Why these Lazada founders left the ecommerce giant to start a new kind of agency

Many things unite Aimone Ripa di Meana and Alessandro Piscini. They’re both Italians, they’ve helped to get Lazada off the ground, and they’ve spotted an opportunity to do a new kind of ecommerce.

Sensing that the time is right, they left Lazada to start Crea, an ecommerce agency that helps brands promote and sell their goods across various online channels in Southeast Asia.

“Nobody is telling brands how to operate a marketplace store on Lazada or a Facebook account that isn’t just posting pictures but is more of a transactional thing,” says Meana. “This is a skill set we’ve built over the last seven years.”

Photo credit: Crea

We meet at a quiet Italian restaurant in Singapore on a weekday. Toting their luggage, Meana and Piscini are here on a business trip.

They’re based primarily in Bangkok, which they say is experiencing a confluence of two forces: social media and ecommerce. The city is ground zero for a different type of ecommerce that could sweep Southeast Asia.

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – which dominate eyeballs in Southeast Asia – are stepping up their ecommerce game by launching features for brands to talk to or transact with users within those platforms.

A major development is the upcoming launch of a cryptocurrency by Facebook that could make cross-border transactions seamless.

In China, the fast rise of social shopping app Pinduoduo is attributed to its WeChat strategy. Basically, the more people herd together to buy a product, the cheaper it gets. This leads to consumers sharing about a product on WeChat, the dominant social network in the country, which then contributes further to Pinduoduo’s virality.

See: Pinduoduo: A close look at the fastest growing app in China

While a boon to ecommerce platforms, social media could also become a threat. Alibaba-owned Lazada is punching back, launching its own eyeball-grabbing features like livestreaming.

The idea is this: Say you’re watching a concert on Lazada. If you like a sneaker that one of the singers is wearing, you can buy it directly on the site.

It’s the rise of infomercials for an information age, and the merging of commerce and entertainment into a seamless whole.

Shopee recently also launched its own livestreaming gambit, adding to a growing sense that social ecommerce could reach a new phase.

Gray market

Nuances of social ecommerce