ASIDE from a TV special on the night before the e-commerce platform’s biggest sale of the year, Lazada also announced several new features to make the app a “lifestyle destination,” according to a Philippine executive.

“If you make the shopping experience enjoyable and entertaining, it becomes an experience they would want to keep doing,” Neil Trinidad, chief marketing officer of Lazada Philippines, said of the rationale in introducing new features and games during the sale’s alaunch on Nov. 7 at the Green Sun Hotel in Makati City.

He added that since they’re not a simple e-commerce platform anymore (the company introduced live-streaming for brands and games for consumers to win coins which can be exchanged for vouchers) they are now calling themselves a lifestyle destination.

For this year’s sale on Nov. 11, Lazada has unveiled two new games: Moji-Go which uses face recognition technology and asks players to imitate scrolling emojis to win coins; and LazCity Wonderland which allows players to build a virtual city of brands where they can get shopping vouchers.

A live-stream in-app game show, Guess It, has also been introduced this month and has aired across six markets. The four-hour-long show is fashioned after the long-running The Price is Right game show franchise on television where contestants compete to guess the prices of the select items which will be on sale.

Two new shopping features were also introduced: the Image Scan where buyers can use their cameras to scan items they want to buy and Lazada will give them options based on their selection; and Magic Mirror, a brand partnership the company has with beauty brand L’Oreal which allows buyers to try on lipstick shades using Augmented Reality before buying.

“To transform the shopping experience, we need to put the consumer at the heart of what we do. For us, effective innovation should make the online shopping experience even easier, more seamless, and more engaging,” Ray Alimurung, CEO of Lazada Philippines, said in a release.

On Nov. 10, 10:30 p.m., Lazada will be airing its TV special on ABS-CBN. Titled Lazada 11.11 Super Show, the show will be hosted by Vice Ganda, Billy Crawford, Karylle, and Mimiyuuh with performances by James Reid and Maja Salvador, among others.

The show will also feature a special simulcast performance by Grammy Award Winner Taylor Swift performing at the TMall Gala Show. This performance will be live-streamed on the Lazada app.

“We want to get more people excited about shopping online. For people who shop on Lazada, it’s the shopping festival they look forward to but we know in the Philippines that a lot of our shoppers and consumers still watch TV and are reached by traditional media,” Mr. Trinidad said.

As the year comes to a close, Mr. Alimurung said next year they will focus on expanding their electronic payment channels in order to make it easier for people to shop cashless on Lazada. — Zsarlene B. Chua

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