Lazada delivers $21b GMV in a year

Southeast Asian ecommerce giant Lazada clocked in US$21 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) in the last year till September 2021. Net merchandise value (NMV) – the amount after deducting fees and expenses from the GMV – also soared by more than 60% during the same period, according to the company’s investor day presentation.

The Alibaba-owned firm’s user base grew as annual active consumers (AACs) rose 1.8x to 130 million in September 2021 from 73 million in March 2020. Its monthly active users (MAUs) similarly jumped by 1.7x to 159 million from 92 million.

Lazada’s monthly selling customers climbed 2.1x during the same period, with its seller base expanding to 922,000 from 443,000. The company’s monthly active selling stock keeping units (SKUs) hit 33 million from 15 million, marking a 2.2x increase.

The ecommerce firm says that in the last six months, it has seen a 20% growth in conversion rate as buyer engagement and purchase frequency got a boost.

Image credit: Lazada

Its livestreaming feature LazLive contributed more than 187% GMV growth on Singles’ Day 2021 compared to the company’s campaign last year. Lazada received 18 million views on LazLive during the mega sale event this year.

Its marketing-focused Lazada Sponsored Solutions revenue also surged 5.1x over the last six months. The company’s average seller return on investment on its marketing solutions climbed by 8x to 10x as well.

Meanwhile, Lazada Logistics had processed US$5 million worth of daily parcels in September this year. It had also reduced its variable cost per parcel by 27%.

The company aims to reach US$100 billion in GMV and to raise its customer base to over 300 million. However, it didn’t specify a timeline to hit these targets.

Lazada’s expectations are anchored to the ecommerce boom in Southeast Asia. Citing reports from Frost & Sullivan and the Economist Intelligence Unit, Lazada says that the market is expected grow to US$260 billion by 2025.