Are you planning to sell online at one of the largest e-marketplaces in Malaysia? Here’s everything you need to know in order to start selling on Lazada!
As compared to other e-marketplaces especially Shopee (read how to sell on Shopee here), you might find it not so straight-forward to get started with Lazada Seller Center, especially if you are new to selling online.
You can’t blame Lazada for this as they are pretty stringent in verifying the sellers to minimize fraudulent sellers and counterfeit products on their platform.
Despite the tedious requirements, the entire process from signing up a seller account to uploading your products is actually easy if you follow this article.
Why choose Lazada?
First of all, it is obvious that Lazada is one of the top e-marketplaces in Malaysia. Lazada is also available in Southeast Asia countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.
According to SimilarWeb, Lazada Malaysia attracted 24 million visits in March 2019. Besides the website traffic, Lazada also has a strong mobile app install base.
With a huge base of traffic and reach, you just need to set up and list your products on Lazada to entice your potential customers. Do take note that the competition is stiff too so you actually need to be competitive.
If you don’t already know, there is no startup cost required to sell on Lazada. You can simply signup for a seller account and upload as many products as you wish. Lazada will only charge a 2% payment fees on every order made. As a seller, you can choose to either absorb this cost or add on to the product price for your customers to pay.
Types of Lazada sellers
There are 3 types of Lazada sellers, as you can refer below:
LazMall Seller:
- You are a brand owner or authorized distributor
- Exclusive access to dedicated LazMall campaigns
- Benefit from higher overall search ranking
- Additional seller tools
- Pay commission only when you sell
Local Seller:
- You are based locally
- Access to a wide array of seller tools
- 0% commission
LazGlobal Seller:
- You are based in China / Korea / Japan
- You are a registered business
- Ship products to Lazada overseas sort center
- Access to a wide array of seller tools
- Pay commission only when you sell
Have you read the stories of these Lazada sellers?
8 benefits of selling on Lazada
#1. Zero commission fee on the product sales. Good news! If you are a Malaysian local seller, you can now able to enjoy a 0% commission fee starting from 1st July 2018, regardless of what product category you are selling. With zero commission rate, you are able to adjust your sales margin at the same time offer competitive prices for your customers. Do take note that this exclusive offer is not applicable to official brands (LazMall sellers) and cross-border sellers from other countries (LazGlobal sellers).
#2. Gain exposure for your products and store. As mentioned earlier, Lazada has 24 million monthly visits (as of March 2019) and there are many product searches and discover on both the website and mobile app. Therefore, if you are able to create relevant keywords and promotions for your products, there is a good chance for your product listing to be discovered by your potential customers.
#3. Higher trust and confidence in your products. With Lazada being the trusted e-marketplace with listing, return, cancellation policies in place to protect the buyers’ interest, the chances of customers doubting your credibility (especially if you are a smaller or even unknown brand) is smaller compared to placing their first order via your own online store.
#4. Ride along with the big promotion campaigns. There are many campaigns running on Lazada at any time to stimulate sales on the platform. The major campaigns like big festival seasons, 11.11, 12.12 and Lazada Birthday are not to be missed by the sellers to gain big sales opportunities. It is not a surprise to hear from the bigger sellers that for example, sales in a single day during 11.11 is almost equivalent to the volume of an average month.
#5. Design and customize your own Lazada store. You are able to customize the presentation of your store via the Lazada Seller Center. You can either use the default look and feel, or create a new version based on your preference. Besides for brand differentiation, best seller items can be placed at the top of the landing page to attract the customers and increase the click-through rate (CTR).
#6. Create unique product content with Lorikeet. Lorikeet is a tool provided by Lazada allowing you to beautify the product content with ready templates or your own customization. You can enrich your product description in a more informative and attractive way to boost your conversion rate (CVR).
#7. Store and product sales performance report. With Lazada Seller Center, you will have access to the reports like store traffic, top-selling products etc. Data with actionable insights is important for any e-commerce business to improve and gain more sales in the future.
#8. Real-time live chat support. Lazada provides live chat tool on both the website and mobile app for customers to contact the sellers. This is crucial for customers to clarify any question regarding the products they intend to buy, subsequently improve the conversion rate (CVR).
Challenges of selling on Lazada
#1. High competition for sellers. The number of SKUs on major e-marketplaces like Lazada is immense, it is very likely to encounter other sellers who are selling the exact same product you are offering. Furthermore, you are not only facing competition from the local sellers but also from cross-border (LazGlobal) sellers from countries like China, Korea, Japan etc. Your business isn’t going to take off if you don’t price your products competitively.
#2. Restriction on creating variants for certain products. For some product categories, there is no option provided for the seller to create product variations which might be a hurdle for some sellers.
What do you need to prepare to start selling on Lazada?
In the past, only companies registered under SSM are eligible to apply to sell on Lazada, with SSM documents, company bank statements etc. are required for Lazada’s review.
However, Lazada has since lifted the barrier by opening the application to individual sellers too. Therefore, everyone can apply to be a Lazada seller as long as you are local and own a bank account.
For your reference, these are the items required for the signup application:
- Basic personal details: mobile number, email address, working/warehouse address
- A copy of your IC (photo, front and back)
- Bank account number & documents
After signing up, you will need to prepare:
- Product details
- Product images
- Packaging weight & dimensions of the product
How to signup as a Lazada seller?
Before you start, first check the products you are planning to sell are not listed in the Lazada Prohibited and Controlled Product List (or check here, login to Lazada Seller Center is required). Besides that, do take note that counterfeit products are prohibited as well.
Unlike in Shopee which allows you to have 1 account to serve as both seller and buyer, Lazada requires two separate accounts for this purpose. If you already have a Lazada shopping (buyer) account, you still need to head over to Lazada Seller Center to signup for the seller account.
1. Go to Lazada Seller Center, click “Become A Seller” to register a seller account.
2. As mentioned earlier in the article, there are 3 types of seller: LazMall, local and LazGlobal seller. If you are selling from Malaysia and you are not representing any official brands, select Local Seller.
3. To sign up as a seller, you are required to provide your mobile phone first for verification. Then, fill in the rest of the details such as username and password.
4. Fill up the Business, Warehouse and Return addresses to complete your profile. If three of them are the same address, you can mark “Same as Warehouse/Return Address” and it will be populated automatically.
5. Once you are done with your address book, you have completed 33% of the to-do list. Now, click on the next step to upload your products.
You can add product one by one, or click “Batch Upload” to upload products by bulk.
6. Next, enter the basic product details: Long and Short Description. For Short Description, you can insert text and multiple images to show additional information about your product.
As for Long Description, you can enrich the content using Lorikeet to insert text and multiple images with drag and drop method. Without using Lorikeet, Lazada will consider your product as not attractive and unlist your product.
There are also built-in templates available that might fit into your product category. If templates available are not the right fit, you can click “Create New” to create your own design.
You might find it difficult if you are using Lorikeet for the first time, in this case, you can select the old version as the interface could be easier to use.
The screenshot below shows the old version of Lorikeet. The left bar shows the edit options and the preview are shown in the center. You are able to design for both mobile and desktop version.
Let’s start by designing for the mobile version. To insert image and text, select “Image & Text” and click “Edit Content”.
On the right bar, select which component you wish to add (image, text, and link). To add an image, click on the photo icon to upload an image and adjust the size of the image. You are also allowed to add image and text together. Click “Save” once you are done.
You can upload multiple images to show the variation of the product (different colors, sizes).
After save, you will be able to see the preview at the center. Just select the module from the left bar again if you want to add extra information. Besides image and text, you can add a table as well which will be useful for products like fashion to display a size chart.
Once it’s done, you can now duplicate this design to the desktop version if you want both the versions to have the same design. Just click “Copy from Mobile” and apply it to PC. Click ‘Save’ and close the Lorikeet decorator screen.
7. Fill up the rest of the details required: Package Weight, Package Dimensions and Brand.
8. If your product is available in different variations, enter the variation one by one. You can add an image for each variation.
9. Add new SKU for each of the product variations with SellerSKU, Quantity, Price, Taxes and Special Price (if any).
Note: Remember to consider and factor in the 2% Payment Fee into the price of the product.
10. Once it’s done, click “Publish” and your product will be listed successfully. To continue uploading the next product, click “Add Another Product”, or click “Done” if you prefer to upload it later.
11. Whenever you need to add new products, just click “Add New” to create a new product or you can click on Products from the menu bar and select “Add Products”.
12. Good job as you have now completed 67% of the to-do list. Now, select the third step to verify your ID and Bank information.
13. First, you have to enter the information of your name, IC number and a copy of your identity card to verify that you are a legit local citizen.
14. Next, provide your bank account information. Click “Submit” when you are done.
Congratulations, you have done setting up your Lazada seller account! You can now look forward to your first ever order at Lazada.
As a seller, you are responsible to check incoming orders from Lazada Seller Center every day or frequently to optimize order fulfillment hence increase customer’s shopping experience.
Lazada has developed a shipping standard for all sellers that all orders must be packed and dropped off at the courier pickup or Lazada drop off station within 24 hours. Failing so might lead to order cancellation. You can check the order fulfillment guidelines by Lazada below.
How to fulfill the orders at Lazada?
1. While you will receive an email notification for every incoming order, you are advised to login to the Lazada Seller Center regularly to check orders.
Go to Orders, select “Manage Orders” to check orders.
2. You need to pay attention to pending orders, you can click “+” on the leftmost column to view the order details. Watch out for multiple products ordered within the same order as some products need to be packed separately to avoid bulky packaging.
You can view the buyer’s name, address and product ordered in order details.
3. When you are ready to ship, click “Ready To Ship” in the last column and select a Delivery Provider based on the payment method used by the customer, then click “Create Package”.
Note: Delivery provider options are populated based on the payment method selected. There are 2 types of payment method: Prepaid (paid by credit/debit card or bank transfer using payment gateway) and COD (cash on delivery, to be paid upon delivery).
| Payment Method | Delivery Provider |
|---|---|
| Prepaid | LEX, SkyNet, GDEX, PosLaju etc. |
| COD | LEX, Ninjavan, Ta-Q-Bin |
4. You will then be prompted with this screen with Order Number, Items and Invoice Number. While the invoice number is created automatically by Lazada, you can change it if you want to. Click “Save Invoice ID” to proceed.
5. You can now pack the order by following this requirement by Lazada.
6. After you saved the invoice number, you will be prompted with a print dialog in order to print out the invoice. Before you seal the packaging, remember to insert the printed invoice inside the parcel.
7. The printed column will turn from cross to tick after you print the invoice.
8. Click “Ready to Ship” and a Tracking ID will be shown.
9. Next, printing option and copies of shipping labels will be prompted.
For LEX, only the Receiver Copy and Merchant Copy of the shipping label are required to be printed out. For other providers such as SkyNet, GDEX and PosLaju, you need to print 4 copies of the shipping label by following these instructions:
- Every copy must be printed in Landscape layout and in A5 paper size.
- Receiver Copy: Stick this on the package.
- POD and Billing Copy: Insert into the plastic pouch and stick on the package.
- Merchant Copy: This is for your own reference and record.
- Make sure every bar code can be clearly seen on the packaging.
10. Once it’s done, click “Ready To Ship” to update the status from “Pending” to “Ready to Ship” and your customers will be notified that their order is now ready to ship. The updated orders will then move to “Ready to Ship” tab.
11. Now, you can prepare for the parcel to be dropped off at your nearest 3PL branch. Once the delivery provider has picked up your parcel, the order will move from “Ready to Ship” to “Shipped” tab.
To track the order, enter Order Number on the tab to check the progress. Once it’s delivered to the customer successfully, the order will show “Delivered” under the “Completed” tab.
What is the shipping rates of Lazada?
The final shipping fee to be paid by the customer is either the actual weight (by kg) or volumetric weight (by dimensions), whichever higher.
That’s why every seller needs to fill in the package weight and dimension for each product. Refer to the tables below on Lazada shipping rate card by 3 regions.
Lazada shipping rate card for Klang Valley
Lazada shipping rate card for West Malaysia
Lazada shipping rate card for East Malaysia
Tips to run promotions on Lazada
In order to stand out from the vigorous competition, you need to consider running promotions on Lazada to attract traffic and boost your sales.
You can run promotions either all year long, or valid for a certain period only. Read on to find out what kind of promotions you can execute on the platform.
Join Lazada Campaigns
As mentioned earlier in this article, there are campaigns running all year round especially the bigger ones like 11.11, 12.12, Lazada Birthday etc. which provide sellers with the opportunity to grow their sales.
Go to Seller Center > Promotions > Campaign Management to check out the latest campaigns, click on the campaign you are interested to find out more.
For example, you can check the requirements and conditions required to join Lazada Daily Flash Sale in the screenshot above. Take note on the campaign period and time left to register on the right too.
Next, add the product(s) you are planning to offer and submit for Lazada’s review. Your promotions proposal will only go live if it’s approved by Lazada.
Offer Free Shipping
Free shipping is a very common offer for online shoppers and Lazada provides you options to customize your free shipping promotions.
Go to Seller Center > Promotions > Free Shipping > Create New Promotion > Insert Promotion Name & Budget > Set Configurations.
Sellers can offer free shipping in such way:
- Long term or specific period only
- No conditions or order above minimum quantity or amount
- All regions or specific regions only
- Applicable to the entire shop or specific products only
Product Bundling
As the name suggests, you can combine multiple products into bundle promotions with more value to the customers. It can be the same products (buy 2 at a cheaper price), or the bundled products are related to each other.
This is also a useful tactic to tag a less popular product with a hot selling product to clear your stock.
You can offer product bundling promotions by:
- Combo: Buy item A and item B together at a cheaper price
- Quantity: Discount for buying similar products
- Free Gift: Buy 1 main product and choose 1 selected item for free
- Buy 1 Free 1: Buy item A and free item A
To create product bundling promotions, go to Seller Center > Promotions > Bundles > Add New Promotions > Insert Promotion Details > Add Products.
Distribution of Vouchers
As you might already know, you can offer discount vouchers with a minimum purchase. The discount voucher offered can only be used within your store only.
You can refer below on an example showing vouchers offered by a store at Lazada. Your customers can collect the voucher either from your store or the product page.
That’s it, we hope you can now master some basic knowledge to start selling on Lazada!
Feel free to visit Lazada University if you need to find out more tutorials, or attend Lazada training workshop which is available from time to time.
original article from https://www.ecinsider.my/2019/05/how-to-sell-on-lazada-malaysia.html