Lazada

[tropo]

Lazada has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years. It used to be shopping for items only available in Thailand. Now it has gone the way of eBay, Amazon etc. There used to be shipping fees for any order under 1000 baht, so free shipping is a big improvement. Also, COD was never previously available in Pattaya.

I've never had a problem with any purchases, but I'd still rather deal with money-back issues on eBay if it came to that. As most items now go through the Thai postal service there isn't much difference if you're ordering items not available in Thailand. Communication with sellers and resolution of disputes would be much easier on eBay than trying to deal with customer service on Lazada.

[impulse]

Lazada has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years. It used to be shopping for items only available in Thailand. Now it has gone the way of eBay, Amazon etc. There used to be shipping fees for any order under 1000 baht, so free shipping is a big improvement. Also, COD was never previously available in Pattaya.

I've never had a problem with any purchases, but I'd still rather deal with money-back issues on eBay if it came to that. As most items now go through the Thai postal service there isn't much difference if you're ordering items not available in Thailand. Communication with sellers and resolution of disputes would be much easier on eBay than trying to deal with customer service on Lazada.

Here's where Lazada has it all over EBay vendors (and AliExpress). Their price is the delivered price. They guarantee no additional import duties or fees. No surprises from Customs, no additional service fees for clearing. Guaranteed, and not "luck of the draw".

That leads me to believe that Lazada serves as the importer of record, and that they have a pretty substantial distribution and delivery network here in country. My recent deliveries didn't come by Thai Post. The delivery guys seemed to be free-lancers. Some articles about Lazada indicate they're building on this network.

I also suspect (but this is sheer conjecture) that they have built a distribution and consolidation network in China where their Chinese vendors ship the items within China (dirt cheap), to be consolidated into bigger (and cheaper) shipments into Thailand. Then when the consolidated shipments arrive in Thailand, they're broken out into separate parcels for delivery into Thailand. (Edit: Though, that would cast some mystery into how the China Post tracking system works on Lazada orders, but that's a pretty easy one to solve) Or, they may just get a volume discount from China Post.

Edited April 13, 2016 by impulse

[wump]

Does Lazada have its own shop yet? I the past it was similar to Amazon Marketplace with only 3rd party sellers.

It seems they now have their own shipping company, Lazada Express. Previously I got items ordered for Pattaya always with Kenny.

[emilymat]

I've used Lazada 3 or 4 times over the last year.

What I find irritating is the web site - although it might be might 'settings' or something.

Even though I press the English button at the top, most items have a headline in English but the text in Thai. Is that normal or am I not doing something correctly?

Tks

[tropo]

I've used Lazada 3 or 4 times over the last year.

What I find irritating is the web site - although it might be might 'settings' or something.

Even though I press the English button at the top, most items have a headline in English but the text in Thai. Is that normal or am I not doing something correctly?

Tks

Yes, that makes it hard to get details on items. It's not a setting issue, just an insufficiency of the site and another good reason to use eBay instead. You can get a funky translation on Google Translate which may help in some cases.,

[impulse]

What I find irritating is the web site - although it might be might 'settings' or something.

Even though I press the English button at the top, most items have a headline in English but the text in Thai. Is that normal or am I not doing something correctly?

If you're doing something wrong, I'm making the same mistake.

I suspect each vendor is responsible for the copy in their posting, and a lot of them have neither the skills, the money or perhaps even the inclination to translate to English. And thank goodness they don't just use Google translate. Those results from Thai to English are just embarrassing.

[CousinEddie]

Gotta wonder whether this is good news for AliExpress customers, or bad news for Lazada customers here in Thailand:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lazada-m-a-alibaba-idUSKCN0X90HT

I like the fact that Lazada doesn't advertise anything that's not available to ship within 24 hours, posts exact, delivered prices, and I have had great luck with their delivery system. I buy quite a bit there, local goods and international (China).

AliExpress vendors advertise all kinds of stuff with no pricing (or incorrect pricing), no inventory for shipment, and absolutely no idea of delivered costs or delivery time. After years of trying to buy items from AliExpress, I have yet to complete a single transaction. The goods aren't available (we'll make them in 4-6 weeks), the price is a multiple of the listed price, or shipping is more than the item itself.

But, AliExpress has a much better selection of goodies... If only they had a decent online retail business model, like Amazon, EBay, or (dare I suggest) Lazada. Maybe this is good news.

ALIBABA just bought a big chunk of Lazada and probably will own it all someday.

ALIBABA projects that in ten years, (after all the Chinese have smartphones) his website will be getting 2 billion hits a day.

24 hours delivery in China and worldwide delivery in 48 hours.

Last November, 11/11, ALIBABA had a heavily advertised sale. $1 billion sales in the first 18 minutes! $14 billion in the day.

[tolsti]

I've used Lazada 3 or 4 times over the last year.

What I find irritating is the web site - although it might be might 'settings' or something.

Even though I press the English button at the top, most items have a headline in English but the text in Thai. Is that normal or am I not doing something correctly?

Tks

If you are accessing them on a laptop you will probably get a pair of diamond shapes over to the right in your URL bar. Click on this and it will then translate the page to a reasonable extent. There will still be some dodgy words though.