Lazada and J&J tie up to help Southeast Asian brands reach Chinese consumers

Lazada Group and Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health (J&J) have partnered up to support emerging Southeast Asian brands in reaching and engaging more Chinese consumers. The partnership will leverage?Lazada's ecosystem in Southeast Asia (SEA) as well as J&J's market insights and offline distribution channels.

In a statement to Marketing, a J&J spokesperson said it seeks to offer a joint business solution together with Lazada to empower SEA start-ups that can further "uplift J&J?s leadership in the categories that it plays". Lazada has over 50 million annual active consumers and achieved over 100% year-over-year order growth across four consecutive quarters as of September 2019, according to a press release.

Qian Yi, GM of Lazada cross-border business, said the move is part of Lazada's commitment to accelerate the growth of the digital economy in SEA, and empower brands and sellers. Through the partnership, the company will be utilising J&J's consumer insights, digital marketing expertise and channel expansion model to further strengthen the connectivity between Southeast Asian market and Chinese consumers. This will bring more quality products and services from SEA to China, and eventually to the world, she said.

J&J China MD Tim Deng added that J&J has the inclusive end-to-end capability of incubating new brands in the cross-border eCommerce industry. "This strategic partnership with Lazada serves as a gateway that will allow us to 'bring out' local Chinese brands to reach Southeast Asian consumers, while at the same time 'bring in' Southeast Asian products to inspire Chinese consumers," he said.

In March, Lazada also boosted its cross-border operations for international brands and merchants to expand their reach to consumers. Among the moves are to bring onboard quality international brands and identify and nurture the top 300 brands among all cross-border sellers in each of the six countries that Lazada operates in, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. This will allow the specially selected brands to grow their business and enjoy benefits such as higher visibility of their products when users search and browse the site. Lazada also rolled out a refreshed selection of cross-border assortment on its platform.

New brands eyeing the SEA market through Lazada include Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, which opened?flagship stores on LazMall in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore on 30 May 2019. The move seeks to?dial up its eCommerce offering in the region. Its Malaysia?store marked the brand?s first eCommerce foray in the country, while its Singapore store sees the largest online inventory of products that is more than double its nearest eRetail distributor.

Read more: Johnson & Johnson opens APAC headquarters in Singapore Lazada and Citi unveil co-branded card for SEA consumers Lazada Singapore names new CMO Lazada unveils refreshed brand identity with new logo, tune and regional campaign Lazada launches in-app channel curating Indonesian fashion designers Lazada Malaysia taps on Entropia?s offerings for WECOMMERCE 2019 Lazada ties up with GroupM to bolster eCommerce solutions in Thailand