Lazada has unleashed new tools it says are designed to help brands and merchants sell more effectively on its online platforms, as the Singapore-headquartered company looks to ramp up efforts to tap Southeast Asia's burgeoning e-commerce market.

Amongst its suite of offerings are the enhanced Marketing Solutions Package and Business Advisor Dashboard, which Lazada said provides real-time consumer data to help brands make more informed decisions more quickly and better drive sales on its marketplace. They also will be able to directly interact with consumers through customised marketing engagements as well as data insights and media tools.

With the Advisor Dashboard, sellers can browse updated analytics and data to determine what they needed to do to further boost traffic to their storefronts as well as visibility of their products on the Lazada marketplace. These could include tailored promotions to drive sales, the e-commerce operator said, adding that brands have the option to jointly launch Lazada's "Super" campaigns to grow their brand awareness and engage consumers.

New tools such as Store Builder also enable merchants to customise their storefronts and differentiate themselves on the online marketplace. In addition, they can access new features including Image Search, Live Streaming, and storefront banner personalisation. In addition, new social tools will allow brands to have live commentary and engage consumers with in-app activities such as games.

These new offerings are available to brands under the platform's LazMall section, which was introduced last September as a curated selection of products from brands and authorised brand distributors. Products listed in LazMall come with the assurance that they are original branded goods, or shoppers are refunded twice the cost of the purchase, as well as a 15-day return policy, during which shoppers can change their minds and return the item at no cost.

There now are more than 1,500 brands on LazMall.

Pierre Poignant, CEO, Lazada

Lazada CEO Pierre Poignant said the e-commerce company aims to accelerate progress in Southeast Asia through commerce and technology, and increasingly deploy more initiatives that integrate both the online and offline environments.

Speaking at the LazMall Brands Future Forum in Singapore, which was attended by more than 300 brands, Poignant said Lazada is targeting to serve 300 million customers and nurture eight million entrepreneurs and small and mid-size businesses by 2030, creating 20 million jobs in the e-commerce ecosystem. With the previous industry growth driven by large enterprises and "containers", he said the next wave would come from small companies and "parcels".

Lazada is keen to help enable all brands to grow their business via online commerce platforms, supporting them in more than just simple buy-sell transactions, he noted. With millennials spending more than three hours a day on their smartphone, he said shopping and retail experiences need to evolve beyond searching for and purchasing products to encompass more fun and entertainment components.

"We want to introduce the concept of shop and entertain", he added, pointing to Lazada's new solutions that will enable brands and merchants to offer games or feature live streaming content that showcased their products.

Its latest suite of new tools looks to address pain points of brands – specifically, in the areas of marketing, branding, and sales – and help them transform and tap the region's booming e-commerce industry, he said.

Southeast Asia's e-commerce industry was projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 62% between 2015 and 2018, and hit USD$102bn (£79.45bn) by 2025, according to a report by Google and Temasek Holdings.

Poignant said: "No seller is too small to aspire, and no brand is too big to be a super e-business. That is why we are thrilled to roll out super-solutions to help our brands and sellers become more nimble in digitising their businesses and better reach customers."

Lazada President Jing Yin added that the new solutions will enable these brands to run their branding, sales, and marketing activities within one platform on Lazada, which will provide support in technology, logistics, and data.

Jing said: "We want to extend the benefits of LazMall to even more brands and sellers to elevate their e-commerce operations. We want to incubate them so they can grow alongside us and become sustainable and successful e-businesses."

Lazada's logistics network currently processes 80% of the parcel volume that goes through its online marketplaces, which offers 300 million SKUs across six markets in the region including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.