Wazzup Pilipinas!
Southeast Asia’s largest online shopping mall Lazada, recently announced its global partnership with Tesco PLC, Access Industries, Investment AB Kinnevik and Verlinvest which includes an investment funds of $250 million to its financial portfolio. The ties with several investors enable the company to further strengthen and bolster its market presence in global e-commerce.
According to Maximilian Bittner, CEO of Lazada Group, “We are delighted to welcome Tesco and Access to join our investor group through this funding round. Kinnevik and Verlinvest also join the investment, which know for business and operations. With this, it demonstrates that we are making great progress in building a large and sustainable company in Southeast Asia. We are excited to continue this journey together with our investors.”
This marks the first investment by multichannel retailer Tesco into a pure online player in the region and the starting point of close ties. Synergies of this partnership will span across customer analytics, private label development and supply chain management.
Since its launch, Lazada has become the leading online general merchandiser across the region. The company pioneers e-commerce globally by providing a fast, convenient and secure online shopping experience combined with an extensive product offering in categories ranging from mobiles & tablets and consumer electronics to household goods, toys, fashion and sports equipment.
Mia Brunell Livfors, CEO of Kinnevik, said, “Strategic cooperation between long-term financial investors and industry partners can add significant growth momentum and enhanced profitability to e-commerce businesses. We welcome Tesco’s investment in Lazada and look forward to working with them in supporting Maximilian and his team.”
Meanwhile, Robin Terrell, Group Multichannel Director of Tesco, said, “This investment in South East Asia’s largest e-commerce retailer continues our strategy of developing leading multichannel businesses in core growth markets. Lazada is an exciting, pioneering business, which has developed a market-leading offer in each of its five markets in just 18 months. As South East Asia’s 600 million consumers begin to use Smartphone technology to access retailers online, Lazada has established a strong position from which to grow."
As key pillars of Lazada’s long-term strategy, the company has opened up its platform with great success to third party merchants to increase assortment and allowing both large and small suppliers take advantage of Lazada’s traffic volumes, continued building its category mix by expanding into fashion, and developed an affiliate program that will help the region’s broader web community to flourish by providing web portal and blog owners an opportunity to monetize their website.
In addition, Jörg Mohaupt of Access Industries, said, “Lazada’s management team has put the company on a path to become the premier online shopping destination in Southeast Asia. We are pleased to be part of this dynamic success story.”
As another key cornerstone of the Group’s strategy, Lazada also launched Lamido in Indonesia and Vietnam to tap into the large informal e-commerce market of C2C transactions, which includes thousands of shops on social networks such as Facebook.
Lazada is continuously striving to offer its customers the best possible shopping experience with multiple payment methods including cash on delivery, extensive warranty commitments and free returns. Being the largest online shopping mall, Lazada operates in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
Post a Comment