandise from the animation, OO-Kun And Friends.
By harnessing the power of traditional retail, Lazada provides new channels for consumers to access its products and avenues for retail owners to reach out to the elusive online shoppers.
Looking Forward To An Even More Revolutionary 2018
Judging from the onboarding of brands and their official stores this year, it shows that brands are increasingly trusting Lazada as a platform to push the sale of their products.
And this is great news for consumers as well.
For example, we’ll be able to get all the products that we need on a single platform, and also benefit from the deals and promotions that Lazada releases.
2017 has been a great year for both Lazada and us, consumers, and we’re definitely looking forward to an even more exciting and revolutionary 2018!
This piece (and our love for online shopping) is fuelled by Online Revolution and Lazada, who whispered a few things in our ears while we wrote this.