Lazada: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Singapore-based marketplace Lazada. Here you can find information on how to request a Lazada account, how to configure this marketplace on ChannelEngine, and what the specific requirements are.

Table of contents

Commercial information

How to request an account

Associated costs

Marketplace features

Settings and configuration

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

• Setup
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Pricing
• Listed products

Additional information

FAQs

Commercial information

* Note that each market has its own Lazada channel on ChannelEngine. To sell in Thailand and the Philippines, for instance, you need to add both the Thai and Filipino Lazada channels on ChannelEngine.

How to request an account

To start selling on Lazada, go to the Lazada Seller Center, create an account, and fill out the request form. The following documents are also needed:

• Your business registration
• Trademark/letter of authorization
• Bank statement
• Basic store assets

Associated costs

Lazada does not charge any setup or monthly fees, but it does charge a commission fee that varies from 1% to 4% of each sale.

Marketplace features

1. Only certain categories support variations. E.g.: fashion products.
2. A marketplace that supports sales channels allows merchants to list and sell products across multiple markets (e.g.: countries, regions, and states), all from the same connection.
3. Lazada does not support ChannelEngine's automated invoices. You must either include a physical invoice in the package or send it to the buyer via Lazada's backend.
4. Marketplace cancelations are only possible for orders with the statuses Awaiting payment and New on ChannelEngine.

Settings and configuration

Setting up each channel on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, though not every channel includes the steps listed below.

1. Go through the Setup.
2. Create a Product selection.
3. Complete the Categorization.
4. Set up the Mappings: content, offers, and carriers.
5. Configure the Pricing: rules and currency conversion.
6. Fill in the Stock settings.
7. Finish the Activation.
8. Check the Listed products overview.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On ChannelEngine

1. Go to the Setup page of your Lazada marketplace on ChannelEngine, and click the Authorize button.
2. Make sure you select the correct country under Site.
3. Enter the required login credentials. These are provided to you during the onboarding with Lazada.
4. When the authorization is done, click Save on the Setup page.

Advanced settings

• Use grandparent products - enable it to configure your grandparent products as parents on Lazada, so child products can be grouped by color or size. Your actual parent products are ignored. Note that all of your existing products on Lazada are deleted and then recreated using the updated two-level hierarchy.
• Realtime shipment export - enable it to trigger the export of shipments as soon as they are created, which speeds up the availability of the shipping labels.
• Pack order after import - enable it to allow the packing of orders as soon as they are imported.

Categorization

Categorization on Lazada can be a long process due to the number of categories available, but it is also straightforward. To ensure that your products are as visible as possible, the lowest branch of each category tree should be selected.

All categories are listed in English.

Mappings

Content

Required (all products)

• Delivered by seller - indicates if the item is fulfilled via the Delivered by Seller (DBS) program. Select Yes or No. 
• Brand - the product's brand. If your brand is not listed, log into the Lazada Seller Central and follow the process detailed in their Brand registration process article.
• Image 1 - the product's main image. If your product does not exist on Lazada yet, this attribute is mandatory. The image requirements are listed below:
  • Resolution - minimum of 330 x 330 pixels, maximum of 5,000 x 5,000 pixels
  • File size - maximum of 2 MB
  • File format - JPG, PNG
  • Background - white
  • At least 80% of the canvas covered by the product
  • No obscene content
  • At least three images per each product
  • No watermark or graphics
• Name - the product's name in English. The maximum number of characters is 255.
• Package height (cm) - the height of the package that contains the product, in cm. This value must be higher than zero.
• Package length (cm) - the length of the package that contains the product, in cm. This value must be higher than zero.
• Package weight (kg) - the weight of the packaged product, in kg. This value must be higher than zero.

• Package width (cm) - the width of the package that contains the product, in cm. This value must be higher than zero.

  NB: the dimensions and weight of your package have a direct influence on the type and cost of shipments. For more information on this, check out the article How to avoid wrong shipping fee charges in Lazada's help center.
• Warranty type - the kind of warranty offered for this product, if any. E.g.: international manufacturer warranty, local supplier warranty, no warranty, etc.

Optional (all products)

• Image 2-8 - the product's additional images. The requirements listed under Image 1 also apply here.

• Dangerous goods - state if the product can be dangerous or not. E.g.: battery, flammable, etc.
• Delivery option - state if the product can be delivered instantly or not.
• Delivery option economy - state if the ‘economy’ delivery type is available for the product.
• Delivery option express - state if the ‘express’ delivery type is available for the product.
• Delivery option instant - state if the ‘instant’ delivery type is available for the product.
• End date of promotion - the last date on which the configured promotion is valid. Make sure not to enter a date far ahead, as further updates may be blocked by Lazada.

• Long description (Lorikeet) - the product's main description. This attribute is split into two different attributes in the Lazada back-end, and can be used to create a richer product page known at Lazada as Lorikeet. The maximum number of characters is 25,000. Most common HTML tags are supported, such as a, br, col, div, em, h1-h6, ol and ul, strong, etc.

  NB: although it is possible to link to images using HTML in the Long description (Lorikeet), only Lazada image URLs are supported.
• Name (Malay) - the product's name in Malay.
• Product description (Malay) - the product's description in Malay.
• Short description - the product's short description, which can be used to highlight the product's main characteristics.
• Special price - the product's discount price. If this attribute is mapped, Start date of promotion must be mapped too.
• Start date of promotion - the first date on which the configured Special price is valid. The format supported is yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm, with a 24-hour clock. Note that the time value is converted to 15-minute intervals. E.g.: 2023-07-15 18:23 is converted to 2023-07-15 18:15.
• End date of promotion - the last date on which the configured Special price is valid. The format supported is yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm, with a 24-hour clock. Note that the time value is converted to 15-minute intervals. E.g.: 2023-07-15 18:23 is converted to 2023-07-15 18:15.
• Taxes - if left empty, it uses the default VAT setup on CE.
• Video URL - the URL of the product's promotion video.
• Warranty - the product’s warranty. E.g.: 1 month, 18 months, 3 years, etc.
• Warranty policy - the product's warranty policy.
• Warranty policy (English) - the product's warranty policy in English.
• What's in the box - describe the contents of the package. E.g.: smartphone, charging cable, charger, user's guide, etc.

Category-specific

If the category you are working with supports variations, the attributes Color and/or Size are available for mapping. It is not possible to create variations using custom attributes.

Offer

Offer mapping is enabled on Lazada when you use pricing v2 in your tenant.

Required

• Price before (re)price rules - the price of the product.

Carrier

Lazada has a number of preferred carriers, which you can map per country where Lazada is available. Besides fulfillment by Lazada, it is also possible to have your products collected by a Lazada-approved carrier and delivered to your customers.

To configure your fulfillment options, go to the Lazada Seller Center.

Pricing

In Mappings, Offer mappings, the following offer attribute may appear on this channel, if this channel uses pricing v2:

• Allow promotion below min price - set it to ‘true’ to allow the promotion price to drop below your product's minimum price. 

In Mappings, Fee group mappings, map the marketplace fee group ID of the product.

If you use pricing v1 in your tenant, there is no dedicated price attribute on Lazada. It is recommended that you always use the default Price attribute as the output of whatever price rules you set up, including currency conversions.

If you are selling on Lazada in two or more countries, make sure to create price attributes for each specific country.

Listed products

Lazada provides little information in terms of validation and feedback. However, you can check the Listed products section to check on the status of the migration of product images and failed exports.

Additional information

Lazada supports many fulfillment types. Ensure that you pack your shipments with order lines of the same fulfillment type.

Fulfillment by Lazada (FBL)

For Fulfillment by Lazada (FBL) orders that contain both canceled order lines and shipped order lines, ChannelEngine only imports the shipped order lines and not the canceled order lines. 

Orders canceled before shipping do not require any further processing by you unless you requested the cancelation. Once an order enters the Ready to ship status on Lazada, the buyer cannot cancel it.

On ChannelEngine, an FBL order shows Is FBL = 1 in Order details, Extra information.

Delivered by Seller (DBS)

If you take part in the Delivered by Seller (DBS) program, you must update your shipments with the delivery state via the Merchant API. 

To do this:

1. In Setup, Advanced settings, enable the following setting:
   • Pack order after import - updates the order on the marketplace to Packing. If the buyer wants to cancel the order, the cancelation becomes a cancelation request.
2. In Carrier mappings, enable Export delivery state.
3. Create your shipment via the Merchant API.
4. Receive confirmation that the shipment has been delivered.
5. Update your shipment with Status ‘Delivered’ or ‘Undelivered’ via the Merchant API. For guidance, check out Merchant API: shipments.

For more information on Lazada DBS, check out Lazada's article "How do I enable Delivered by Seller (DBS)?" in Lazada's help center.

Delivery by Lazada (DBL/Last-mile delivery)

Lazada's last-mile delivery service is Delivery by Lazada (DBL). To support DBL fulfillment on ChannelEngine, follow one of the processes below. For additional guidance, check out ChannelEngine: shipping labels (last-mile delivery).

Via the web application

1. From the sidebar menu, go to Settings, Shipping method, and enter a shipping method with the name 'Lazada'. 
2. In Setup, Advanced settings, enable the following settings: 
   • Realtime shipment export - requests the shipping label once ChannelEngine receives the trigger. 
   • Pack order after import - updates the order on the marketplace to Packing. If the buyer wants to cancel the order, the cancelation becomes a cancelation request.

3. Go to Mappings, Carrier mappings.

4.  Via Carrier mappings, ensure that ChannelEngine exports the exact name of the marketplace (i.e.: Lazada) to request the shipping documents; otherwise, the request fails: 

   1. Add the Method name under the Your shipping method field. In this case, it is 'Lazada'.

   2. Select Lazada in the Channel field.

Via the Merchant API

1. If you can deliver the order, create your shipment. As soon as you create your shipment, ChannelEngine requests the shipping label from Lazada. To create your shipment, call POST /v2/shipments with Method 'Lazada', which indicates that the shipment is fulfilled via DBL.
2. ChannelEngine requests shipping labels for orders in real time. These labels are generated based on the response from the marketplace and are stored on ChannelEngine’s servers. Request your label in PDF via GET /v2/orders/{merchantshipmentno}/shippinglabel.
3. You can then see the Package ID appear in the Extra information section of the Order details page, indicating that the label has been requested.
4. Once the picking and packing are done, update the tracking code field with the note 'ready' via PUT /v2/shipments/{merchantshipmentno}.
5. When received, the order status on the marketplace changes to Ready to ship. On ChannelEngine, it changes to Closed instead of Pending.

For a high-level overview of handling orders and shipments with last-mile delivery, check out the article Merchant API: shipping labels (last-mile delivery).

Shipping labels

In order to request shipping labels (aka air waybills), ChannelEngine must export the exact name of the marketplace (i.e.: Lazada) – otherwise the request fails. The Method name should be added to the Your shipping method column, and the Marketplace name should be added under the Channel column (as shown below).

Note that the customer delivery country is set to All countries when using shipping labels. If this rule is not set, the real-time export is not triggered.

Order extra data items

When an order is imported to ChannelEngine, ChannelEngine also retrieves extra data items related to the order itself – or to order lines. This extra data is specific to this marketplace. An explanation of each can be found below: 

Order line extra data

* Lazada platform incentive, Lazada Bonus.

FAQs

How often does each task run on Lazada?

Tasks run according to the following schedule on Lazada:

How do I delete products from Lazada?
To delete a product from Lazada, remove it from your product selection.

Can I see when a package was delivered to the buyer by Lazada?
Yes, once Lazada has shipped the package, you can find the estimated delivery time in the Delivered at field under the shipment details on ChannelEngine.

Sometimes I am not able to update prices on Lazada. What is happening?
Lazada has special sales events every quarter. During these periods, price updates via Lazada's API are disabled. To find out when these events take place, contact Lazada.

Why do I see the error "It is mandatory to provide a value for 'Image 1' when creating a product", if this attribute has already been mapped?
As Lazada uses a content delivery network (CDN) to handle images, there may be a delay between the export of the image to the CDN and then to Lazada. If the Image 1 attribute is mapped correctly, and yet you see this error, try re-exporting your content.

Why are some of my product images duplicated on Lazada?
This is a bug on Lazada's end, triggered by the manual update, shuffle, or deletion of images on Lazada Seller Center – which should be avoided. To address this issue:

1. Remove the affected product(s) from your product selection on ChannelEngine.
2. Export the affected product(s) to Lazada and allow them to be deleted from the marketplace.
3. Add the affected products back to the product selection on ChannelEngine.
4. Re-export the affected products to Lazada and let them be created from scratch.