Lazada: Sell in the marketplace that is entering the European market
In 2022 they announced plans to expand into Europe and partner with European vendors to start selling their products through their platform.
Maria Jose Guerrero
Lazada is Alibaba’s most popular marketplace among Southeast Asian customers, with increasingly greater access to new technologies. Although Lazada started out life as an independent platform, Alibaba purchased it in 2016 to manage South Asia’s e-commerce on a single portal. In 2022 they announced plans to expand into Europe and partner with European vendors to start selling their products through their platform. For e-commerce businesses, this presents an opportunity to expand their sales channels and reach new markets. Start by checking how to make this move compatible with your pricing strategy and learn the steps you need to take to access Lazada. At Minderest, we are here to help you.
According to Statista’s data, this marketplace’s potential for internationally visible online stores is that the Asian market is expected to grow 51% over the next few years. Alibaba has an extensive e-commerce ecosystem with extremely high sales figures and numbers of registered users worldwide.
How to sell on Lazada, Alibaba’s new marketplace
1. Local and international sales model
Unlike AliExpress, where the most important thing is international sales, especially from China to other regions, Lazada, the new marketplace on the block, boosts local and international sales. Local companies registered in one of the countries where Lazada operates can market their products within the same country. In fact, the marketplace encourages sellers to do so. At the same time, cross-border sales are also available to expand companies’ global reach. Currently, it allows businesses registered in countries like China and South Korea to sell in Southeast Asian countries.
Lazada also enables products, descriptions, shipping times, and prices to be tailored for consumers in each region to help sellers adapt to different audiences. This will make it easier to meet customers’ expectations and ensure they complete the purchase. Using dynamic pricing, for example, you could adapt prices to each country’s supply and demand levels.
Regarding sales fees and commissions, we are awaiting confirmation of pricing plans for European sellers. Lazada currently applies between 1% and 6% commissions to each transaction. This is a lower percentage than that applied by other marketplaces.
2. Logistics handled by the marketplace
Lazada has a policy similar to Amazon’s FBA model to facilitate the transport and delivery of products - i.e., the marketplace takes care of logistics if required by the brand. It has a storage and distribution centre in Hong Kong, from where all orders can be delivered to their destination. Both shipments and returns are handled from this warehouse for sellers’ convenience. This is especially useful for smaller companies that do not have the resources to manage shipments to the other side of the world.
While we still have to wait to see Lazada launch in Europe, you can look at how the marketplaces where your brand or e-commerce has a presence work. You can also assess your prices’ profitability to help you make faster decisions when the time comes. This will help you decide which platforms to sell your products on, and will help optimise your prices on marketplaces, environments where achieving a competitive position is essential.
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