Lazada's refreshed LazMall is ushering in the era of worry-free online shopping in a pandemic age

If brick-and-mortar stores located along the Orchard Road shopping belt weren’t already having a tough time before the Covid-19 outbreak, they sure are struggling now with even lower footfall due to safe distancing restrictions and measures. The coronavirus has pretty much hit the fast-forward button in the world of retail, administering a tectonic shift to e-commerce. 

Which is great for us shoppers! The golden age of convenience we’re living in now gives us access to more stuff than ever before, and all within the safety of our own homes. 

But then again, there’s the tricky part of navigating through a minefield of e-commerce scams — especially now when people rely on online shopping more than ever before. Scammers have been taking advantage of the pandemic to cash in, and the Singapore Police Force has seen a sharp spike in the number of cases online shopping fraud cases this year, by as much as 116.2 per cent. 

So what’s the best solution then? Enter LazMall, Lazada’s all-encompassing platform that hosts a bevy of top-rated international and local brands and promises a worry-free shopping experience with no fear of getting duped. 

Revamped LazMall

In case you might not have noticed, the largest virtual mall in Southeast Asia underwent a revamp ahead of the big shopping festival on Sept 9 (more on that later). 

In an effort to cater to a new crop of consumers, some who have made their foray onto eCommerce this year, the platform has been outfitted with four new features that ought to make online shopping even breezier. 

Beat the Price

As Singaporeans, deal-hunting lives in our bones. The job is made effortless on LazMall with how it lets you find market-beating prices on top-selling products on a daily basis without having to trawl through pages of listings. Who’d say no to paying less? 

Brands for You

We’ll never fully understand the magic of algorithms that analyse our browsing habits online, but we sure love the convenience of having products suggested to us without having to search for long. Based on our interest and recent interactions, LazMall will offer a customised set of recommended brands to check out. 

Brand Directory

With over 18,000 brands hawking their wares on LazMall (and much, much more coming onboard during the pandemic), you’d think it would be a wee bit tough trying to find a specific one you need to purchase from. The new directory should be able to help shoppers access and navigate the comprehensive index of all brands across various categories, so you can quickly find, say, that Adidas Ultraboost 20 you’ve had your eye on. 

Follow Button

Like a certain brand or store that you’ve bought stuff from? Hit that follow button to stay subscribed to their latest updates on deals and offers so you won’t miss the next big price slash. New followers will even be rewarded with vouchers to use on the seller’s store and continue getting them for their loyalty. 

A worry-free experience

When we mentioned that you should expect more brands joining the virtual mall, we really do mean there’s going to be a lot more, including major department stores such as Robinson’s. So far, 30 tenants from Marina Square, as well as big names like Starbucks and Under Armour have established their digital storefront on the platform in the last six months alone. 

Therein lies the concern if the items you buy from these stores are still the same genuine products you’d get IRL. 

LazMall is going all-in to ensure that the stuff listed on the portal is 100 per cent authentic — so much so that they’re willing to stake good money for it. If you receive a non-authentic product and verified its fake-ness to Lazada, you’ll get twice your money back.

And if for any reason you don’t feel satisfied with what you bought, there’s a generous returns policy that lets shoppers return items back at no cost at all within 15 days of receiving the product. Win-win for you. 

Big Brands Sale

Speaking of win-win, the upcoming 9.9 LazMall Big Brands Sale will see everyone scoring huge in terms of the best deals across the platform. 

Aside from big price cuts, Lazada is also introducing something called the Best Price Guarantee, where shoppers can get rebates credited to their Lazada wallet if they manage to find a cheaper deal on other sites. 

So how does it work? One would first have to purchase a LazMall-listed item during the 9.9 LazMall Big Brands Sale from 9 to 13 September. If a lower price for the same item can be found on another shopping site — Shopee, Qoo10, Amazon, etc — you have to purchase the item too. 

Submit the proof (screenshots, receipts, links) and you’ll be rewarded with the price difference (up to $30) that will be credited to your Lazada wallet. 

But that’s just one portion of the shopping event. The road to the 9.9 LazMall Big Brands Sale has already begun with attractions like the ever-popular Slash It, which allows shoppers to buy an item for a really marked-down price of they can invite other users to slash down the price as well. 

They’re making a carnival out of the shopping soiree as well with gameshows hosted by Mediacorp DJs for participants to win up to $5,000 worth of vouchers and having people tune in to TV and shake their phones for vouchers when the Lazada prompt comes on screen. 

All these are on top of flash sales that will see 299 stores on the site offering up to 90 per cent discount off their products. It really is the best time to start planning your purchases for big-ticket household essentials like Dyson vacuum cleaners, Huawei laptops and KitchenAid stand mixers.

Start your LazMall shopping journey right now by browsing the deals at the 9.9 LazMall Big Brands Sale.

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This article was brought to you in partnership with Lazada