Lazada's birthday sale reveals Singaporeans are spontaneous shoppers

On the first day of Lazada’s birthday sale, 24 April, traffic to the online marketplace surged and it saw a ten-fold spike in orders in comparison to a regular day.

The e-tailer said the items flying off the shelves first were Lazada’s surprise boxes, worth S$100 (US$75) but available on Lazada.SG at S$29 each. The catch – shoppers only knew which brand they were buying from while the contents inside remained a mystery. At midnight, the first 1,300 surprise boxes went on sale, with all boxes running out of stock within the hour. The trend continued throughout the day, with subsequent surprise boxes from household and premium brands consistently selling out within seconds, according to the company.

The buying frenzy was in conjunction with Lazada’s sixth birthday sale which took place from April 24 -26. Across the days, 74 brands were selling the surprise boxes.

“Our surprise boxes have been overwhelmingly popular since we introduced them at our last birthday sale. To mark our sixth anniversary, we have up to 16,000 boxes from brands and sellers that are available every two hours to satiate the customer demand. These sell out in minutes, so shoppers need to be quick to purchase,” said Alexis Lanternier, CEO and head of New Retail, Lazada Singapore. “Beauty brands now form the largest representation of surprise boxes, to cater to the meteoric growth in female shoppers on Lazada,” he added.

Lazada’s birthday sale was a three-day shopping festival with discounts of up to 90% off across 300 official brands and more than 10,000 local sellers, over 600 flash deals and new vouchers up for grabs at 9am daily.