Unilever, Lazada sign deal to tackle online sales in region

CONSUMER giant Unilever and the Alibaba-backed Lazada Group on Thursday signed an agreement to build the e-commerce industry's first "end-to-end" alliance in the region to boost growth, and tackle logistic problems linked to online sales in Southeast Asia.

This partnership will mean both companies will work closely on category development, supply chain and fulfilment, data and marketing, social commerce and talent development.

Calling it a "deep collaboration", Unilever and Singapore-based Lazada hope to boost growth in the region significantly by 2020 through this alliance.

"The sharing of expertise between Unilever and Lazada is also expected to produce innovative solutions to tackle challenges specific to selling online in South-east Asia such as high cost of delivery in a difficult geographic landscape," the press release said.

This partnership will build on the recently launched exclusive Unilever store on Lazada Singapore that enables shoppers to buy Unilever brands online.