Lazada Indonesia appoints James Chang as new CEO

Lazada Indonesia has named James Chang (pictured) as its new CEO, after an 11-year tenure at the international e-Commerce company. 

Chang has been at Lazada Indonesia from 2012, where he initially took on the role of co-founder and managing director till 2014, after which he was the group chief cross-border officer from 2014 to 2018. During this stint, he made a strategic move to Hong Kong to establish LazGlobal, which is a pioneering business unit specialising in cross-border e-Commerce sourcing for consumers in Southeast Asia.

According to his LinkedIn, he set up a cross-border logistics network, primarily focused on China, Hong Kong and South Korea, enabling faster lead times at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional logistics services.

He was then promoted to the role of CEO at Lazada Singapore, where one of his biggest achievements was merging the operations of Redmart and Lazada Singapore. Another key milestone was the incubation of LazMall which played a crucial role in enhancing the platform’s reputation and setting it apart from competitors in the market. After serving as Lazada Singapore’s CEO for three years, he took on the role of group chief business officer in 2021.

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In this role, he oversaw LazMall and according to his LinkedIn, he drove the rapid growth and profitability of LazMall by introducing innovative advertising solutions and establishing strong partnerships with international and local brands in the region.

Prior to joining Lazada in 2012, Chang was the director of global venture development at the Rocket Internet SE, which is an e-Commerce incubator and venture capital firm headquartered in Germany. He joined Rocket Internet from Accenture where he held the role of senior strategy consultant.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Lazada for more information.

In a prior interview with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Chang shared that one of the most important aspects of marketing in today's day and age is to never underestimate the power of customer insights and leverage these to personalise marketing campaigns to shoppers. "Great and effective marketing integrates customer insights and takes a holistic approach to address ever-changing consumers’ needs and expectations. Strategic partnerships with like-minded organisations and brands can also help to enhance the online shopping experience for consumers," he said. 

One example he pointed out was Lazada's five-year partnership with L’Oreal, an early adopter of digital transformation. "They ran their Bring Beauty Back campaign – a three-day beauty online marathon event – which ran across the region and on our platform, and included livestreaming, games, beauty augmented reality and surprise flash sales on the best-selling products to celebrate beauty and encourage women to feel more confident and empowered as they returned to work and embrace social interactions," he added. 

Lazada has also been proactive in upping the ante in its AI capabilities. Earlier this year in May, Lazada group launched LazzieChat, an eCommerce AI chatbot powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology in Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service to provide a more personalised shopping experience to its customers.

LazzieChat, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, will answer a user’s shopping queries and act as a personal shopper by offering personalised suggestions and product recommendations based on a user’s queries.

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