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  • Cettire leaps into China, partnering with JD

    Cettire leaps into China, partnering with JD

    Online luxury fashion platform Cettire said it has penned a new deal to enter mainland China through a partnership with e-commerce giant JD.com, sending its shares up by more than 21 percent.

    Mainland China is expected to be the world’s largest market for personal luxury goods by 2025, representing around 25 percent of the $600 billion global markets.

    Cettire believes this is a $150 billion potential market opportunity for the group that sells luxury bags, clothing, and shoes for adults and children, and is making a push into the beauty segment.

    On Monday, Cettire shares jumped 21.79 percent to $2.85 each, clawing back nearly all of last week’s major slide lower, and pushing its market capitalization up over $1.1 billion.

    Chief executive and founder Dean Mintz said China represented a “vast” opportunity given the market size for personal luxury goods and the importance of e-commerce.

    Cettire’s brands ranging from Balenciaga to Burberry will be available to mainland Chinese consumers during the second half of the calendar year 2022.

    “Our entry into China is a significant milestone towards our goal of being the world’s largest luxury destination,” Mr Mintz said.

    “China represents a vast market opportunity, and it is core to our strategy to make our world-class proposition available to additional markets. Today’s announcement is another step in our strategic journey to achieve this goal.”

    E-commerce platform JD.com has 550 million active customers and is China’s largest online retail platform, with 745.8 billion yuan ($1.66 billion) in revenue in fiscal 2020. JD.com is a supply chain-based technology and service provider to help brands and partners drive sales.

    Through the Cettire partnership, Chinese consumers will have access to 1700 luxury brands and post-sales support, the company said.

    JD.com will help to drive traffic, brand awareness and accelerate growth for Cettire in China, with scope for Cettire to leverage JD.com’s extensive local logistics capability, which provides one of the largest fulfillment infrastructures globally.

    In late 2021, Cettire hired local Chinese engineers in mainland China to support the development of website features specific to China and Chinese speakers globally – including launching Chinese language websites to all Cettire’s existing markets.

    Cettire holds no inventory of its own, with products ordered via its website, and sent from third-party suppliers. Cettire’s fulfilment is fully automated.

    Unlike larger rival Farfetch, Cettire has only flagged one direct brand relationship with Italy’s Staff International. Brands like Gucci (owned by French-based multinational Kering) have no say on the pricing of its products on Cettire’s marketplace. Cettire has also geoblocked French and Italian IP addresses, making it more difficult for such fashion houses to see where product is coming from.

    Cettire was advised by Highbury Partnership on the deal.

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  • Behind e-commerce giant Lazada’s success in pandemic-hit year

    Behind e-commerce giant Lazada’s success in pandemic-hit year

    In light of its proud achievements in 2021, Lazada Vietnam expects more breakthroughs in 2022 to bring more value for their customers and partners.
    Lazada hit impressive milestones in 2021, with remarkable profits, site traffic and record number of orders and new sellers on the platform, and step-by-step attracted consumers and partners across the country.

    Looking back on a breakthrough year, Lazada Vietnam’s leaders shared their experiences in surviving the pandemic, thereby continuously creating more value for customers, users as well as business partners.

    An amazing digital migration

    The pandemic has posed many challenges, but it has also pushed businesses to adapt the digital transformation. Ladaza Vietnam’s CEO described this amazing “digital migration” of Vietnamese businesses as an “astonishing wave”.

    Since October 2021, the number of new sellers joining the platform has increased by about 30 percent per month. According to the recent report: “E-commerce in 2021: Adapting and quickly overcoming obstacles from Covid-19”, in the first 11 months of the year, sellers from non-urban areas accounted for 40 percent of all new merchants on Lazada.

    The percentage of new sellers from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City also increased by 29 percent and 31 percent, respectively. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) recorded the highest increase, followed by fashion, home furniture and electronics. James Dong, CEO of Lazada Vietnam and Thailand, believes this is a good sign for Vietnam’s fastest growing momentum.

    James Dong, general director of Lazada Vietnam and Thailand. Photo by Lazada Vietnam
    James Dong, CEO of Lazada Vietnam and Thailand. Photo by Lazada Vietnam

    To support sellers, Lazada has shortened the listing process, and integrated business management solutions with real-time charts. The platform has also implemented marketing, promoting transportation process, ensuring on-time, non-contact, non-cash delivery to reduce risks of Covid-19 contamination for buyers and sellers.

    During the peak of the pandemic in HCMC, Lazada shortened the sales registration process to three hours for fresh food suppliers, and reduced the delivery time. These solutions helped reduce the risk of spreading infections, stabilizing food prices, and meeting urgent consumption needs.

    Moreover, Lazada’s “three Easy” (3Es) strategy including “Easy to buy – Easy to sell – Easy to deliver” has yielded achievements. “The benefit and safety of customers and business partners are always the top priority of the platform,” according to the CEO.

    “The practical test” for the supply chain

    Vu Duc Thinh, Chief Logistics Officer of Lazada Vietnam, described the supply chain situation during the epidemic as “terrible”. For more than four months, transportation, sales, and trading activities were almost frozen. The flow of raw materials, goods production, distribution and transportation were all interrupted.

    “Without goods, sellers fail to conduct business. Without duct tape, sellers can’t pack their goods. Even after tackling those difficulties, if shipping units shut down, buyers won’t receive the goods,” Thinh explained.

    Overcoming obstacles, Thinh and the Lazada Vietnam logistics team made several efforts to adapt in order to maintain operations and maintain item flow. Epidemic-prevention solutions at working sites were quickly deployed to ensure the safety of employees and customers.

    Vu Duc Thinh, logistics director of Lazada Vietnam,
    Vu Duc Thinh, Chief Logistics Officer of Lazada Vietnam. Photo by Lazada Vietnam

    “We all work from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. At the end of the day, we usually evaluated the effectiveness of our work and make adjustment for the next day,” said Thinh.

    Looking back at 2021, Thinh is proud that Lazada is one of the few e-Commerce platforms in Vietnam to maintain its supply chain during the pandemic. The logistics system completed the target from the beginning of the year. Some indicators exceeded expectations. Efforts to ensure smooth operations not only helped business remain stable, but also meet the increasing demand of consumers. That contributed to maintaining growth for Lazada, ensuring jobs and stable income for all staff.

    “The ability to adapt with a long-term vision for sustainable development is Lazada’s strength. Lazada has focused on technology and logistics since the early days of development and the importance of this strategy is proved,” Thinh stated.

    Besides logistics, Lazada has carried out many marketing activities to help the community overcome the challenges in the past year.

    Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang, Chief Marketing Officer of Lazada Vietnam, said the marketing team always set their KPIs as the peace of mind, optimism and comfort of users and the community. Lazada has flexibly approached and interacted with customers via many activities.

    By offering discount vouchers, Lazada has encouraged shopping. For loyal customers, the platform has provided the “Voucher club” package with many benefits like collecting vouchers with a total value of up to VND850,000 and VND50,000 a month.

    Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang, marketing director of Lazada Vietnam
    Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang, Chief Marketing Officer of Lazada Vietnam. Photo by Lazada Vietnam

    “Incentives can solve cost-related problems, but it needs more factors to really share with the community,” said Hang. That is why in 2021, Lazada’s shoppertainment (shopping and entertainment) activities were heavily invested. Hundreds of livestream episodes were performed every day with diverse content, meeting entertainment needs via LazCook, LazMusic, LazGetfit, LazLearn, LazHome, LazPlay…

    According to statistics from Lazada Vietnam, during the peak days of its Shopping Festivals, the platform created more than 400 livestream episodes per day, attracting a 5-6 times increase in viewership compared to weekdays. SuperShow, a music festival, also reached tens of millions of views on its platforms.

    Total orders during the Nov. 11 shopping festival nearly doubled. Customer numbers increased 1.5 times over the same period last year. On the 12.12 Super sale day, sales from LazLive increased seven times. The SuperShow hit 26 million views, contributing to a 20-fold increase in sales.

    “Technology is expected to be the key to enhancing the user experience. This year, we will apply more modern technologies, accompanying users in the shopping experience on the Lazada platform,” Hang shared.

    “The best person is not necessarily the most suitable one”

    In terms of recruitment and training human resources, Van Thi Hong Hanh, Chief People Officer of Lazada Vietnam, said the success of Lazada last year was thanks to its young, adaptive, proactive and creative staff.

    This platform set out a competency framework consisting of seven criteria as the foundation for personnel, recruitment, training and career development decisions and plans. The criteria include problem-solving ability; creativity and improvisation; communication – coordination; business knowledge; management capacity – group leadership; corporate culture creation; awareness – change management.

    Van Thi Hong Hanh, human resources director of Lazada Vietnam
    Van Thi Hong Hanh, Chief People Officer of Lazada Vietnam. Photo by Lazada Vietnam

    During the pandemic, Lazada has implemented the “Covid Care 2.0” program, ensuring the health of both employees and the community. Working from home, getting fully vaccinated, providing protection kits, and supporting Covid-19 infected employees were quickly implemented. Many programs were also implemented to motivate, connect and honor outstanding individuals and groups.

    In 2021, Lazada’s workforce rose by 20 percent in comparison to 2020. According to HR Asia magazine, Lazada was named “Asia’s Best Place to Work” for three years in a row due to a range of policies and initiatives with a people-centric strategy. In addition, at Best Choice Awards 2021, the platform was named “eCommerce platform of the year”.

    “What makes Lazada so outstanding is that we don’t get distracted by short-term financial goals or transient statistics. Instead, we always strive for long-term, more sustainable growth by constantly improving the customer experience and extending our brand partners and sellers,” James Dong emphasizes.

  • Shopify and JD to create world’s largest cross-border e-commerce market

    Shopify and JD to create world’s largest cross-border e-commerce market

    For entrepreneurs, there are many exciting moments in the journey to celebrate: first product, first sale to a happy customer (who isn’t a family member), first marketing campaign. But entrepreneurship is a daily effort—to build a brand, to expand the business, to attract even more customers. That’s why we’re so passionate about making it easier for independent brands to succeed, and now that success doesn’t have to be limited to their town or even country. Commerce is global, and we’re giving merchants, of any size, the tools to show up wherever their customers are.

    With a population of 1.4 billion, China is home to the world’s largest ecommerce market, estimated to be worth $3.3 trillion by 2025*—that’s more than five times larger than the US ecommerce market**. In fact, over half (52%) of all retail sales in China in 2021 were predicted to come from ecommerce alone***. Despite this enormous potential, China has often remained inaccessible to independent businesses and upstart entrepreneurs abroad. Regulatory and logistical barriers, as well as complexities related to pricing, duties, and translations, can be daunting to deal with for all but the largest of brands.

    A partnership between Shopify and JD.com means that we’re unlocking the world’s largest ecommerce market for merchants by giving them access to one of China’s leading ecommerce marketplaces. By letting merchants easily list their products on JD’s cross-border ecommerce platform JD Worldwide, this new sales channel opens access to JD’s 550 million active customers in China who are shopping for authentic, high-quality products from brands all over the world.

    “Altuzarra is excited to leverage the Shopify and JD.com partnership,” said Shira Sue Carmi,  CEO of Altuzarra, the namesake label of fashion designer Joseph Altuzarra. “Given Joseph’s Chinese heritage and the great momentum we are seeing with our business overall, we see tremendous opportunity for Altuzarra in mainland China and are thrilled to be able to explore it easily and seamlessly through Shopify’s new JD Marketplace channel.”

    Compared to the 12 months typically required for foreign brands to begin selling in China, JD’s streamlined channel, JD Marketplace, will allow Shopify merchants in the US to get started in as quickly as three to four weeks. To support merchants in their effort to begin selling into China, the channel will provide:

    • Expedited onboarding to help merchants sell quickly
    • Logistics that handle end-to-end fulfillment from JD’s US warehouses directly to consumers in China, leveraging JD.com’s China-US cargo flights, 1,300+ warehouses and 200,000+ delivery personnel in China
    • Smart price conversion to local currency based on foreign exchange rates, typical category pricing, as well as VAT and Consumption Tax
    • Intelligent translation of product names and descriptions

    “Bringing together two world-class commerce platforms—Shopify and JD.com—is a major step in solving cross-border commerce for merchants,” said Aaron Brown, Vice President at Shopify. “The future of commerce is commerce everywhere—and that starts by removing barriers to entry to one of the most important ecommerce markets in the world.”

    “JD.com is thrilled to partner with Shopify,” said Daniel Tan, President of JD Worldwide. “We believe that the partnership will unlock the huge potential of the Chinese market for brands outside of China. At the same time, it will increase cross-border commerce by leveraging our global supply chain abilities, simplifying what has traditionally been a very complicated process.”

    The JD Marketplace sales channel is part of a larger strategic partnership between Shopify and JD.com that aims to help solve cross-border commerce challenges across product sourcing, selling, and logistics for merchants in the US and China. The sales channel will be available to Shopify’s US merchants starting today, January 18.

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  • Amid pandemic, e-commerce reigns supreme

    Amid pandemic, e-commerce reigns supreme

    With Covid-19 forcing people to stay at home and spend time online, e-commerce has been thriving.

    When Tet, the Lunar New Year, was a month and a half away e-commerce platforms had already achieved a strong increase in revenues during their December-12 promotion program. Lazada said sales doubled from the same period in 2020, while the number of sellers was up by 2.5 times. Shopee also reported a strong rise in sales during the event, with most of the orders being for skincare products and house decorative items.

    But Dec. 12 was not the only occasion when e-commerce sites recorded such strong sales: In 2021 they also had major promotions for Oct. 10, Nov. 11, Black Friday, and Cyber Friday.

    Tiki saw sales soar nine times from normal days on Nov. 11.

    According to the ‘e-Conomy Southeast Asia’ report released last November by Google, Temasek and Bain & Co., Vietnam’s Internet economy is expected to grow by 31 percent to $21 billion in 2022.

    Tran Tuan Anh, executive director of Shopee Vietnam, said, “the digital transformation process has been shortened thanks to the pandemic.”

    The report said eight million new digital consumers had been added between the start of the pandemic and the first half of this year, 55 percent of them living in non-metropolitan areas.

    “Stickiness of adoption remains high as digital consumption has become a way of life,” it said, pointing out that 97 percent of new consumers are still using online services and 99 percent said they intend to continue using them in future.

    Some 30 percent of digital sellers believe they cannot make it through the pandemic without digital platforms.

    Lazada Vietnam CEO James Dong said at an event held recently that the pandemic has stimulated millions of new customers to experience online shopping for the first time.

    “E-commerce has really transformed from a side channel to a core part of the growth strategy of brands and sellers”.

    Because of the pandemic, e-commerce sites started to sell food and groceries during the social distancing period.

    According to a study by Malaysia’s iPrice Group last September, online groceries are the only category to achieve steady and consistent growth since the beginning of the pandemic.

    Google searches related to online grocery stores increased by 223 percent in the second quarter of 2021 and 11 times in July compared to May, when stringent social distancing restrictions were in place in some provinces and cities.

    What next?

    iPrice points out three trends in its forecast for Vietnam’s e-commerce market this year.

    The first is the personalization of the shopper experience, with consumers needing e-commerce businesses to help them find the products they need, offer coupons and streamline the supply chain to shorten delivery times and ensure product quality.

    The ‘Personalization Pulse Check’ report in 2018 by Accenture Interactive, an Irish multinational professional services company, had found that 91 percent of consumers were more likely to shop with brands that recognize, remember and provide them with relevant offers and recommendations.

    The second trend is the rise of cashless payments.

    For the first time in 2021 cash payments saw the risk of being dethroned as the most common method of payment in Vietnam after decreasing to only 42 percent of payments from 60 percent in 2020, the ‘Southeast Asia, the Home for Digital Transformation’ report by Facebook and U.S. consulting firm Bain & Company said in November.

    The final trend is that of environment-friendly consumption.

    Consumers have become aware that the products they use not only need to be of good quality but also safe for health and do not leave negative impacts on the environment.

    The report by Facebook and Bain said environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors now count as among the top reasons for consumers to switch brands in Southeast Asia.

    “People are willing to pay more for a product that is sustainably and responsibly sourced, although some product categories are more sensitive to ESG factors than others,” it said.

    According to iPrice, it is hard to predict if sustainability and eco-friendliness will become the main trend in 2022, but it certainly has importance in e-commerce in the future.

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  • Alibaba looks abroad as China growth slips

    Alibaba looks abroad as China growth slips

    China’s Alibaba has told its investors that overseas e-commerce would be a key focus as it looks for new sources of growth after a difficult year at home.

    Earlier this month, Alibaba Group Holding restructured its e-commerce business into separate China and international divisions, with the latter to be led by Jiang Fan, head of Alibaba’s flagship Taobao and Tmall marketplaces.

    Alibaba Deputy CFO Toby Xu, making his first major public remarks since being named this month to take over as CFO, said that international e-commerce “will become one of the key growth drivers”, adding that 57 percent of revenue for Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics unit, comes from overseas.

    Earlier in the two-day investor event which ended Friday, Alibaba said it had set a target of $100 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) for Lazada, its e-commerce service for Southeast Asia.

    Lazada generated $21 billion in GMV from September 2020 to the same month in 2021, the presentation showed.

    Outgoing CFO Maggie Wu said that In the future, the company will break down the category into four sub-categories – China commerce, which includes its major domestic-facing e-commerce platforms; international commerce, which will include Lazada, AliExpress, and other overseas-facing sites; local-based services, which will include its food-delivery service Ele.me and its mapping service; and Cainiao, its logistics division.

    There was also a nod to social welfare, with four of seven investment categories outlined by Xu related to initiatives such as rural revitalization and China’s aging population.

    CEO Daniel Zhang, meanwhile, pledged to slash emissions from Alibaba’s supply chains and transportation networks by 50 percent by the end of the decade.

    Missing from the presentation was any mention of Ant Group, the financial services firm that is 33-per-cent owned by Alibaba.

    Last year, Beijing intervened at the last minute to abort a planned $37 billion listing of Ant. Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma subsequently slipped from the public spotlight and Chinese authorities began a year-long regulatory clampdown.

    In November, Alibaba slashed its annual revenue forecast for its current fiscal year, from an initial growth target of 29.5 percent to between 20 and 23 percent.

    The company has been facing stiff competition from rivals including Pinduoduo, which has won over consumers in rural China, and ByteDance-owned Douyin, which has grown in China’s booming live-streamed e-commerce sector.

  • B2B shopping app taps Vietnam’s e-commerce potential

    B2B shopping app taps Vietnam’s e-commerce potential

    The ranking of businesses in Vietnam’s map of e-commerce changed in the second quarter of 2021, with the volume of Google searches for essential online stores skyrocketing, according to an iPrice Group study.

    The study showed online groceries were the only category to maintain steady and consistent growth since the beginning of the pandemic. Google searches related to online grocery stores in the second quarter of this year increased by 223 percent against the first quarter. The number of searches increased 11 times in July compared to May, and 3.6 times compared to June when the social distancing order under Directive 16 was implemented in some provinces and cities.

    People pay more attention to fresh food, beverages, pre-packaged items, fruits, and veggies as the searches of these items surge by 99 percent, 51 percent, 30 percent, and 11 percent, respectively, compared to the previous quarter. Thus, social distancing could be one of the factors driving the surge in demand for online supermarkets. With the growing necessity of purchasing essentials online, retailers are more likely to adapt to the digital platform.

    Buy2Sell, a B2B platform for imported goods, launched a new application in December to compete in the e-commerce race in Vietnam. Buy2Sell’s application focuses on high-end products, especially imported organic food, genuine cosmetics, and other lifestyle items.

    From 2022, Buy2Sell will expand to allow domestic sellers on its platform instead of only international vendors as previously. It would still enable any buyer matching a seller’s MOQ (order minimum) to purchase goods at wholesale prices.

    Buy2Sell has established a flexible delivery policy between sellers and buyers on its platform and application, where sellers can deliver the goods themselves to buyers instead of waiting for a long period of time. This helps buyers receive the goods quicker.

    All goods displayed on Buy2Sell will be authenticated from their origin. The quality of origin guarantees no imitations, fake goods, low-quality goods to be distributed through this platform. Buy2Sell established a consumer protection policy on selling prices and warranties, under the commitment for all sellers.

    Through its elaborate distribution system (both wholesale and retail) since 2015, and with a completely different market segment from other e-commerce players, Buy2Sell will become a known name. In the coming years, the company intends to strongly contribute to the development of Vietnamese technologies and bring changes to the consumer landscape.

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  • Alibaba fires employee who accused former co-worker of sexual assault

    Alibaba fires employee who accused former co-worker of sexual assault

    Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has fired a woman who accused a former co-worker of sexual assault in July this year. A dismissal letter, became effective on Nov. 25, the day it was given to the employee. She is identified in court papers only by her surname, Zhou. After the company failed to take action after she reported the assault, according to her, Zhou went public in August.

    She began passing out fliers to co-workers, unfurling banners in the company cafeteria, and posting messages on Alibaba’s internal website. The subsequent letter claimed she had spread false information “which aroused strong concern from society and damaged the company.”

    The move to fire Zhou is a reversal of Alibaba’s initial support for her. After her allegations surfaced, the company fired the co-worker accused of assault, identified as Zhou’s former supervisor Wang Chengwen. Two senior managers also resigned for failing to act after Zhou made her report. But prosecutors dropped her case in September after investigators found that Wang’s actions constituted “forcible indecency” but did not rise to the level of rape. Police gave him 15 days of administrative detention.

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  • Amazon launches Alexa Together, a subscription-based service for seniors

    Amazon launches Alexa Together, a subscription-based service for seniors

    Alexa Together is the new subscription-based service for elders launched by Amazon. It’s an upgrade to the existing Care Hub service and it costs $19.99 per month or $199 per year. Besides the basic features offered by Alexa Care Hub, the new service provides seniors with additional benefits.

    These additional benefits include access to an emergency helpline, fall detection response features, a remote assist option that allows family members to manage settings on the elderly person’s device and an activity feed for family members that will notify them when the aging customer is active.

    Alexa Together provides a few layers of privacy protection. For example, the elder needs to allow access to the family members to use features like Remote Assist. More importantly, the activity feed has been designed to show that the elder did interact with Alexa but will not show what that interaction specifically was.

    Amazon announced that all Care Hub customers will receive a free year of Alexa Together until December 2, 2022. Customers can also sign up for a free limited-time, six-month trial.

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  • Alibaba overhauls e-commerce businesses, appoints new CFO

    Alibaba overhauls e-commerce businesses, appoints new CFO

    Alibaba said it would form two new units to house its main e-commerce businesses – international digital commerce and China digital commerce, in a bid to become more agile and accelerate growth.

    The international digital commerce unit will house Alibaba’s overseas consumer-facing and wholesale businesses and include AliExpress, Alibaba.com and Lazada. The unit will be headed by Jiang Fan, who had been president of the Taobao and Tmall marketplaces.

    Alibaba will house its domestic commerce businesses in the China digital commerce unit, which will be led by Trudy Dai, a founding member of Alibaba, it said.

    The company’s deputy chief financial officer, Toby Xu, will succeed Maggie Wu as its chief financial officer from April; his appointment was described as part of the company’s leadership succession plan.

    Xu joined Alibaba from PWC three years ago and was appointed deputy CFO in July 2019.

    Wu, who helped lead three Alibaba-related company public listings as CFO, will continue to serve as an executive director on Alibaba’s board.

    The e-commerce giant’s Hong Kong-listed shares slid 8 percent in early morning trade, tracking Friday declines made in the United States. US-listed shares of Chinese firms tumbled on concerns about stricter regulatory scrutiny at home in the wake of plans by Didi Global Inc to delist from the New York Stock Exchange.

    Last month, Alibaba slashed its forecast for annual revenue growth to its slowest pace since its 2014 stock market debut and saw sales at its banner event, online shopping festival Singles Day, grow at their slowest rate ever despite record sales.

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  • Vietnam’s e-commerce traffic higher than Thailand, Malaysia

    Vietnam’s e-commerce traffic higher than Thailand, Malaysia

    E-commerce web traffic from Vietnam is double that of Thailand and triple that of Malaysia in Q3, showing high demand for online shopping amid the pandemic, a report has found.

    Digital consumption has become a new habit as the number of online vendors increases, with Vietnam becoming “a star” on the Southeast Asian e-commerce market, according to the Q3 market report by iPrice Group.

    Vietnam is set to exceed Thailand by 2025 to become the second-biggest internet economy in Southeast Asia with a scale of $57 billion, behind Indonesia at $146 billion, according to the e-Conomy Southeast Asia 2021 report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Co.

    However, foreign companies are still dominating Vietnam’s e-commerce market in terms of web traffic.

    Singapore’s Shopee accounted for 57 percent of traffic in the third quarter, followed by another Singaporean company Lazada at 16 percent.

    Vietnamese startup Tiki ranked third with 13 percent of traffic.

    The report also pointed out Vietnamese consumers interact on the social media pages of e-commerce platforms more frequently than Thai but less than Malaysians, showing the importance of Facebook in promoting brands in Vietnam.

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  • Malaysian Tycoon Tony Fernandes’ AirAsia Launches Parcel Delivery Service To Tap E-Commerce Boom

    Malaysian Tycoon Tony Fernandes’ AirAsia Launches Parcel Delivery Service To Tap E-Commerce Boom

    AirAsia Group controlled by Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes has launched a parcel delivery service as the loss-making budget airline seeks to tap the e-commerce boom across Southeast Asia.

    The new service, called AirAsia Xpress, is the company’s latest venture as it expands its digital business to shore up the airline’s revenues that have been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, AirAsia said in a statement on Tuesday. The service will initially be available in Kuala Lumpur and other areas around the densely populated Klang Valley, before rolling out to other parts of Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

    Powered by Teleport—the group’s logistics arm—AirAsia Xpress gives its super app users two options: instant delivery to receive their packages in less than an hour or same-day delivery to receive their packages within six hours. The new venture complements the airline’s food delivery and ride-hailing services, which are part of initiatives to build a super app that will compete with Southeast Asia’s tech titans such as Indonesia’s GoTo and Singapore’s Grab and Sea Group.

    “As we move forward with the post-pandemic recovery, we believe that people will remain greatly dependent on efficient and affordable delivery services—one of AirAsia’s core strengths,” said Lim Ben-Jie, head of e-commerce delivery at AirAsia’s superapp. “Combining our ease of usability and network reach across ASEAN and beyond, AirAsia Xpress will support individuals and micro-businesses with fast and convenient deliveries.”Southeast Asia is among the fastest-growing regions in the world, with gross merchandise value from the digital economy climbing 49% to $174 billion this year from the previous, according to a new study jointly published by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company this month. As consumers across the region increasingly embrace e-commerce and other digital platforms, the study predicts the GMV to grow to $363 billion by 2025 and surpass $1 trillion by 2030.

    This strong growth trajectory bodes well for AirAsia, which is seeking to grow the share of its digital businesses to 50% of the group’s revenue by 2025. The group has been pivoting into digital businesses as Covid-19 travel restrictions drag passenger and cargo traffic lower.

    Earlier this week, AirAsia reported its third-quarter revenue declined 37% from the previous year to 296 million ringgit ($70 million). In a research note, Raymond Choo, an analyst at Kuala Lumpur-based Kenanga Research, cut his full-year earnings estimate for AirAsia by 17% to a net loss of 2.41 billion ringgit.

    “As a group, we have taken advantage of the downtime in flying to tap new revenue streams and fully transform ourselves into an investment holding company with a portfolio of synergistic travel and lifestyle businesses,” Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia Group, said in a statement when the group announced its third-quarter results. AirAsia’s superapp, along with Teleport and the group’s fintech unit BigPay, are gaining traction and building a strong presence in key markets, he added.

    Fernandes and his business partner, Kamarudin Meranun, took over AirAsia in 2001 to build a low-cost carrier that would make air travel affordable. Fernandes—who dropped out of this year’s ranking of Malaysia’s 50 Richest people—also has interests in hospitality, insurance, and education.

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  • Visa’s Amazon spat shows power is shifting to retailers in fee battle

    Visa’s Amazon spat shows power is shifting to retailers in fee battle

    Amazon’s latest spat with Visa shows big retailers, armed with a growing array of payment options, are gaining the upper hand in their power struggle with card providers, but it’s not a crisis for the payment company.

    Amazon said last week that it would stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the United Kingdom from Jan 19, 2022, saying that despite technology advancements the fees on such transactions remained high or in some cases were rising.

    While Amazon may yet back down on the UK front, where the company accounts for less than 1 percent of Visa’s credit card volume, according to an estimate by Piper Sandler analysts, the dispute is a bad sign for the card industry. Some analysts said it could presage a fight in the much bigger US market.

    “Amazon is treating this dispute with Visa as an experiment,” said Piper Sandler analyst Christopher Donat. “Our biggest concern is that Amazon seeks concessions from Visa in other geographies.”

    Visa Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu told Reuters in an interview on Friday that he expected a resolution. “We’ve resolved these things in the past and I believe we’ll resolve them in the future,” he said. Amazon declined to comment.

    Credit cards dominated a third of North American e-commerce spending in 2020, according to payments giant WorldPay, but mobile payment options like Venmo and ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) financing plans are chipping away at their market share.

    While alternative payments have been growing for years, the pandemic accelerated a downward trend in credit card applications boosting the popularity of BNPL financing, especially among younger consumers.

    Credit cards’ share of North American e-commerce spending declined 7 percent last year, according to WorldPay, while BNPL’s share increased 78 percent, making it the fastest-growing form of payment.

    In August, Amazon partnered with BNPL provider Affirm to offer an installment financing option on US Amazon purchases.

    “Credit cards are still dominant players for non-cash transactions, but they need to be aware of the growing competition,” Chris Dinga, a payments analyst at GlobalData, wrote on Friday.

    “BNPL is gradually being adopted by retailers as they see higher conversion and growth opportunity by providing it to their customers,” Dinga wrote, adding high credit card fees could accelerate BNPL adoption by retailers.

    Some analysts said past disputes suggested Visa may have to blink before Amazon, such as when U.S. restaurant owners stopped taking Amex cards in the 1990s, leading Amex to reduce its fees.

    “Visa may need to follow American Express’s example,” Evercore analysts said in a research note.

    Still, Visa has survived such fights and few other merchants have Amazon’s heft, said Prabhu.

    “Even a very large retailer like Amazon represents a relatively small portion of our payment volume,” he said.

    And Visa is not wedded to credit cards as the primary transaction source, he added.

    “If a merchant wants to offer credit in a different way, we’re agnostic. We will do both. The buy now, pay later business has been a positive for us.”

    Visa has been partnering with BNPL providers, including Sweden’s Klarna.

    Retailers also benefit from credit card issuers offering their customers cash rebates and rewards programs to encourage them to spend more than they otherwise would.

    Prabhu said he expected credit card spending to pick up now that borders are opening and affluent customers are spending more on travel, entertainment and eating out.

    And Amazon also needs a partner for its own co-branded credit card. The company is considering replacing Visa on US co-branded credit cards with either Mastercard or American Express, suggesting its UK fee dispute could be a negotiating tactic, said analysts.

    “It’s not necessarily a good idea for merchants to restrict consumer choice,” said Prabhu. “Amazon will have to think about that, too.”

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  • Vietnam Airlines launches e-commerce platform

    Vietnam Airlines launches e-commerce platform

    Vietnam Airlines has launched a new e-commerce platform VNAMALL, focused on selling imported products from countries to which it operates.

    As many as 300 products are available starting Monday on the platform, mainly pastries, fruit and wine.

    The airline also sells food typically available on its flights.

    It also introduced Vietnam Airlines Gift Card that comes with perks like more check-in baggage and priority check-in.

    VNAMALL is the latest initiative of the loss-making national flag carrier, which has been struggling to overcome Covid-19 impacts.

    The airline, in which the state holds a 86 percent stake, recorded an accumulated loss of VND17.77 trillion ($780.48 million) as of June 30.

  • Alibaba expects slowest annual growth in eight years

    Alibaba expects slowest annual growth in eight years

    China’s Alibaba forecast annual revenue to grow at its slowest pace since its 2014 stock market debut as second-quarter results missed expectations due to slowing consumption, increasing competition, and a regulatory crackdown.

    U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, which expects the fiscal year 2022 revenue to grow by 20% to 23%, tumbled 10.3% in pre-market trading on Thursday.

    Beijing has come down hard on China’s big tech, citing antimonopoly and security reasons, hitting bottom lines and stock prices at companies including Alibaba and gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. Tencent last week posted its slowest revenue growth since it went public in 2004.

    This, along with supply disruptions, has contributed to China’s economy suffering its slowest growth in a year in the third quarter.

    On an earnings call on Thursday, Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said increasing competition and slowing consumption in China were the primary causes for slowing growth, adding that it was hard to say which one hurt earnings more.

    For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the e-commerce juggernaut’s revenue growth rose 29% to 200.69 billion yuan ($31.44 billion), its slowest rate of growth in six quarters. Analysts on average had an expected revenue of 204.93 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.

    Revenue at Alibaba’s China commerce retail business, its main e-commerce unit, rose 33%. On an adjusted basis, Alibaba earned 11.20 yuan per share, below the average estimate of 12.36 yuan.

    Separately, Alibaba’s chief rival JD.com Inc, said it expects weak demand will weigh on the company’s overall performance in the year’s second half.

    Alibaba, which last week recorded its slowest sales growth during its annual Singles’ Day online shopping fest, said it will continue to invest heavily in areas such as Taobao Deals, an e-commerce service targeting lower-tier cities, and offline retail initiatives.

    Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group recorded a quarterly profit of about 19.7 billion yuan for the quarter ended June. Alibaba records its profit from Ant one quarter in arrears.

    Authorities forced the suspension of Ant’s $37 billion initial public offering last November and imposed a record $2.8 billion fine on Alibaba for anti-competitive business practices in April.

    Alibaba logged its first operating loss as a public company the same quarter it faced the penalty and has lost about a third of its market value so far this year.

  • E-commerce sites report jump in 11/11 sales

    E-commerce sites report jump in 11/11 sales

    E-commerce platforms reported a surge in sales on Singles’ Day on Nov. 11, an annual shopping event, with the most popular items being masks and healthcare products. Tiki said revenues were up nine times from last year, and the number of buyers was double that on normal days.

    Face masks, products for babies and mothers, and fast-moving consumer goods were the top sellers, it said.

    It also sold some 10,000 mobile phones, including 500 iPhones, 2,000 electric motorbikes and bicycles, and 6,000 cans and bottles of beer.

    Shopee sold 1.8 million decorative items, including some 100,000 decals and stickers, 1.6 million healthcare products, one million earphones, and 150,000 mobile phone covers.

    Lazada said revenues doubled and the number of customers was up by half. Healthcare and beauty products were its best-sellers, and electronics sales almost doubled, with laptop and desktop sales nearly tripling.

    Sendo said revenues were 40 percent higher than during other promotions such as Sept. 9 and Oct. 10, with fashion, household, and beauty items seeing sales double.

    According to a report called ‘e-Conomy SEA 2021’ released this week by Google, Temasek and Bain & Co., Vietnam’s e-commerce market will increase to $13 billion this year, up 53 percent from last year, and triple by 2025.

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