Consumers shopped for cars and groceries at the Lazada 11.11 sale

Filipino consumers have started to switch to online grocery shopping, based on insight from the Lazada 11.11 sale.

Over 345,000 grocery items, 250,000 personal protective equipment, such as face masks and face shields, and over 235,000 cleaning essentials filled the carts of Filipino shoppers. 

Interestingly, 4,500 Honda car reservations were made through the e-commerce platform in just 24 hours. There is also a growing trend of smartphone buyers, with over 18,000 mobile phones sold in the first hour of 11.11. The Realme c11 was the fastest selling smartphone at the start of the sale. Local brands like Tala by Kala and Colourette Cosmetics were the most searched keywords on the website. 

Filipinos, who have been preparing their carts since Oct. 15, averaged eight visits on the app during the 24-hour sale event, with 12 nn to 1 p.m. getting the highest consumer traffic. Shoppers also collected over 320 million vouchers and leveraged on free shipping vouchers that are available platform-wide to score more savings. 

According to Lazada, over two million carts were checked out by consumers during the first hour. Over 70,000 sellers participated in the event and 14,000 sellers joined its 11.11 sale for the first time. 

For food entrepreneurs looking to enter the e-commerce space, many food and beverage businesses sold vouchers. Restaurants sold coupons, much like Groupon, with a digital code to their products—as seen with Pepi Cubano and Shakey’s.

Specialty stores found an audience on the platform, too, selling frozen goods (vegan, sugar-free ice cream, ready-to-heat meals), healthy food products (superfoods, supplements, wholesome snacks) and international cuisines (from foreign ingredients to prepared meals). 

Marian San Pedro: