Inaugural Lazada Forward Women Awards 2021 honour six women in ecommerce
LAZADA hosted its inaugural Lazada Forward Women Awards 2021 on International Women’s Day (March 8) that recognised six outstanding women across South-East Asia, including Malaysian entrepreneur Annie Chia, who are trailblazers in the ecommerce space and showcased resilience and innovation in their journey as entrepreneurs.
The Awards comprising three categories – Creative Seller Award, Enterprising Seller Award and Inspiring Seller Award – celebrate the accomplishments and milestones women in the region have achieved by overcoming challenging circumstances in their personal lives, communities and cultures.
“I am honoured to be among such inspirational women today, ” said Lazada Group chief executive officer Chun Li at the awards ceremony, held live in Singapore.
“You found interesting and unique ways to leverage the Lazada platform to not only establish your online business, but also to engage customers and build a niche following while uplifting the lives around you.
“Lazada is proud to be your partner and to have the opportunity to be part of your successful journey.”
The Awards was livestreamed on the Lazada LazLive channel to viewers in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It featured guest performers like Malaysia’s rap darling Zamaera and Singapore’s funny woman Sharul Channa.
Chia, who bagged the Inspiring Seller Award, is the owner of NLWK Florist. In 2017, a portion of Pasar Perambang in Seremban where she operated in caught fire and half of Chia’s florist store that was passed down from her parents was affected, and she lost almost everything including her family’s livelihood.
She rented a temporary space for two years and upon recommendation from her friend, she explored new ways of selling via the online marketplace, eventually landing on Lazada Malaysia.
“As the first-ever recipient from Malaysia of this award, I am very honoured and delighted, ” said Chia.
“Lazada gave me the opportunity to learn new skills as I developed my online store, and I am now able to share my knowledge with the seller community and consumers.
“This journey has definitely boosted my confidence and I hope it is a reminder to other women that they too can achieve what they set their minds on, ” said Chia.
Chun and Ayesha Khanna, the CEO of Addo.ai, joined in a lively discussion on Growing Women Entrepreneurship in South-East Asia: Current Challenges and Opportunities which was part of the Awards ceremony; the session was moderated by Virginia Tan, founding partner of Teja Ventures and co-founder of She Loves Tech.
With the steady acceleration and growth of ecommerce in South-East Asia, there is an increasing number of women business owners who have turned to the digital economy to seek new career paths.
This is due to many reasons, such as the convenience of starting a home business, the low barriers of entry and ease of registering a store on the Lazada platform, as well as the availability of services, solutions and knowledge to sustain and grow a business provided by Lazada, and more.
The first-ever six award recipients have demonstrated their different approaches to overcoming and embracing new ideas when building an online business. They are:
Creative Seller Award: Anne Ong, owner of Anne’s Secret Recipes (Singapore); Pham Thi Xuan Hong, owner of PinkShopGiayDep (Vietnam)
Enterprising Seller Award: Georgianna Carlos, owner of Fetch (the Philippines); Lalilla Thamnita, owner of AggieHome (Thailand)
Inspiring Seller Award: Annie Chia, owner of NLWK Florist (Malaysia); Hanna Suhardi, owner of Shopping Shoes (Indonesia)
To sign up as a seller with Lazada, please visit http://lzd.co/SellOnLazadaMY
