High risk but evident high reward

We all want to have a safe and reliable online shopping mall ever since online shopping exploded on the Internet scene during the early 2000. Ecommerce was eventually born and what used to be just a source to get information became a platform for business opportunities. During the early 2000’s, not all countries were ready for Ecommerce yet. Most of the other countries can’t even match the technology where online shopping can be sustained. In our country, not everyone has the technology and even the average Internet speed requirement was far from reach. Another thing while Ecommerce wasn’t highly considered yet is that we consider the risks more. Therefore, it actually outweighs the benefit of doing online shopping. In the end, Ecommerce became stagnant on its penetration in local online market. It only started to have hope when we were slowly adapting to the other countries’ technologies and Internet revolution.

Nowadays, local brand smartphones and netbooks are available to the masses at very affordable prices. It eventually increased the number of the local online users. With the social media becoming more in demand than ever. It helped the Ecommerce setup the audience for the arrival of Ecommerce giants like Lazada last year. It was actually a perfect timing for their launch in the country as it was on the verge of rising. It’s actually the reason why previous Ecommerce companies that launched here in the country didn’t received much success or some even closed down. Philippines weren’t just prepared then. It actually is a learning experience for other online stores nowadays as they served as an example on how to establish Ecommerce website in the country the right way. When Lazada Online Mall came in the country, it actually started to change the Ecommerce perception of the local online users. Before, local online users were very hesitant to try online shopping, primarily because they are limited in payment method.

Conventionally, online stores required their customers to pay only via credit card. Evidently, this was an issue to local online users as majority of the population are not even credit card holders. So regardless is a visitor of an Ecommerce website is interested to buy and has the money to do it. They are left empty handed since they can only ay in cash. It’s actually their preference to pay in cash and face to face. They are almost guaranteed that they will be getting what they expect since they can inspect it first before actually paying the seller. This is the breakthrough that Lazada offered to local online users. They offered Cash on Delivery or C.O.D. It is a payment method that allows anyone to become customers regardless if they are able to pay in cash or credit card. This allowed Lazada to tap the untapped market of Ecommerce companies before them. Although, the risks were incredibly high, it was only the logical way for them to succeed in the penetrating local online market. Turns out it was the right choice for them as they are now one of the leading local Ecommerce websites in the country.