Lazada folds Redmart into its app in a bid to be ‘biggest e-commerce ecosystem’ in South East Asia
Lazada is scaling up its intentions to become the “the region’s biggest e-commerce ecosystem” by adding fresh groceries to its services, via its sister company Redmart.
Redmart announces it will become part of the Lazada service
Singapore will be the first to launch the new products on Lazada, meaning that shoppers only need to use one platform to buy from, as Lazada-owned Redmart inventory will be available through Lazada’s own site.
The Redmart app will be retired from 14 March, at which point customers will need to use the Lazada app to transact.
Jing Yin, co-president of Lazada Group, said, “We want to drive the evolution of grocery shopping in the region by combining our unparalleled assortment of products and superior logistics network to transform the way customers get their daily essentials and fresh produce. Most of us shop for groceries and other household items very frequently. This presents a unique opportunity for Lazada to be part of our daily lives.”
Lazada believes the grocery market is key to its growth as the South East Asian market is projected to be worth US $309bn by 2021. According to the business, Redmart is used by seven in ten people who buy groceries online in its home market of Singapore.
Competition is hotting up, however, with competition from Amazon and other local start-ups, such as Honestbee, which recently launched a physical location.
The move from Lazada will be more than just tech integration it says, with this announcement signalling a formalised move into the supermarket business. Leading this will be RedMart co-founder Roger Egan, who has been appointed Lazada group head of supermarket, in which he will oversee the expansion, launch and operations for Lazada’s supermarket business and delivery network across the region.
Lazada and Redmart are owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which took a majority stake in the business in 2016. Lazada and Redmart have a long history of cooperation and integration, linking transactions via loyalty scheme Live Up in 2017, a bid to shake off competition from Amazon.