FASHION e-commerce site Zalora Philippines (ZPH) broke ground for a new warehouse facility in Muntinlupa City Wednesday, which will significantly boost its storage capacity in order to handle the anticipated growth of e-commerce sales over the next few years.
In a statement Wednesday, the company said the 3.7-hectare fashion e-fulfillment center will be the largest facility of its kind in the country. The center, located in the Daang Hari and Daang Reyna Junction of Muntinlupa, will have 40,000 square meters (sq.m.) of racking space and a 7.2-million item storage capacity.
“This new facility will further strengthen Zalora’s capabilities and grow its business across the archipelago, housing thousands of fashion brands, and reaching more cities and towns in the Philippines, solidifying our commitment to provide Filipino consumers the best online shopping experience possible,” ZPH Chief Executive Officer Paulo Campos III said in a statement.
ZPH currently operates a similar e-fulfillment center, with a capacity of 1.2 million items, in Carmona, Cavite.
The company said the new facility will double its productivity given its investments on automation, new technologies and software, as well as improvements in business processes in line with the Global Fashion Group’s fulfillment centers across the world.
Aside from its storage capabilities, the facility will also house 5,000 sq.m of office space to be occupied by ZPH’s customer service and e-production teams. ZPH said at least 1,000 new jobs will be created for the surrounding Muntinlupa-Cavite communities.
ZPH looks to complete the facility by the first quarter of 2020.
The company earlier said that Ayala-led AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. is financing the construction of the facility. ZPH will then lease out the property from the company. To note, the Ayala group has a 49% stake in the e-commerce platform.
ZPH ended 2018 with a total of nine million e-mail subscribers, 7.4 million app downloads, 7.7 million Facebook fans, and 100 million website sessions.
It continues to grow its website with the addition of more local and international fashion brands such as Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, J. Crew, Jack Wills, Pomelo, and designer Josie Natori’s sleepwear brand Josie and clothing line N Natori. — Arra B. Francia
