LAZADA CLEAR WINNER IN 11.11 SALE

KUALA LUMPUR: Alibaba-backed e-commerce giant Lazada had yet again solidified its market dominance in Malaysia by taking the number one spot in the recently-held Singles’ Day sale.

A survey done by iPrice Group, a meta-search website where Malaysian consumers can easily compare prices, specs and discover products from hundreds of local and regional merchants, showed that Lazada was the clear winner compared with all other ecommerce platforms in Malaysia during the sale period.

“Owned by the originator of the 11.11 Sale, Alibaba, Lazada experienced an increase of 108 per cent in Google searches just within eight minutes (between 11.52pm on November 10 and 12am on November 11),” said iPrice in a statement.

“Just recently, Lazada announced that it experienced an ‘explosive growth’ in Malaysia and across the region, racking up US$23 million (RM96.4 million) in sales through the 6.5 million items ordered by shoppers.”

Other top merchants which experienced an increase in search interest in the same period were Shopee (71.4 per cent), 11street (66.7 per cent), Hermo (50 per cent) and Zalora (25 per cent).

“By averaging the search interest on November 11, the five most popular e-commerce sites in Malaysia are Lazada, Shopee, 11street and Zalora (tied at third place) and finally Hermo at fourth place,” said iPrice.

The survey also noted that consumers began searching for deals as early as 12am on Singles’ Day.

This is a unique occurrence as Singles’ Day is the only sales event that has successfully garnered such a high number of search interest at midnight.

Last Saturday, Alibaba broke its previous sales record by garnering a total of US$25 billion during its Singles’ Day sale.

Also known as the 11.11 Sale, the e-commerce phenomenon entered Malaysian soil in recent years and this was evident from various online and offline retailers promoting the sale on multiple channels.