Lotus's MY runs affiliate marketing programme in digital-first push

Hypermarket chain Lotus’s Malaysia has partnered with Southeast Asian partnership management platform impact.com for a hypermarket affiliate marketing programme. Since acquiring Tesco’s operations in Malaysia, Lotus’s Malaysia is entering the market digital-first, focusing on its eCommerce growth and digital marketing journey.

With the partnership, Lotus's Malaysia said it will be able to grow and scale its programme and work with other types of partners to acquire new customers by streamlining its campaigns with better control and transparency. This will complement the company’s omnichannel marketing plan to bring in more traffic and subsequently, sales to its eCommerce platform, Lotus’s Shop Online.

Through a partnership management platform, retail brands can gain better returns on advertising spend by having direct control and customisation of the payouts and campaign-related costs with each partner and the transparency of the value and revenue that the company may bring. Through impact.com’s platform, Lotus’s Malaysia is aiming to grow its reach and drive footfall into its outlets as well as raise brand engagement through partnerships. 

The partnership is for a year and the goal is to enrich Lotus's' full funnel marketing strategy, to drive traffic and sales conversion. "We are confident the goals are achievable in 2023 with dedicated plans in place by both organisations," the spokesperson said.

Vivian Yap, executive director, Lotus’s Malaysia, said that the company sees real potential for the supermarket retail industry to grow beyond traditional advertising." We want innovation to be the key to how we reach our customers, whether it be through our online platform or reaching out to them authentically with content partners. Through our affiliate partnership programme with impact.com, we have primed to enhance our marketing strategy for accelerated growth," she added.

Meanwhile, impact.com's Southeast Asia GM, Antoine Gross, said the team has worked with many brands in Southeast Asia which have seen considerable success and foresee a growing demand for affiliate marketing for brands in Malaysia as an alternative to traditional online advertising. "Affiliate partnerships will pave the way for more targeted, controlled, and low-risk retail marketing that is optimised based on performance," he said.

Lotus's Malaysia was previously known as Tesco Malaysia. It renamed in early 2021 after its parent company sold its business in Malaysia and Thailand to Charoen Pokphand Group for US$10.6 billion in 2020 to "further simplify and focus the business". In December that same year, Lotus's Malaysia helped SMEs to rebuild post-pandemic with the launch of its "Buy Malaysia" campaign with the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs.

Meanwhile on the marketing front, Sammy Chan, head of brand and loyalty at Lotus's Malaysia left earlier this year to join SEEK as country marketing head for Malaysia. She was with Lotus's for over five years, during which she led branding, marketing and strategies across brand communication, digital, eCommerce, Clubcard loyalty programme and local store strategies.

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