Photo credit: Apple
Apple fans around Southeast Asia can now get new iPhones, iPads, and Macbooks from an official store on Lazada.
Apple’s Lazada store opens today in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore, with Malaysia joining the party on Monday. Vietnam too will participate at an unconfirmed date.
Alibaba-owned Lazada will get stock directly from Apple, said the firm today, after forming an agreement with the Cupertino company. That makes it the only official online seller of Apple’s baubles in the region. Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and other accessories are also available.
Apple has a store in only one Southeast Asian nation: Singapore. That has created a niche for grey-marketeers to sell Apple’s gadgets – particularly iPhones – at inflated prices, with the ever-present risk of shoppers getting a counterfeit item.
The opening is a boost to Lazada’s efforts to get more major brands to set up storefronts on its site. It already has 3,000 brands, mixed in with 135,000 smaller merchants.
See more on the online shopping wars:
- Lazada CEO: The secret sauce that will help us win Southeast Asia
- Winners and losers in Amazon’s entry into Southeast Asia
- Facebook Live auctions come to Singapore
(Update: corrected launch date for Vietnam, which is unconfirmed for now.)
Editing by Eileen Ang
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