Lazada Vietnam Strategic Report

Analysis of strategy of Lazada operating in Vietnam Lecturer: Le Thai Phong Members: 

Lê Phương Thảo – 1215340079



Đặng Quỳnh Trang – 1213340084



Phạm H ồng Hạnh - 1213340028



Tr ần Hà Phan - 1213340067



Phí Minh Dũng - 1214340013

INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTI ON ................................................................................................................... 3 PART I: BACKGROUND TO LAZADA’S ROAD TO INTERNATIONALIZATION ...... 4

 .......................................................................................... 4  .......................................................................................................... 4  ...................................................................................................... 5  ................................................................... 6  ................................................................. 7  ...............................................................12 PART II: BUSINESS STRATEGIES OF LAZADA IN VIETNAM...................................... 14 ........................................................................................................ 14  ............................................................................. 14  .....................................................................................................16  .........................................................................................................18  .........................................................................................18 . ................................................................................................19  ........................................................................................ 22 .......................................................................................................... 23 PART III: CONCLUSI CONCLUSION ON ..................................................................................................... 26 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 27

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INTRODUCTION Nowadays, thanks to the development of the computer science and the internet people can easily access to wide range of information such as news from other countries all over the world or communicate with people from many places. One of the most convenient things that these developments bring to us is that people now can go shopping just through some clicks on the internet. There are a lot of advantages from e-commerce on the internet. It helps increase the trading of consumer ’s goods, bring consumer closer to the manufacturer. E-commerce is another form of retailing. Now each page of ecommerce website is a store that serves its customers 24 hours a day. Consumers can choose from clothes to electronic appliances without going to many different places. Not only saving time for buyers, but also e-commerce creates a new potential market for retailers and manufacturers. However, e-commerce also creates competition for the manufacturers and retailers themselves. A company now must compete to other companies with wide ranges of products from different countries because foreign companies now easily access to the market through e-commerce. It is definitely an undeniable fact that e-commerce is a potential opportunity but it does hide some risks for the one who rushes to do that. Therefore, in order to know more deeply about e-commerce, we carry out this report. Because our major is Finance and Banking, this is the first time we have been carrying out such a deep research on this topic. Therefore, there should be some unavoidable mistakes due to our limited knowledge and time of research. We really appreciate your feedback on this so that we can do better next time. Last but not least, we really want to express how thankful we are for the fact that you have delivered one of the most interesting classes we have ever taken in Foreign Trade University.

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PART I: BACKGROUND TO LAZADA’S ROAD TO INTERNATIONALIZATION I.

A brief history of Lazada

The Wall Street Journal says: “E-commerce Start-up Lazada is moving quickly in its quest to become Southeast East Asia’s Amazon” . (November 21, 2014) 1. Lazada Group

Lazada is the leading online shopping website and selling destination for assorted merchandise in Southeast Asia, launched in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam in 2012 and launched in Singapore in May 2014. It provides a secure and convenient online shopping service with wide range products ranging from electronics appliances to household goods, clothes, and sports equipment. Lazada is also capable of delivering additional services such as multiple payment options, free returns and extensive customer service, and warranty commitments. The parent company of Lazada Group is Rocket Internet, a Germany internet company headquartered in Berlin. The company builds online startups and owns

shareholdings

in

various

internet

companies,

including

Dafiti,

Foodpanda, HelloFresh, Home24, Jumia, Jovago, Lazada, Zalora and Spotcap.

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Lazada has 9 main investors, which are Rocket Internet, Verlinvest, Investment AB Kinnevik, Temasek Holdings, Tesco, Access Industries, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Summit Partners. 2. Lazada Vietnam

Since establishing in Vietnam in February 2012, Lazada has gained the trust as a leading brand name in e-commerce all over the countries. Lazada Vietnam is pioneering e-commerce by offering a fast, secure and convenient online shopping experience with a broad brand and over 40,000 products in many categories ranging from mobiles and tablets and consumer electronics to household goods, toys and sports equipment. Lazada Vietnam always tries its best to provide customers the best possible offering: multiple payment options such as cash on delivery, free returns and extensive customer service and warranty commitments. Shortly after establishment, Lazada has launched the mobile application that helps the customer access easily and comfortably go shopping anywhere and anytime. This is the reason why Lazada exceeded 1 million orders, 85% of these orders in the city areas and 90% of them are delivered within the day. The good news to Lazada is that on June 2013, Verlinvest joined the current investors by injecting $100 million of capital into Lazada Group. This news increased the confidence of the investors in the wealthy growth of Lazada in Vietnam as well as the Southeast Asia region. All of above are evidences of Lazada Vietn am’s long term commitment to the region - all for customers' trust. Lazada.vn is trying to be the biggest retailing platform in Viet Nam.

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II. A brief view of Vietnam e-commerce According to Vietnam’s E-commerce and Information Technology Agency

(VECITA), by 2015, B2C e-commerce sales will reach more than $4 billion. Current sales are estimated to be around $2.2 billion, with an average spending of $120 per capita. The strong growth that has been predicted is primarily due to the fast increasing number of internet users. In 2013, Vietnam’s online population reached a total of 32.6 million use rs; this

represents 35.6% of the total population. The majority of these current users tend to be quite young, with 73% under 35 years old. Of current online shoppers, 59% are women and 41% are men. According to recent surveys, 92% of internet users go online every day. Most importantly, in terms of e-commerce, 61% of the country’s internet users have bought at least one item online. VECITA believes that by 2015, 40-50% of the country’s population will be online and will spend around $150 per capita on e-commerce purchases. The market today:

Currently, the e-commerce market is quite fragmented and there is no clear market leader. The industry has been somewhat slow to start due to the lack of experience many Vietnamese people have with the concept of online shopping. Many people don’t beli eve in the quality of products until they

physically touch them and they usually prefer to buy the item at a physical store after they have viewed it on a website. It is thus incumbent upon ecommerce companies to battle against this skepticism and create trust between the customers and the online shopping sites. Foreign companies (such as Rakuten) are entering the market and more local companies are merging with each other to remain competitive against the larger foreign competitors (Eg: CungMua and NhomMua). However, it is clear that the market is still wide open and relatively easy for new companies to make their entrance.

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III.

Result of Lazada’s business activities

Launched in 2012, Lazada has grown rapidly with operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and a sourcing center in Hongkong; also gained trust from many leading sector specialists and investors. Having been active for 3 years, Lazada has reached to $384 million in gross merchandise volume (GMV) at the end of 2014 driven by its rapid assortment growth and focus on delivering an effortless shopping and selling experiences to its customers and sellers. Changing to a marketplace model, it has been successful with revenue increasing more than 20 times from January to December 2014 and approximately 10.000 marketplace sellers active on the platform.

(Source: www.lazada.com) In marketing performance, Lazada has spent a huge of money for online marketing channels: Google Ads, Facebook Ads to attract unique visitors to its websites. According to its statistical analysis, more than 55 million unique 7|Page

visitors per month, more than 9 million mobile app downloads and exceeding 11 million fans on Facebook, its brand awareness has rapidly outgrown competition and created a lasting competitive advantage. Lazada becomes the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. The Economist says: “Lazada’s rapid growth has started to rouse competitors, including the big conglomerates whose shopping centers dominate the  region’s retail markets”. (May 7, 2015)

(Source: Rocket Internet FY 2014 Report) 8|Page

In financial performance,

Key financials and KPIs $ million GMV % growth Net revenues % growth Gross profit % growth Adj. EBITDA % of GMV % of revenues Cash position

Total orders (m) % growth Total transactions (m) % growth Total customers (m) % growth Active customers (LTM, m) % growth

FY 2013 94.8

75.5 5.2 6.9% (58.5) (61.7%) (77.4%) 251.8 1.2 1.3 0.9 0.8

FY 2014 383.8 304.8% 154.3 104.2% 22.4 14.5% (146.7) (38.2%) (95.1%) 198.0

3.4 176.1% 6.9 432.3% 3.9 352.2% 3.3

331.7% (Source: Rocket Internet FY 2014 Report)

As can be seen on the financial information above, we can also note that adjustment EBITDA loss more than doubled due to heavy expansion of own fulfillment fleet and investment into technology and marketing. One of the most key highlights of Lazada last year was that it secured a USD $200 million funding round from Temasek, a large investment company owned by the Government of Singapore and existing investors. Customer base is continuing to increase rapidly from 3.9 million at the end of 2014 to 5.3 million at the end of Q1 2015.

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Lazada is solving all of region challenges related to logistic and supply chain to become the best platform to customers.

Transport

South East Asia region is a

Lazada is developing solutions for

challenging environment

these challenges



Shallow,

unsophisticated



capability

and inefficient transport 

networks (3PLs) 

Ramp up of own fleet last mile

Granular

management

multiple 3PLs network

Long & variable lead-times 

Full technology integration with 3PLs

Fulfillment



Poor

warehouse



(main metro fulfillment center

infrastructure 

Ramp up of fulfillment network

& short tail fulfillment centers)

Limited 3rd party offering 

Build of own fulfillment centers (build to suit)

Supply



Chain

High variability of supplier



Low

&

coaching

of

merchants, simple & intuitive

sophistication 

Training

penetration

online platforms

of 

technology & online

Integration & control of supply chain with direct pick-up at merchant

Payment



Low

credit

card



on delivery

penetration & high costs 

Biggest & first network of cash

Low trust & fraud aversion



Credit card on delivery



Online wallet

(Source: Rocket Internet FY 2014 Report)

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Its network continues to expand: increasing last mile capability and number of integrated 3PL partnerships. According to Rocket Internet Report in March 2015, Lazada has achieved 85% of Lazada’s orders shipped within 48 hours,

58 last mile distribution hubs and 61 logistics partners.

(Source: Rocket Internet FY 2014 Report)

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IV. An analysis of Southeast Asia market

Southeast Asia is a big potential e-commerce market. According to Tech in Asia, investors poured over half of billion dollars into Southeast Asia ecommerce start-ups in 2013 - more than 90% of all publicly disclosed investments in Southeast Asian internet startups that year. Opportunity:

Increase in Internet users and digital buyers

(Source: International Monetary Fund, eMarketer, eCommerceMILO,…)

In Southeast Asia, the number of Internet users is increasing every year and accounts for a large percentage of total population, in which, more people are willing to spend on online shopping. As can be concluded, more than 31% of individuals in Southeast Asia had internet access in 2013, which is

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impressive when viewed in the context of penetration growth - 344 million internet users in 2005, and more than 999 million just six years later. Consumer spending

(Source: Rocket Internet FY 2014 Report) According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), middle class consumers in Southeast Asia accounted for 28% of the global middle class in 2009, and are expected to account for more than 50% by 2020. Spending by these middle class consumers accounted for 23% of total global spending in 2009, and is predicted to reach more than 40% by 2020. Challenge:

Market fragmentation Southeast Asia is a large, fragmented market, in which each country requires e-commerce companies to negotiate a different set of laws, consumer preferences and other complicating factors. Low Internet / Smartphone Penetration Although more people have Internet access, internet penetration in much of Southeast Asia remains low. According to 2012 data from ITU, internet penetration was below 40% of the population in Southeast Asian countries except for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. It was less than 20% in Indonesia, and in the single digits in the frontier economies of Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. 13 | P a g e

PART II: BUSINESS STRATEGIES OF LAZADA IN VIETNAM I. External analysis 1. Macro-environment analysis

a.

Politics

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a single-party state. Its current state constitution, which replaced the 1975 constitution in April 1992, asserts the central role of the Communist Party of Vietnam in all organs of government, politics and society. In 2011, Viet Nam held the 11th Congress of Vietnam Communist Party, in which happened the Election of the Party Central Committee for the new term. => The political situation in Vietnam is considered to be stable. b.

Economy

Following is the figure of the selected macro indicators of the economy in 2007 - 2011: Indicators

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

GDP growth (%)

7

6

5

6

6

CPI (%)

12.6

23.0

6.52

11.75

18.0

FDI commitments 21.3

66.5

21.5

18.6

15.0

Credit growth (%) 54

21

37.7

27.6

15.0

USD/VND

17486

18600

19500

21500

(USD Bn)

(bank 16016

rate)

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Vietnam's inflation 2007 - 2011 25

20

15

10

5

0 2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

CPI (%)

Economy was fluctuated. Inflation (CPI) and USD/VN exchange rate increase dramatically which makes VND lose value. People need to spend more and they want to save, so there was a big opportunity for Lazada with large discount programs. c.

Socio factor

According to the latest census data, Vietnam is the world’s 13th -most-

populous country, and the eighth-most-populous Asian country, with approximately 87.84 million people, of which the Viet or Kinh ethnic group constituted nearly 85.8% of the population; and 53 ethnic minority groups constituted the rest. This means that Vietnam has hugely potential consuming power. Moreover, Vietnam is also a young country when the medium age is only 29.2 years old. Middle and Upper Income class increase. Because young and rich people are keen on discovering and trying out new things, the service of Lazada are very likely to be caught on.

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d.

Technology

In terms of technology, Viet Nam is a rapidly developing country. Internet, mobile internet, smartphone and payment system has developed and improved with high rate, which is very important base for L azada’s success. Lazada can take advantages of this trend to develop smartphone applications to promote sales and provide e-commerce retails with a variety of products to Vietnamese customers. 2. Industry analysis

a. Threat of new entrants It is not rather difficult for Lazada to take entrance to Vietnam market at that time. Because e-commerce has not fully developed and popular in Vietnam, therefore it is a perfect raw material to build e-commerce from. Setting up a new e-commerce business in a country that is relatively new to online shopping has both infrastructural as well as psychological challenges. Vietnam market remains a lot of problems relating to payment methods, the quality of goods and services, the variety of products and fraud in shopping online. Therefore, building trust and educating customers who are new to online shopping has to be Lazada’s focus.

b. Bargaining power of suppliers Lazada is a retail company, not a manufacturer, so that it is rather easy to be allowed discount for products from the suppliers. The crucial thing is that Lazada should ensure and maintain a good business relationship with major partners for a variety of goods and the high quality of products to be able to bring the greatest value to Vietnamese consumers. c. Bargaining power of customers Vietnamese customers have great capacity for comparing and evaluating among online shopping websites to choose the best quality products with competitive price. However, Vietnamese tend to care more about the low price than the quality of goods, so that Lazada should focus on promotion campaigns and discount policy to attract their customers. 16 | P a g e

d. Threat of substitute products Almost online shopping companies in 2011 were not capable of taking advantage of potential e-commerce market in Vietnam. The goods and services providing remained many problems such as payment method, the quality of products, fraud occurred in online shopping. Therefore, it is necessary for Lazada to improve the trustworthiness and popularity for its quality in payment and delivery method, so that Lazada can win every customer’s trust and become their preference “one -stop” shopping

destination. e. Rivalry among existing competitors Vietnamese consumers got used to direct shopping for trials and evaluation.

Therefore,

markets,

supermarkets

or

department

stores

outweighed online shopping websites. However, the development of Internet, smartphone and payment systems (cash-on-delivery) creates a new shopping trend  –  online shopping which brings a convenient and timesaving shopping channel to customers. Moreover, to other online shopping websites such as vatgia.com, Zalora.vn, Lazada can take advantage of high-performance e-commerce platform and price policy to make sure it would remain competitive against them.

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II. Internal analysis 1. International strategies

Lazada uses local adaptation strategy in order to adapt with different countries in Southeast Asia with high pressures for local responsiveness. Definition

Local adaptation is the practice of global branding and localized adaptation to differences in local culture, legislation, etc. We researched some references to gain a deep understanding of this strategy which is used widely in marketing. In Innovative Marketing, Volume 3, Issue 4, 2007: “The

fundamental basis of the adaptation school of thought, is that the marketer is  subject to a new set of macro-environmental factors, to different constraints  such as language, climate, race, topography, occupations, education, taste, and to quite frequent conflicts resulting from different laws, cultures, and societies.”. (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1998).

We also investigated Chron website to find out Multi- domestic Strategy’s definition: “A company that follows a multi-domestic strategy fits its products

to each country in which it does business. The product features are tailored to the local domestic environment, taking into account different food preferences, religious customs and other characteristics that define the locality”. Case Study –  Lazada Vietnam

On entering in Vietnam market, Lazada has to face some challenges because of the difference in Vietnamese behaviors to these of other countries in Southeast Asia. In 12/2013, after two years of in-depth research about Vietnamese taste and planning for distribution channel, Lazada published its mission “Lazada – Building trust in Vietnamese customers”.

The first challenge, many Vietnamese customers will not trust in the product until they touch it as they feel unusual with online shopping and do not tend to make credit payment. Moreover, at this time, several scandals in some online shopping websites makes customer feel unsecured with e-commerce 18 | P a g e

industry. To solve it, Lazada offers a safety payment method by which customers will make payment in cash when their goods arrive. This kind of method requires more sophistication from delivery partner. Customers even choose whether they buy the product or not. It also provides refund policy in 30 days after receiving the product. The second challenge is establishing a professional delivery system across the country. Lazada has to build and manage well its delivery partners, who have responsibility to deliver on time and receive payment in cash from customers. 2. Business strategies

a. Corporate-level strategy Corporate-level strategy guides the organization as a whole. It is undeniable that the type of international corporate strategy selected for the firm is one of the most important factors to help protect the weaker countries from losing market share and the power of other stronger countries. Each firm, in the period of internalization, would choose the suitable strategies for them. In particular, Lazada is supposed to have some essential strategies needed to emphasize as follows: Lazada focuses on geographic diversification. With 6 branches operating in 6 countries, Lazada is now the fastest-developing online retail system in Asian. According to the final report 2013, it is the only foreign e-commerce website ranking in top 5 Vietnam retail websites which have the highest access level. About the market share, Lazada, in top 10 ecommerce websites in Vietnam, currently ranks the first, accounting for 30% of the market share, following by Chodientu.vn  –  29%, and Vatgia.com  –  15%. International corporate

strategy used by Lazada, we believe, is Multi-

domestic strategy by which companies try to achieve maximum local responsiveness by customizing both their product offering and marketing strategy to match different national conditions. Lazada has been providing Vietnamese customers with products of many well-known brands such as: Apple, Edugame, Canon, Fujifilm, Glasslock, Kova, Samsung, Sony, etc. With 19 | P a g e

the selected and reputable products, Lazada brings the safe , convenient and

joyful way to go online shopping for customers with a range of

electronics, housewares , kid toys and sport tools . It has been known that the lists of

Lazada’s

product focuses on luxury items that aim at high -

income people, HOWEVER, from now on, it is decided to extend the class of customer and satisfy the demand of any people. It is making much effort to give the best service to customers by the way of various factoring method, free product return, so forth. Lazada always have many activitie s to attract clients such as: “Street Ambassador of Lazada” –   instructing customers how to make online payment effectively, vouchers for any bills more than 600,000VND, etc. It can be seen that Lazada has spent much money on advertising itself and boosting customer satisfaction and retention.

International Corporate Level Strategy

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b. Business-level strategy

Unique features: 

Image of prestige or status Lazada has applied the "Differentiation Strategy" in its business level strategy. What they did to make customers perceive that they are different is that they give good quality service, good bargain for their prices and sometimes mark down some prices of original products for the customers to save money giving them the popularity that they are so widely acclaimed for. In an interview, Mr. Christopher Baselin , CEO and founder of Lazada Vietnam, revealed the desire that it will provide the 5-10% lower price than competitors.



Also, unlike E-Bay that only uses credit cards and Paypal as their source for transacting with clients, Lazada offers a wide variety of payment methods like using debit cards, cash on delivery and credit card installments which not many online shopping websites offer for their clients in Vietnam. By doing these modes of payments, customers can be assured of warranties and return policies thus minimizing the risk for products that are not in good condition and customers giving bad reviews about the organization.

Superior quality: 

What makes this different from their competitors is that all products, which are brand new, have gone through quality control unlike in EBay.vn, that you rely on photos to assure that their products are in good condition when the seller tells you that their product is in good shape.



Customers perceive them as being superior because they know that the products that Lazada offers range from widely known items to items that you don't come across in malls everyday, giving them an edge in the online business market.

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Advantages:

Developing differentiation strategy enables Lazada to

achieve some safeguards Competitors:  Lazada can defend against their competitors using

their differentiated services such as payment method and preferential policies Buyers:  Its reputation gained from advertising strategy and good

customer services could keep the current customers and attract many other people.  Substitutes:  Brand loyalty to differentiated products would help to

reduce customers’ testing new products and services or switching to other ecommerce website like Ebay, Enbac,… Risks: Other ecommerce websites have their own strength and Lazada has

to improve and develop continuously to keep pace with them. 3. Modes of market entry

a. Timing of entry

(Source: World Bank) In March 2012, Lazada Group decided to do business in Vietnam because they have foreseen the potential profitability of Vietnam market. To be more specific, at the end of year 2011, GDP growth rate of Vietnam experienced a slight increase, more than 5%. 22 | P a g e

With the population of more than 90 million (ranked 13th all over the world), Vietnam possesses a huge advantage in the labor resource. In addition, at the time of Lazada’ entry, e -commerce has just been a new

market in Vietnam, which is a potential market for Lazada to invest in. b. Scale of entry At the beginning, Lazada focused on developing in Ho Chi Minh City market to have time adapting to the market and reduce exposure risk. Then, after a period of operations, Lazada tended to expand its scale by setting up new office and warehouse in Hanoi. Lazada aimed at addressing new market opportunities by fostering and growing partnerships base with Hanoi sellers, understanding and adapting to regional market as well as ensuring best quality across the country. International entry mode The

international

entry

mode

that

Lazada

applied

when

going

internationally is wholly owned subsidiary which “operates independently of

its parent company, with its own senior management structure, products and clients, rather than as integrated division or unit of the parent company” (ehow.com).

This allows Lazada Group to control tightly the operations, experience Vietnam market, expand the scale of economies without risk of losing technology. However, Lazada Group has to bear high risk and cost if occurring. 4. Performance

After three years of operation, Lazada Vietnam has emerged as the best performer among e-commerce websites in Vietnam, with its 2014 revenue  jumping five times over a year earlier and exceeding the average level on the market. This is a leading e-commerce service tailoring the shopping needs of customers with 300,000 products from more than 1000 brands.

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Pioneering e-commerce in the region, Lazada is the only one which is voted as “trustworthy brand in Vietnam 2014”.

According to recent research of Alexa.com  –   Actionable analytic for the web, Lazada is ranked in the list of leading B2C e-commerce websites in Southeast Asia.

(Source: comScore media metric) In terms of market leading mobile platform, Lazada is ranked among top 4 shopping applications in Google Play and featured as “Best New App” by

Apple. On 26th March 2015, Lazada is ranked 1st in shopping list of mobile apps on Android and iOS and there are over 1 million application downloads up to now. Only after 9 months from its operations, did Lazada.vn have more than 23 million visits to the website. Referring to report of the year end 2013 of comScore, Lazada is the only international brand among the Top 5 retail websites in Vietnam with more than 2,3 million daily visits.

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DAILY VISITS (MILLION) 7 6.3 6

5

4

3 2.3

2.2 1.9

2

1.7

1

0

Vatgia.com

Lazada.vn

5giay.vn

enbac.vn

thegioididong.com

According to the Vietnam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency under Ministry of Industry and Trade, the websites ranked first among 216 ecommerce sites by revenue in 2014, and held 36% market share, followed by sendo.vn with 14.4%, zaloza.vn with 7.2%, tiki.vn with 5.4% and ebay.vn with 3.6%. In 2014, Lazada Group announced it had attracted 200 million euros in investment capital from major corporations in the world, including Singapore’s Temasek, to boost operations in six ASEAN markets –   Indonesia,

Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Moreover, Lazada has created new cooperation relationship with famous brands such as FPT, Lingo, Sony, Phillips, Samsonite and other major brands to provide customers with a variety of goods and to stimulate the development of e-Commerce market in Vietnam; strategic corporation with trustworthy partners such as MasterCard, Huggies, Luminarc, Bosch as well as Citibank, TPBank to provide products with competitive price compared with others.

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PART III: CONCLUSION Having three-year operation in Vietnam, Lazada Vietnam has gained many significant achievements: 2nd ranking in Vietnam online retailing with 22% market share (after ChoDienTu  –  29%) and be predicted to be a king of Vietnam B2C e-commerce market. In fact, due to high expenditure on marketing and operation, Lazada has not gain profit which may last in several years. However, its target in Vietnam is increasing its market share, revenue and brand awareness, not maximizing profit. Through analysis of Lazada’s international strategies in the spec ific market of

Vietnam, we can gain valuable knowledge and experience, especially about the market knowledge of the manager of Lazada in a potential market as Vietnam. The internet in Vietnam is changing so fast, and it is not only the chances but also the challenges for the managers of Lazada to improve their strategy. Although the number of orders and visits in the website are increasing, Lazada still has to overcome the bad reputation problems. In the forthcoming future, Lazada can improve and strengthe n its customers’ experience by conducting more behavior research to have customer insight, following appropriate marketing strategies and applying a stricter and more effective management policy. For example, it can build a community where people can give or receive advice from other customers in choosing goods. We hereby would like to express our deepest gratitude for your direction and constant support during the making of this assignment.

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REFERENCES 1.

Charles Hill - Gareth Jones, 2008, Essentials of Strategic Management, 2nd edition

2.

Rocket Internet, 2015, “Lazada –   Largest eCommerce Platform in South East  Asia”, Rocket Internet - 2014 Annual Results Presentation

3.

Demetris Vrontis (Cyprus), Alkis Thrassou (Cyprus), 2007, “Adaptation vs.

 standardization in international marketing  –   the country-of-origin effect”, Innovative Marketing, Volume 3, Issue 4 4.

Will Greene, 2014, “E-commerce in Southeast Asia: Opportunities and Challenges for Continued Growth in 2014” , Tigermine Ventures

http://www.tigermine.com/2014/01/16/e-commerce-southeast-asiaopportunities-challenges-growth-2014/ 5.

Edward Barbour-Lacey, 2014, “Vietnam Online –  Understanding Vietnam’s Ecommerce Market”, Vietnam Briefting

http://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/vietnam-online-understandingvietnams-e-commerce-market.html/ 6.

Terence Lee, 2013, “Lazada is now king of Vietnam’s B2C e -commerce market, but it’s sad that competitors are dying” , Tech in Asia

https://www.techinasia.com/lazada-king-vietnams-b2c-ecommercemarket-sad-competitors-dying/ 7.

Vuong Nguyen, 2014, “CEO Lazada Việt Nam: Mua s ắm b ằng Smartphone là

 xu hướ ng của tươ ng lai”, an interview with Alexandre Dardy  –   CEO Lazada Vietnam, Cafebiz http://cafebiz.vn/thi-truong/ceo-lazada-viet-nam-mua-sam-bangsmartphone-la-xu-huong-cua-tuong-lai-20141026232149906.chn

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8.

Lazada source 2014, “Lazada at the forefront of VN e -commerce, says CEO”, Viet Nam News, BizHub

http://bizhub.vn/business-insight/8739/lazada-at-the-forefront-of-vn-ecommerce-says-ceo.html 9.

Alexa.com, “Site overview – Lazada.vn”,

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/lazada.vn 10. Hung Le, 2015, “Lazada best performer among e -commerce sites”, The Saigon Times http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/40011/Lazada-best-performer-among-ecommerce-sites.html 11. Br. Anthony Ba, 2011, SJ  –   Alberto Hurtado Center, ““P.E.S.T.L.E” REPORT ON VIET

NAM

2011”,

http://sjapc.net/sites/default/files/vietnam_general_report_2011-_english.pdf 12. Dr. Alan Pham, 2011, Vietnam Macro Issues in 2011, VinaCapital Investor Update Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam http://www.vinacapital.com/userfiles/file/Investor_Update_2011_Macro.pdf 13. The World Bank Data

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