Lazada invests ‘massively’ on logistics to enhance customer experience

CABUYAO, LAGUNA – Towering racks filled with LCD TVs, boxes upon boxes of baby diapers and workers wearing Santa hats welcomed the media on Sunday as Lazada showcased its backbone operations during the 11.11 shopping festival.

Although 80 percent of transactions were done using mobile phones, the “DNA” of the country’s biggest e-commerce business is its logistics and fulfillment center, according to the company’s CEO for Logistics Juan Pavez Spencer.

Lazada has been spending “a couple of million dollars” a year to enhance its warehouse and fulfilling system, he said.

“The logistics in Lazada is part of our DNA. We are a platform that actually invests into logistics massively. We believe that without logistics, specially in Southeast Asia, it’s difficult to bring the best customer experience,” Spencer told ABS-CBN News.

Lazada’s 54,000-sqm warehouse here is the platform’s biggest single-fulfilment center in Southeast Asia. It has a total storage capacity of 5 million items, Spencer said.

Conveyor belts in the warehouse streamline the process for faster picking, transfer and delivery of goods. Sorting of items, to some extent, is also automated.

With over 30,000 sellers on the platform, 50 million deals today and 80 million items available in the Philippines, Lazada had to increase its workforce to 1,400 from the usual 300 as the influx of orders is expected during the 11.11 shopping festival and the Christmas season, Spencer said.

“As you can see, we are 54,000 sq.m. so that’s really very long walking distance. We try to help our pickers by providing them point of injections or picking conveyors.

“Usually, we try to automate the sorting process. This is how we use automation. We use it where it makes sense in the process,” Spencer told ABS-CBN News.

Some items can be delivered in 2 days, some the next day, and in select areas, orders placed before 11 a.m. can be delivered within the day, Spencer said.

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— Jessica Fenol (@JessFenol) November 11, 2018

Same-day delivery is available for items fulfilled by Lazada in Makati, Taguig, Paranaque, Pasay, Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, Quezon City, Binan, Cabuyao, Calamba, San Pedro, Santa Rosa, Los Banos, Alfonso, Amadeo, Bacoor, Dasmarinas, Gen. Trias, Imus, Indang, Mendez, Silang, Tagaytay and in Metro Cebu, Lazada said.

Lazada, owned by Jack Ma’s Alibaba, has also opened warehouses in Cebu and in Davao to bring “the best customer experience” to every corner of the country.

In the Philippines, 30 million users visit Lazada’s website every month while a total of 27 million users follow the platform on Facebook or equivalent to more than 25 percent of the population, he said.