Amazon has not stepped into Southeast Asia yet and it has already induced the competitive elements in its soon-to-be rival Lazada. The e-commerce player has rolled out a loyalty program for its customers in Singapore which might be released in other markets soon.
Lazada has unveiled the subscription service, christened LiveUp, in collaboration with grocery service Redmart that it had recently taken over. And, well, that’s not all. They have teamed up with Taobao Collection, Netflix, Uber, and UberEats to further spice up the offering.
The subscription-based service is up for use at a fixed yearly price of $36 (S$49.90). However, the membership program can be availed with a starting fixed yearly price of $21 (S$28.80). The subscribers will benefit from various deals provided by the firms, including free and faster delivery for Lazada and Taobao, interesting offers on purchases on Redmart, and Lazada, a six-month free Netflix subscription, and also discounts on Uber rides and UberEats meal deliveries.
This program will have a much wider reach taking into consideration the brands involved and is expected to cover different kinds of Singaporean consumers. This is akin to Amazon’s Prime service which offers access to its video streaming service and confers same-day delivery.
LiveUp has been initially launched in Singapore but the companies are mulling over other partnerships across Southeast Asia. They plan to expand into other countries by associating with other firms, however, they haven’t disclosed any further details. Lazada Singapore CEO Alexis Lanternier, in a statement, said,
We believe that Singapore is at the tipping point in which consumers are embracing online lifestyle services like shopping, ride-sharing, food delivery and entertainment as a way of life.
This move is not surprising, Alibaba, which owns a majority stake in Lazada, has been prepping up to build and maintain its position in Southeast Asia for quite a while. Yesterday, its financial affiliate merged with Lazada’s payment platform, helloGroup. Before that, the latter piloted the debut of the former’s e-commerce platform Taobao in the nation.
