Under one roof
The scene at Lazada Malaysia’s new office at Menara Worldwide in the Bukit Bintang area is one of organised chaos, with employees working even as the furniture is being moved in.
On the day of our interview, the online retailer had just moved into its new premises — part of an aggressive expansion plan for the company, as it closed a second round of financing recently with funding from Tesco PLC, Access Industries, Investment AB Kinnevik and Verlinves, to the tune of some US$250mil (RM802mil).
The move to the new, larger offices will also see Lazada looking to expand its workforce with “top talents” in business and marketing.
Igor Pezzilli, chief executive officer of Lazada Malaysia, says that thus far the response from customers has been so good that Lazada is now the number one online retailer in this country, with traffic of over 100,000 visitors a day to the site.
“At the beginning when we started, we were buying products and having our own warehouses but recently we launched the marketplace, where merchants can sell their products through our website,” he said.
According to Pezzilli, an important part of Lazada’s business model is customer satisfaction — the company not only offers free fast shipping and cash on delivery (COD) but also a 14-day money back guarantee, a relative rarity for either brick and mortar or online retailers in the South-east Asia region.
In terms of logistics the company even has its own fleet of delivery vehicles, and offers delivery in West Malaysia within 48 hours and to east Malaysia within three days.
“In fact, we often deliver in less than 48 hours in most cases. One of the other reasons we have our own delivery system is also because of customer service. It’s important to us that the customer not only receives the product quickly but also gets service with a smile,” said Pezzilli.
While electronics are a big part of Lazada’s product catalogue, the company is planning to shore up its product range with home and living, fashion products, as well as sports equipment, amongst others.
“We want to be the online destination for everything in South-east Asia,” he said.
Lazada has four other websites across the region, namely in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, each operating independently of the other, although the customer experience and branding is the same.
While not excluding expansion into other Asian countries, Pezzilli says that the company has no immediate plans to expand into europe and the United States.
The company also plans to have regional promotions, such as the recent 12/12 Online Revolution sale similar to Cyber Monday sales in the United States, where the company offered some 200 products for one-day only at substantial discounts.
When asked whether Lazada is planning to become the Amazon.com of South-east Asia, Pezzilli answers with a laugh:
“We already are.”