#AsiaeCommerceAwards 2021 spills: How Lazada expertly manages consumer expectation

Founded in 2012, Lazada is one of the most well known eCommerce platforms in the region. Currently it has a strong presence in many Southeast Asia markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. While the eCommerce boom over the pandemic has no doubt accelerated its growth, the eCommerce platform has no plans of slowing down. In fact, it has an aim of serving 300 million shoppers by 2030. Entering MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Asia eCommerce Awards in 2021, the Lazada x Giordano 12.12 campaign saw the platform receive the gold award for Best in eCommerce (Marketplace / eRetailer) – Fashion & Apparel.

However, a key part of retaining its growth is ensuring a great customer experience. For many companies, this becomes more of an issue as they expand and conquer newer turfs. In an interview, Kwunchai Pansuk (pictured right), senior strategic planner and Panachai Nakban (pictured left), digital planner at Lazada told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that it too had to cope with managing consumer expectations during the pandemic. Here's a look at how the company reinforced experience in Thailand amidst the pandemic. 

This interview is done as part of MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s winners and finalists’ interview series for Asia eCommerce Awards 2021. To find out more about the awards, click here.

What has the past two years been like for you given the sudden pivot to eCommerce?

Pansuk and Nakban: For the past two years, Thailand was faced with a pandemic situation for a long time. People were shipped to digital life such as work from home, online meetings, ordering online food delivery and others. So, in the eCommerce market, there was growth too and many brands jumped into this ocean to expect online sales. So that’s a turning point for the Online Advertise Agency. A lot of projects we work aim to focus on lower-funnel results such as conversion or sales instead of awareness campaigns that focus on the upper funnel.

We needed to suit ourselves and expand our knowledge to do an effective conversion campaign and maximise the results by advanced ads optimisation. Moreover, we analysed the target behavior to be accurate for competition in this red ocean of digital platforms as much as possible.

What was one challenge that took you by surprise and how did you pivot?

Pansuk and Nakban: The challenge is to manage customer expectations in terms of sales that must be able to measure the return. Every advertising budget is to be caught up in sales that have to come back with a higher ROI.

It is completely different from doing an awareness campaign, both in terms of the unit of measurement and the results. That is related to our client business.

For this reason, dealing with customer expectations is so important, we evaluate the result using historical data we had from the similar product categories to make the campaign successful. Moreover, we also explore some essential data, insight and demographic before determining target including new tactics to create customer’s reliance.

With markets opening up, what are some trends you have your eyes on?

Pansuk and Nakban: Nowadays the span of age of people using social media is widen so we have to aim the right target. This campaign is focusing on the Young Generation people who tend to buy stuffs via online. Facebook is one of the most popular platforms that provide Collaborative Ads Feature with eCommerce platform (CPAS) increasing the measurable sales volume.

However, Ads Feature is not the only answer since the Young Generation loves to follow their thought leader. It causes the usage of influencers to communicate directly to the target and they also help us convince the customers as well.

However, the creation of Ads that correspond to our target’s interest should also be considered. We have to utilise the asset on hand and customise the influencer to get effective results and meet the business goal.

What do you think makes for great marketing these days?

Pansuk and Nakban: The superb marketing is when you effectively manage the existing resources on both consumer and brand side. Brand gets the sales volume and users don’t feel interrupted or to make it easier, we avoid making ourselves trash content in the digital market, that’s it!

How do you feel about your win?

Pansuk and Nakban: First of all, we need to appreciate the judge that saw the value of this campaign. We are so proud and need to thank our team that helped to build this campaign's success, and thank you my client for being brave to do this. From our views, we think this is another context of communication that we can communicate with consumers through the story that they are interested in.

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