Daraz’s rebranding to transform Sri Lankan e-commerce

Online shopping today is not a new phenomenon. From the evolution of the internet to accelerated digitalisation to the booming e-commerce industry, people have come a long way to make life simpler.

Daraz is a household name among the Sri Lankan online shopping community. Having begun its operations just over five years back, the e-commerce giant today has transformed the way people view digitalisation and the abundant opportunities that comes with it. Aligning itself with the changing world, Daraz recently refreshed its brand identity and positioning to offer a more personalised experience to all its stakeholders. With over a decade of experience under his belt in the marketing and advertising industry, and having begun his journey in Daraz Sri Lanka as the Head of Marketing in 2019, Heshan Perera discusses Daraz’s rebranding strategy, its significance to Sri Lanka, and what customers can expect in this new phase of their journey.

Q: Elaborate on the key platform and app improvements/features that come with the rebranding?

A: The Daraz rebranding predominantly introduces four elements to shoppers. The first is a revamped shopping experience that is more user-friendly. This is supported by the uncluttered, clean visual representation of both the website and the app, which helps shoppers get the maximum out of their time when making purchase decisions.

Exploring Daraz is made a seamless process, thanks to the clear and effective communication method we have adopted. The purpose of this is to make visiting the app as simple, easy to understand for all visitors as possible, thereby improving repeat visits.

An interesting feature we have introduced through the rebranding is the “play feature”. With this, as the word says, shoppers can go beyond shopping to engage in fun games and even be eligible for exciting giveaways. The idea here is to give shoppers something more than the usual online shopping experience and get them excited every time they shop on the platform.

An exclusive new feature introduced via the Daraz app is the “watch” feature. While this will be a first in Sri Lanka, shoppers and visitors can now get onto the Daraz app watch live content which is generated by the platform, this amalgamates both the concepts of “shoppertainment” and “Edutainment”. Daraz Live hopes to bring in more live sports entertainment to fans during the year 2022.

With this rebranding, Daraz will no longer be a place people visit to buy something – we’ve worked through the regions to make Daraz a place of connectivity, trust and entertainment.

Q:How will the rebranding serve the seller community?

A: Daraz’s purpose goes beyond the economic impact. Sellers are at the heart of Daraz’s purpose, and getting sellers on board is only one part of that vision. Daraz University is a learning centre especially dedicated for sellers to gain first-hand information on shop management and seller tools and access to a host of resources.

The rebranding brings forth a complete revamp of sellers’ e-courses on how to maximise sales, how to capitalise on promotional tools like free shipping, product bundling, etc., and how to pop up on top when it comes to products search results. It is all about learning more and growing more with Daraz University.

Then, sellers are exposed to a unique selling experience; they can not only go live and sell their products on Daraz, but can also engage with their customer base to offer a tailored service. We want to streamline all processes to make it as easy and empowering for the seller community as possible.

Adding to this is the clutter-free user interface that will enable our sellers to explore more opportunities and grow as independent entrepreneurs.

Q: What impact does the rebranding have on customers?

A: The next big investment for us was to provide our customers with a platform that gives more than a mere shopping experience. We don’t want the experience to stop at just buying something online; through the Daraz app, we want our customers to watch the latest movies or be exposed to quality edutainment content, play more games, avail themselves to exclusive deals and offers, and simply explore a world of possibilities. We fundamentally believe that Daraz will be a natural extension of a majority of Sri Lankans’ lives very soon.

Q: Has the drastically changing business environment made an influence on the rebranding? If so, how?

A: The past two years have been a rollercoaster ride of many challenges, trying out new things, and tough decision-making. While global digital transformation was already soaring, the COVID-19 pandemic fast-tracked its growth by several years amidst slowing economies. And with this arose a deep necessity to make everyday tasks even more convenient, contactless, and comprehensive.

This shift towards digital channels is here to stay in the long run, not only in the organisational and industry levels, but also in our day-to-day lives, massively influencing what people want, how they want them, and from where.

Apart from this, the importance of online streaming too reached record levels, largely as a result of the lockdowns around the world. Online gaming emerged as one of the top hobbies, mostly for the younger generations, where those who were first receptive to the idea were intrigued. Sri Lanka especially saw people – be it small business owners or students or homemakers – taking their talents and creativity to online platforms and taking their first steps towards sustainable entrepreneurship.

As the leading online marketplace in South Asia and the largest online shopping site in Sri Lanka, Daraz recognises this growing demand and changing needs according to these rapidly changing times, and so we made a decision to evolve especially keeping our customer and sellers at the heart of the strategy.

Q:How does this rebranding give an edge to Daraz over its competitors?

A: For Daraz, the year 2022 represents a new phase of maturity on multiple fronts. Our brand identity and purpose has always been clear to us as an e-commerce company, but now, the rebranding and the significant changes that came with it have ensured this is true to all Daraz customers, sellers, and other stakeholders as well. As a result, this gives Daraz a very clear point of differentiation over its competitors both here in Sri Lanka and also in the South Asian region.

Simply, Daraz offers shoppers over five million products in all colours, and shapes to choose from while being entertained throughout their time on the app. This will attract more people to the platform and eventually result in more conversions. So, we are confident that Daraz is ahead of our competition, and we will keep innovating to ensure we keep opening up new avenues for our sellers and customers.

Q:What is the way forward for Daraz Sri Lanka?

A: Our way forward at this point of time is to take the new Daraz brand identity to the whole of Sri Lanka. As such, we are determined to put more effort to educate all Sri Lankans on the new brand vision, value propositions, and such.

A much-anticipated upcoming event exclusively live streamed through Daraz is the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, and we are sure all Sri Lankan cricket fans will be on board with us to support our sporting heroes.

All in all, Daraz’s rebranding is only one step closer to adding more value to its vision of uplifting communities through the power of e-commerce.