Lazada Provides Online Taxis, Follow Bukalapak & Shopee

Lazada hooked up with ride-hailing service provider ComfortDelGro in Singapore. This e-commerce company develops various products such as LazMall, Taobao, RedMart, and LazLive. With this partnership, ComfortDelGro services can be accessed through Lazada.

“With the added convenience of ordering a taxi, customers can take advantage of one application to shop, play and travel,” said Lazada Singapore CEO James Chang as quoted by Tech In Asia, Wednesday (21/4).

This feature is available in Singapore since April 8. The partnership comes roughly three months after ComfortDelGro added 25 private rental cars as part of a trial ride-hailing service.

James is optimistic that this will enrich the customer experience in shopping. Moreover, the company which is supported by Alibaba provides a variety of services including trade, logistics and payments in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Last year, Lazada added a flight ticket booking feature for users in Singapore and the Philippines. Now, Lazada provides transportation services from ComfortDelGro, including online taxis.

ComfortDelGro is a transportation company that provides bus, taxi, train and car rental services. The company, which was founded in 2003, also tested ride-sharing three months ago.

The company has a network of more than 40 thousand vehicles. ComfortDelGro has operations in Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, China, UK and Ireland.

Apart from ComfortDelGro, Lazada has partnered with Grab in Vietnam and Indonesia since the end of last year. The Lazada platform can also be accessed via a link embedded in the Grab campaign banner in Vietnam and Indonesia.

With this strategy, Lazada is targeting 300 million users by 2030. The company also recorded three-digit growth on an annual basis (year on year / yoy) in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Several Other Companies Have Developed SuperApp

Another e-commerce that provides a variety of services is Bukalapak. This Indonesian Unicorn provides logistic aggregator, shelter search, legal consultation, fintech to Mercury Fund Selling Agent (APERD).

CEO of Mandiri Capital Indonesia Eddi Danusaputro considered that the unicorn developed a superapp. “Bukalapak can be called a superapp, because it provides diversified services,” he said, last October (5/10/2020).

He considered that the move was aimed at cross-selling or selling new products to existing customers. In addition, to maintain loyal users and increase transactions, thereby accelerating the company’s efforts to make a profit.

Then Shopee also provides basic necessities, fresh products to ShopeeFood food delivery. Apart from e-commerce and Gojek, banks are starting to build super applications such as BCA, CIMB Niaga, and Bank Mandiri.

AirAsia airline also built a superapp. Indef Nailul Huda, a researcher at the Center of Innovation and Digital Economy, said that this step aims to strengthen the ecosystem.

This is done by mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and others. “One reason, this supports the efficiency of platform development costs,” said Nailul, last month (22/3).

“In the midst of a pandemic, an ecosystem development strategy through superapp can add services at a small additional cost.”

Digital service costs, which are almost the same, can be more economical if you add services in the application. Nailul gave an example of Shopee which added ShopeeFood’s food delivery service, without changing the appearance of the application much.

Launch Lazada Amanah Ahead of Ramadan

The e-commerce company Lazada launched a special channel for Muslim products under the name, Lazada Amanah. Lazada Amanah is intended as an online shopping center that answers the needs of Muslims, especially ahead of Ramadan.

Lazada Indonesia’s VP of Marketing Sawitri Hertoto said, Lazada Amanah offers the most complete collection of all Muslim products in one channel.

These products include fashion, food and beverage, health products, care, books and information sources, to the payment of zakat and infaq obligations.

Lazada Amanah also provides a MUI halal certification check feature that is integrated with the MUI website for products available on the Lazada Amanah channel.