Good customer service is one of the most important factors in a brand's road to success. But in today's changing business landscape, there are different fundamental drivers to get consumer engagements and have more customer retention and acquisition.

Last September 1, 2021, Lazada Group held its LazMall Brands Future Forum (BFF) 2021 which talked about Lazada's commitment to helping brand partners grow in the e-commerce space.

With the current health situation, more and more brands and retailers have shifted their businesses online. And partnering with an e-commerce platform like Lazada can help enable these sellers to attract customers and capture potential buyers as they venture into a new shopping experience.

Chun Li, Chief Executive Officer of the Lazada Group said, "At Lazada, our annual active consumers are more than 110 million. Today, across the region, we have more than 32,000 local and international LazMall brands on Lazada. This is a tremendous achievement in just three years and I would like to acknowledge the enormous amount of hard work the teams working behind the scenes on LazMall have put in to make this happen."

With the growing e-commerce business, customers now expect service excellence and a tailored experience. Lazada offers fully customizable business and marketing tools to help aid each brand's success, especially in creating a customer-centric strategy. This is what James Chang, Lazada's Head of Strategic and Retail emphasized.

Chang also shared two strategies in creating a long-term relationship with customers.

One unified customer experience

Create one unified message and experience for all go-to-market channels through enriched data and technology. Then, find the most appropriate time to convey a message that maximizes the reach of their brand experience to customers.

Membership loyalty programs

Enable two types of programs to be available for all brands. Integrate existing brands' membership programs seamlessly as part of their LazMall store. For those without an offline version, LazMall will create simple solutions where brands can still provide incentives to their customers and encourage repeat purchases.

During the panel discussion, the panelists highlighted the importance of improving customer experience as well as engaging customers.

Google's Industry Head of E-commerce Jerome Hamlin shared how acceleration in digital consumption impacts brands' engagement with consumers. He also talked about how e-commerce helps in opening microeconomies to larger markets with the help of brands like LazMall. According to Hamlin, marketing products through online videos helps as consumers spend more time on video platforms like YouTube.

Similarly, Kevin McGuigan of 3M noted that to be able to engage customers, their video content strategy is to bring to life the quality of their products and to articulate how a product is different in price points when compared to alternatives. Keeping product selections fresh to attract consumers and build customer acquisition is another part of their strategy. He also commented on an interesting discovery on LazMall product reviews where brands are learning "reverse consumer education" where customers are sharing alternative uses of their products.

Meanwhile, campaign periods are a time for brands to leverage their collaborations, marketing, and media plan. McGuigan recommended that brands should start preparations at least three months in advance to be able to get a grasp of what the consumers want to purchase. It is also about preparing the right products and knowing they have the right number of stocks.

Juliana Chu of Shiseido shared how LazMall helped improve their customer experience, which led to capturing new user growth. For Chu, it is important to have customer-centric marketing excellence and a 360-degree approach to retain customer loyalty. Examples she cited include Shoppertainment features to give a "fun" shopping experience, especially for younger consumers, and beauty technology that mimics physical in-store shopping experiences such as virtual try-on of makeup products.

Chu also saw how LazMall is offering a tailored experience for customers. This personalized service provides them with a good shopping experience and targets the different demands and needs of consumers. Just like McGuigan, she highlighted how the majority of consumers would plan their purchases ahead of mega campaigns, hence brands should start planning early, incorporating strategies to drive sales and stand out to customers.

Last but not the least, Raymond Yang, Lazada's Chief Product Officer, shared two solutions to help brands grow their customer base and have customer-centric strategies.

Customer Engagement Management

This function aims to provide brands with an advanced customer operation experience. Brands are in better control of valuable customer assets, so they can offer customized rewards to different customer groups based on their buying journey.

Universal Shopping Campaign

Get strong returns on investment, in terms of orders and traffic uplifts for brands, by combining Lazada's leading performance marketing solutions – Sponsored Affiliates, Sponsored Discovery, and priority placements. These are backed by a series of smart algorithms, enabling automatic selection and optimization of SKUs, keywords, and creatives. The results mean affordable and time-efficient campaigns that brands can run easily.

"Leveraging Lazada's capabilities in Tech, Data, and Logistics, and with our partners' strengths in product assortment, marketing, and customer engagement, our goal is to continue to win customers' loyalty across Southeast Asia. We are fully committed to helping our brands achieve long-term success within Lazada's ecosystem," said Yang.

The e-commerce platform continues to bring new and customized solutions tailored to each market. Lazada is committed to its role in helping brands grow and achieve success as more and more active users turn to the online space.

Enjoy the 9.9 Big Brands Sale by shopping at Lazada. For more information, you may also visit its Facebook page.