How to optimise your product listings on Lazada

Congratulations, you are now officially a Lazada seller!

Whether you’re set to do business on LazMall or the local marketplace, or you’re an approved LazGlobal merchant getting into the Singapore market, being on the Lazada marketplace is just the beginning of your journey in eCommerce in Southeast Asia.

The next steps aren’t quite as simple as Lazada would have its new sellers believe. Sure, you can get your products listed in bulk on the marketplace, and start selling right away. If you want it to be, the process can be really quick.

However, not taking your time with your Lazada store would just make you look like every other online seller. And potential buyers notice when you’re not paying enough attention to what you list online.

So how can you make sure your product listings convert to consistent sales, and keep your customers engaged? Here are a few tips you can apply to your Lazada store, and any top Southeast Asia eCommerce platform.

Decorate your online store

If you’re selling your goods in an online marketplace, odds are you won’t ever have to worry about what your store looks like.

In this case, Lazada has taken care of your store’s general design or look. But for the more design- and experience-oriented sellers, it’s the same aesthetic that other Lazada sellers are starting with; and no one likes being just like everyone else.

The good news is you can tweak the existing design templates to suit your preferences and needs. Lazada provides five basic templates with customisable elements:

• Daily template
• Simple Banner template
• New Arrival template
• Best Seller template
• Marketing template

We suggest having your store logo, banner images, and other marketing collaterals ready for uploading before you start your customisation process for any template.

Also remember that you need to prepare your images in different sizes. Store logos should be 120 x 120 in size, in JPEG format, and with a maximum file size of 1MB. Banners will also have size variations. For example, for the Daily template, the desktop app will display a banner sized 1200 x 128, while the mobile app uses a 750 x 188-sized banner. Meanwhile, the Simple Banner template asks for 1200 x 600 banner images.

Go to the Seller Centre, click on the Promotions tab, and click on Store Design. From there, run the Design Tutorial tool so you can be guided at every step of whichever template you want to customise.

Aside from having a special Help Centre for its sellers, Lazada University provides you with educational resources for their store, including store design. Download and read this official Store Design guide for detailed steps per template.

You can also hire store designers at the Lazada Seller Marketplace if you want to outsource this task instead.

Determine exactly which products to sell

There are some products you can never sell on any Southeast Asia eCommerce platform—say, anything on the official prohibited-items list, as well as fake goods and products under certain scenarios.

But those don’t quite narrow down your assortment. You have to do that on your own. And it’s advisable to concentrate on a niche, unsaturated market. That way, you can promote your online store as the answer for consumer needs that are rarely or just occasionally met.

This is equally vital if you’re trading more conventional consumer products, as new Lazada sellers can sell only 500 active items when they start. That already sounds like a lot for some people, but sellers can get rid of that limit when they get 30 product orders within 90 days of eCommerce operations. So make your first 500 items count, and choose wisely!

Choose your words (and images) carefully

We don’t mean that as a threat, but as a gentle reminder for your eCommerce operations. Visual and text cues are all-important and non-negotiable, so you must put as much work in this part as the actual order shipping.

Everyone knows about how important search engine optimisation (SEO) is in web copy. But non-online sellers don’t always realize that product listings—from product categories and names to item descriptions, filters, and other attributes—can increase online findability!

Lazada University’s “How to Sell More on Lazada” document offers crucial tips for sellers to boost findability on this top Southeast Asia eCommerce platform, particularly for those selling in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. We’ve summarised these tips as follows:

• Make sure you place your product in the correct category
• For product names, use relevant and concise keywords and product attributes/descriptions that consumers often type into Lazada’s search bar. Follow this format: “Brand, Model, Attribute 1, Attribute 2.” An example of a good product name in this format would be “Apple iPhone 8 64GB Silver”
• Shoppers also use filters to narrow down their search results, so you must plug in the correct attributes for your products! For example, if you’re selling a dress, you should include every applicable attribute in your Standard Product Unit (SPU) information, not just the required fields. These include the dress’ style, pattern, length, sleeve style, material, and even listed year season
• Provide as much valid information on your product page as possible. Describe your product in realistic terms so shoppers will be convinced of its value to them—and because you currently have that product in stock, you can provide that value instantly

Now that your sales copy is all sorted, let’s move on to your product images. There are several related guidelines listed on both the aforementioned “How to Sell More on Lazada” document and Lazada Singapore’s Seller Centre:

• Every product listing must have three images minimum, and eight maximum
• These images must be sized 500 x 500 (smallest), with the largest limit set at 2000 x 2000 resolution
• Your product images must have a white background, “contain 80% of the canvas,” and not be deemed obscene
• The featured product must be unwrapped and be the clear focus in the photos
• No watermarks or graphics

You have three options for product photos. You can download them from official brand websites and press rooms, do your own product photography with a high-resolution digital camera and a lightbox, or hire a listed service provider from the Lazada Service Marketplace.

Videos can also be used to spruce up your product listing. However, take note that Lazada doesn’t like when sellers link to unboxing videos or product-review vlogs.

One last thing: Don’t forget to match your images and videos with your product names and keywords! If you’re selling an “Apple iPhone 8 64GB Silver,” double-check if the product photos and videos for it are of the true Apple iPhone 8 model in silver.

Price them right

This last stage in optimising your product listings is also the most delicate!

On the consumer side, the digits and decimals on your product can instantly mean “Sold!” or “Hard pass.”

For Lazada sellers, a bad price is like a warning sign in bold red and all-caps. If shoppers see even one product of yours that has undesirable high numbers on it, they will avoid looking at every listing you’ve got—which means zero sales for you!

So what goes into product pricing on a top Southeast Asian eCommerce platform like Lazada? Sellers must factor in five things:

1. Product cost
2. Commission fees - Lazada has varying commission fees per product category across its eCommerce Southeast Asia markets, so check the Pricing document linked above for more details
3. Shipping fees and tax duties - for both local sellers and those doing cross-border shipping
4. Other fees - such as fees for payment gateways
5. Seller’s expected margin

Again, we’ve checked out Lazada University’s resources, and found the following helpful advice for competitive product pricing:

• Never price your products above the standard ranges in physical stores. Online shopping should be convenient and affordable, not one or the other
• Similarly, don’t use a higher Recommended Retail Price (RRP) just so it yields a higher discount. Price your products attractively and responsibly
• Do extensive research on how your competitors handle pricing, and be careful with your own approach. Going above their ranges could make you lose out on sales, but going below could convey the message that your products have lesser overall value
• Also consider Lazada’s multisource function, where a product with multiple sellers are bundled into one product listing. Even the smallest differences in attributes, pricing and discounting can count here

Your next move

We’re just scratching the surface here. There’s a lot more to cover not just about optimising Lazada product listings, but also about overall eCommerce operations in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia!

Are you listing and selling your products on Lazada and other top Southeast Asia eCommerce platforms, and want to ship within your country and internationally?

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