Social commerce will be the next big thing in electronic commerce, according to Inanc Balci, CEO of Lazada Philippines.
Social commerce is a form of electronic commerce which uses social networks to assist in the buying or selling of products. This type of commerce utilizes user ratings, referrals, online communities and social advertising to facilitate online shopping.
Technology, according to Balci, is one of the greatest challenges of social commerce at the moment because s-commerce platforms are not yet integrated into social media platforms. “But, after everything has been taken cared of, it will be “sky is the limit” especially in the Philippines where millions of people are in Facebook,” Balci noted.
At the launch of Lazada’s first app-exclusive sale extravaganza dubbed Big App Sale which kicks off today, Balci said that Lazada is putting more importance and efforts on social network platforms as it uses them as marketing channels. Social networks, Balci notes, are used as a means to attract and influence online buying and selling.
“We are maintaining our social network platforms and give a lot of importance to them as we target more people to engage in trade in social media,” said Inac Balci, CEO of Lazada Philippines. “We are using them as a better marketing strategy compared with the old method of marketing.”
Through social media, Lazada, as a company and its product brands with information on discounts, easily becomes widely known to millions of social network followers.
“Facebook is one of the biggest channels for us. Aside from this, we are now becoming more and more prominent in Instagram. On LazadaPH, we have created two more dedicated Instagram, one for technology and the other, for style,” Balci said.
The local followers of Lazada on Facebook reached 3.2 million, the highest in the Southeast Asian region. The frequently purchased products for this group are categorized as follows: mobiles and tablets, computers and laptops, sports and automotives, watches, and consumer electronics.
The number of Lazada followers in other channels are as follows: Lazada Web site – 18,000; @Lazada PH – 27,700; @lazadaph – 142,000; and Lazada_PH – 16,000.
“All these people are potential customers through social media,” said Balci. “Unlocking this potential means looking into making the technology further in a way of an added solution to enable social commerce and exploit it.”
Security and privacy are important issues that matter most for Lazada.
“These are issues we put a lot of efforts to make sure the sites and information we have are secured. We’ll do everything to make our customers a priority and well-satisfied,” Balci said.
Meanwhile, Lazada has seen a surge in its mobile app downloads across Southeast Asia since the company launched the Android app in June 2013 and the iOS app in January 2014. To date, the mobile app downloads have reached over 11-million, reflecting a growth of over 75% since December 2014.
In April this year alone, there were approximately 1.5 million downloads or close to 50,000 per day. This month also saw the iOS app featured as a recommended shopping app about 70 times daily on the regional App Store. Likewise, the Android app has consistently ranked among the daily top four shopping apps in Southeast Asia.
Big App Sale on May 21 to 24
To celebrate the support of Lazada’s rapidly growing number of app users, the company kicks off its first app-exclusive sale extravaganza dubbed Big App Sale on May 21, 2015. The four-day event offers the best mobile app-exclusive promotions across all product categories to consumers in Southeast Asia.
To get the maximum value from their purchases via mobile apps, users can enjoy crazy deals each day at 9am, 12pm, 6pm and 9pm. Lazada app users can also enjoy an extra 10% discount off a selected category to be offered daily, and vouchers giveaways. There will also be a ‘PhP99 Store with 100 deals priced at PhP99.
Lazada also announced the first-ever Globe Sunday promo where an exclusive 10% discount voucher will be available to Globe prepaid, postpaid, TM and Tattoo customers on Sunday, May 24, after the company recently signed a partnership with Globe Telecom. The discount is valid for purchases made on the Lazada Mobile App and is applicable on all items.
