Lazada Affiliate Marketing Program [Comprehensive Review]

What is Lazada Affiliate Marketing Program (Philippines)? Simply put, Lazada Affiliate Marketing Program, like many other online affiliate marketing or associate programs, provides thousands of creatives for website publishers, bloggers, and online marketers who earn referral commissions from customers’ successful purchases.

How does Lazada Affiliate Marketing Program work? As soon as publishers and marketers sign up with Lazada Affiliate Marketing Program and get an approval, they will be given access to a package of marketing and advertising tools that makes it easy to display ads and links to their websites and blogs. Potential customers click on these ads and links and get redirected to Lazada online shopping website where millions of products across various categories, from electronics and fashion to furniture and appliances, and many others are sold. Soon these potential customers close purchase orders, affiliates earn referral commissions.

Lazada Group, already controlled by Alibaba Group since 2017, operates the number one online shopping (e-commerce) website in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Lazada Affiliate Program

In an attempt to conduct a comprehensive review of Lazada Affiliate Marketing Program (Philippines), I have enumerated here a few advantages and disadvantages that may be of great help to my fellow bloggers and publishers upon deciding whether to push through with this affiliate program or not.

Honestly, I have tried the program since the first of months of this blog (check also my Partners page), but I couldn’t find a dedicated time to review Lazada product offerings. After all, I have been a little satisfied with my Google AdSense earnings, and displaying additional Lazada banners on the sidebar but messes up with the design and appearance of my blog.     

Advantages (Pros) of Lazada Affiliate Program

[1] It’s absolutely free and easy to register for Lazada Affiliate Program. Signing up for the program is not as complicated as applying for Google AdSense account. As long as one has a platform (blog or website), Lazada Affiliate Program registration takes a few clicks and forms to complete. Notification of approval after signup can be received within the same day or a few days after.

[2] Lazada, as an e-commerce website, offers a wide range of products. It’s not a problem whether you run a travel, a fashion, or a technology blog because Lazada offers all related consumer goods from summer outfits to health and beauty products to high-end electronic accessories and gadgets, even groceries and home appliances. Hence, affiliate marketing works best with reviews and articles about specific products.

[3] Lazada has already built its credibility among online shoppers. Amidst issues on poor customer service, Lazada has been continuously improving its services at par with the standards and expectations of the local customers. With the recent control of Alibaba Group however, it is expected that Lazada will soon be a true competitor of Amazon, and thus, affiliate marketing will be even more profitable and rewarding.

[4] Lazada Affiliate Program comes with a complete package of marketing and advertising tools. Upon successful signup, publishers and bloggers can have access to a variety of effective and efficient marketing and advertising tools – product and promo banners in different sizes, generatable deep and text links, complete product data packages for writeups and reviews, and many other custom-design creatives.

[5] Lazada Affiliate Program offers a 30-day last-click sales attribution. Publishers and affiliate marketers, who own the last affiliate links clicked by customers who close purchase orders within the 30-day period, will earn the affiliate commissions. Accordingly, a cookie which lasts for 30 days is dropped on the users’ browser to track the transactions back to the publishers and affiliate marketers.

Disadvantages (Cons) of Lazada Affiliate Program

[1] Lazada affiliate commissions fare far behind market rates. As per recently updated rates (April 2018), Lazada Affiliate Program commissions range from as low as one (1) to, a more decent as, nine (9) percent of the total amount paid by customers for the product purchased. Digital goods have the lowest commission rates, while fashion items particularly watches, sunglasses, and jewelries have the highest.

[2] Sales validation process takes quite long. As valid transactions depend on purchase orders delivered to and paid by customers, validation takes quite long. In a forum, an affiliate expressed his whined about the validation process saying, “Their validation process is SLOW. Not all conversions will be approved, I had some rejected already. Might be because the customer refused to pay. But basing on our experience as a SELLER (not an affiliate) in Lazada, their delivery process is HORRIBLE making the seller either cancel the order or refused to pay because they already bought a product elsewhere due to late delivery of Lazada (Warrior Forum).”

[3] Sales conversions get rejected without clarifications. Aside from quite slow validation process, a few Lazada affiliates also express their disappointments with many of their sales conversions getting rejected after validations. Accordingly, driving thousands of traffic and making hundreds of sales conversions do not guarantee high payouts as most conversions get rejected without clearly communicated reasons.

[4] Lazada Affiliate Program requires extensive marketing efforts. Unlike Google AdSense that pays publishers per impressions and clicks, Lazada Affiliate Program is highly sales commission-based. Publishers and marketers get paid upon making customers close purchase orders. Hence, displaying ad banners or adding a few text links seem ineffective. Many successful Lazada affiliate marketers employ extensive marketing strategies including product reviews, video tutorials, and other more aggressive efforts.

[5] Lazada Affiliate Program, like other affiliate programs, may compromise brand and purpose. Publishers and bloggers have publication purposes – advocate financial literacy and hence, educate the public against impulse buying, or say, promote healthy lifestyle over excessive gadget use. In the same way, dishonest product reviews may lead to upset readers and customers, and hence ruin the publishers’ credibility and trust.

In the end, affiliate marketing poses many profitable opportunities, and Lazada Affiliate Program can be a good option for many local publishers and bloggers. Many have already earned a fortune, others with hundreds or even thousands of dollars, from Lazada Affiliate marketing, but consider, as well, all their extensive marketing efforts and innovative strategies. Of course, it is only when we experience first-hand affiliate marketing with Lazada Affiliate Program that we become fully aware of its advantages and disadvantages.