LazPitch Shines Spotlight on Future ECommerce Leaders

Eunice Ang, Lin Fanxing, Mavis Pek and Woo Ling Ling had a clear goal in mind. The four National University of Singapore students wanted young people like themselves to have access to affordable nutritious food and exercise equipment so that they could lead better, healthier lives. 

To turn their vision into a reality, they joined LazPitch, Lazada’s first eCommerce competition for undergraduates. Over the course of two months, their team – named Eat Better – planned, conceptualised and executed two campaigns that used Lazada’s eCommerce ecosystem to achieve their goal. Thanks to their hard work and innovative thinking, Eat Better was announced the winner of the competition at a prize-presentation ceremony last month. Aside from winning a cash prize of SGD8,000, each member of the team was also awarded a full internship at Lazada.

Designed to nurture young talents, like the Eat Better team, who will shape the future of eCommerce, the inaugural edition of LazPitch was received with great enthusiasm. During the registration period last July and August, more than 500 undergraduate students from seven universities across Singapore applied. Competing in teams, they were tasked with thinking outside the box and coming up with a plan to address a real-life marketing challenge presented by Lazada.

“LazPitch was conceptualised to both excite young people about careers in eCommerce and to identify the next generation of eCommerce leaders,” said Loh Wee Lee, CEO of Lazada Singapore. “Throughout the competition, the Lazada team has been amazed by the creativity, understanding and skills the undergraduates have demonstrated, and their commitment to championing good causes for the betterment of society.”

Out of a total of 94 teams, 10 were shortlisted to pitch their proposals to the competition’s senior management. The top five were selected for the final round and were given real budgets and resources to bring their proposals from ideation to life. During a one-day workshop, these teams were able to gain first-hand knowledge of eCommerce operations and also fine-tune their ideas with Lazada mentors. The students also gained hands-on marketing experience, including by producing livestreams and creating social media content for Lazada’s official accounts.

“The best part of the experience was working alongside the Lazada team to bring our ideas to life and to see how our campaign resulted in customer engagement and click-throughs,” said Woo Ling Ling of the Eat Better team. “We’re excited to use our learnings from the LazPitch experience as we start our internships at Lazada!”

Eat Better wasn’t the only team to impress LazPitch’s judges, who assessed the various proposals based on their innovation, impact, scalability and feasibility. The runner-up, LazStreet – also comprising NUS students – wowed with a campaign that tapped into the burgeoning online-to-offline trend to encourage users to eat out more at F&B outlets. Meanwhile, Happiness Now, a team of marketing students from the National Technological University of Singapore, placed third with its idea of using the Lazada app as a way for people to connect and promote mental wellness amid the ongoing pandemic. LazStreet and Happiness Now were awarded SGD5,000 and SGD3,000, respectively, while the teams that placed fourth and fifth received Lazada vouchers in recognition of their efforts.

“We recognise youths as the eCommerce leaders of tomorrow. With LazPitch, we aim to empower them with the knowledge and skills of the evolving eCommerce market,” said Shannon Sia, Lazada Singapore’s head of strategic partnerships and youth initiatives. “We want to thank all the teams that participated in the first edition of the competition. It heartens us to see the talent pool show so much commitment to helping us shape the future of eCommerce.”

Eat Better (winners) with Lazada Singapore CEO Loh Wee Lee

LazStreet (second place)

Happiness Now (third place)