ABCC-2025-006: “ZALORA in ASEAN: Pivoting from "white label" online retailer to brands e-commerce enabler“

Abstract: This case traces how ZALORA grew from an e-commerce start-up to an e-commerce enabler and platform services provider over a decade. ZALORA entered the ASEAN market in 2012, building an ecosystem and logistics infrastructure that laid the foundation for competing in the highly complex and heterogenous ASEAN market. In its early years, it was difficult to convince fashion brands to join ZALORA’s platform.

To address this “chicken-and-egg” problem, ZALORA pursued a “white label” strategy to attract consumer traffic in order to create the network effect.  After ZALORA had successfully increased consumer traffic and built its online brand, it was able to attract well-known brands such as Topshop and Mango to join its e-commerce platform. This was followed by a period of expansion into new categories including shoes, accessories, kids and beauty products.

Under the leadership of Gunjan Soni (ex-McKinsey partner), who joined ZALORA in 2019, ZALORA pivoted into e-commerce enablement and platform services provision to maximize revenue opportunities by leveraging its existing logistics infrastructure to offer turn-key solutions for global fashion brands who wanted to enter and serve the ASEAN e-commerce markets.

The case ends by urging readers to ponder the key challenges facing ZALORA in the midst of global geopolitical uncertainty, decreasing consumer demand in fashion, rapid developments in Artificial Intelligence, and the continuous drive to pursue both sustainability and growth initiatives along with the pressure to deliver profitability.