Alibaba’s Lazada courts Armani, D&G to fend off Shopee, TikTok in Southeast Asia

The e-commerce platform is broadening its luxury segment to ramp up sales in key markets from Indonesia to Singapore

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Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Lazada is tapping into the luxury segment to help grow its sales. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 11:15am, 11 Oct 2024

Alibaba Group Holding’s Lazada is courting top European fashion and design brands to help fend off Asian rivals and eventually reach its goal of US$100 billion in e-commerce volume by 2030.

Executives met this week in Milan with founders and managers of more than a hundred Italian brands interested in tapping Southeast Asia through LazMall Luxury, a recently launched platform. Those included Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Ferragamo and Tod’s, chief business officer Jason Chen told Bloomberg News.

That courtship is one aspect of a campaign to try and fend off Sea’s Shopee, ByteDance’s TikTok and PDD Holdings in a Southeast Asian online commerce arena expected to reach US$186 billion by 2025. TikTok and Shopee in particular have vied fiercely for merchants and shoppers in key markets from Indonesia to Singapore.

“Lazada is ready to ramp up as entering this new phase of e-commerce development, where profitability, commercialisation and long-term gains are priorities for the business,” Chen said in an online Zoom interview. “The current push to broaden our luxury segment will further fuel these efforts as we reinforce our brand positioning.”

Lazada competes against Sea’s Shopee, ByteDance’s TikTok and PDD Holdings in the Southeast Asian online shopping market. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Lazada and AliExpress are at the heart of Alibaba’s business outside China, now among its fastest-growing divisions because of an economic downturn back home.