Lazada Thailand, the e-commerce arm of Alibaba in Asean, plans to target female users in Thailand, hoping to attract younger shoppers and online merchants to beat rivals in social commerce.
Thailand has the greatest e-commerce potential in Southeast Asia for Lazada because of high consumer spending and improving digital technologies, logistics systems and infrastructure.
The conditions ensure that Lazada will continue to invest here, said Thanida Suiwatana, chief of marketing for Lazada Thailand.
According to Statista research, Thai e-commerce revenue in 2019 will reach 139 billion baht, up from 118 billion in 2018.
Another study by Hootsuite and WeAreSocial found that Thailand ranks third globally for mobile commerce, with 71% of internet users using mobile phones for purchases.
This year Lazada will focus on women aged 18-24. The segment is still small, but they spend an average of 500 baht per order on Lazada, compared with an overall average of 1,300 baht per order.
Ms Thanida demonstrates Alibaba's Magic Mirror, which lets customers virtually 'try on' clothes and cosmetics.
Ms Thanida said the female market has become a global trend. In e-commerce, 85% of all brand purchases are made by female users, while 22% of them shop online at least once a day, according to She-conomy.com.
To capitalise on the segment, Lazada last October created LazInStyle on its platform. LazInStyle offers some 300 fashion brands from social commerce, and more beauty products for youth are to be added.
"We aim to increase exponentially small-business brands as part of Lazada's regional goal to have 8 million small brands by 2030," Ms Thanida said.
Lazada claims a regional roster of 400,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, of which 100,000 are in Thailand.
In the first quarter of 2019, the number of Lazada Thailand's female buyers rose by 8%. Clients of LazInStyle rose by 60% from the start of the year to the end of April.
In the first quarter, beauty products contributed 36% and fashion 29% of total woman products at Lazada Thailand.
The estimated sales value of Thailand's beauty market is 1.92 trillion baht this year, up 7.3% from last year, according to L'Oreal Thailand. Statista predicts the Thai fashion market to reach 32 billion baht this year.
Lazada plans to roll out its first Woman's Festival Campaign, blending online and offline activities, May 24-26 at Quartier Avenue in EmQuartier mall, with over 40 brands available.
The event will showcase Magic Mirror, an innovation by Alibaba that uses computer vision technology and artificial intelligence to let users "try on" clothes and cosmetics via an internet-connected mirror.
Ms Thanida said the economic slowdown has yet to have an impact on Lazada's sales.