hat group event in May 2021 to facilitate  open and constructive dialogue and information exchange between IPR owners and e-commerce  platforms,” Joyce Ang, senior vice president for intellectual property protection at Lazada Group, told Inside Retail. She went on to explain that this led to a proposal by Lazada to set up the consortium to address the need for greater collaboration and coordination between IPR owners and e-commerce platforms around online intellectual property rights protection matters. An online directory The Seca Working Group aims to provide an online directory, which will be accessible at secagroup.com. It aims to houseIPR protection policies, programs, tools and resources to manage and deter IPR infringement on the participating platforms. “For example, Lazada will be sharing its best practices pertaining to platform terms of services, IPR infringement reporting and removal mechanisms, and IPR awareness building amongst its merchants,” Ang explained. The consortium will share the best practices and principles it has developed for online platforms, derived from Lazada’s experience of working with many platforms to identify ways for fast removal, proactive filtering and joint enforcement. “As the participating platforms’ policies may evolve over time, the consortium will also work on updates  to the directory regularly, to accurately reflect any changes or development,” she added. Moving forward, according to Ang, the group will meet every three to six months for rights owners and platforms to each raise issues, such as the disclosure of vendors and data privacy, and discuss ways to tackle them together. Current state of affairs In Asia, the growth of e-commerce has been frenetic as populations have quickly adjusted to working from home and getting all their products and services online with the convenience of home delivery.  There also has been a dark side to this. “The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the illicit trade in counterfeit goods; fraudsters have been quick to seize opportunities to offer counterfeit or substandard items widely due to increased demands,” Ang noted. This was due to the public’s fear of perceived goods shortages and supply chain disruptions that affected products such as face masks and hand sanitisers.  She elaborated that this trend was coupled with a substantial shift towards e-commerce during times of lockdowns, and this paved the way for robust growth in the supply of fake goods online. “Lazada is the first e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia to have a dedicated IPR team and we are committed to maintaining a legally compliant and safe e-commerce environment for our many customers in Southeast Asia,” she noted. According to Ang, Lazada launched a pilot program of proactive counterfeit removals back in March of 2020, using technology and data from right holders,such as product-specific information, to target the listing of counterfeit goods even before right holders report them. “In 2021, 98 per cent of the products removed through Lazada’s proactive removals occurred before a single sale took place,” she stated. Staying ahead of the game Ang has observed that customers on the Lazada platform have been increasingly relying on it for essential shopping needs. “In fact, we crossed a milestone of having one million actively-selling sellers monthly on our platform just earlier this year,” she said. This brought on new challenges for the company as it needed to ramp up its operations to take care of the increased traffic. There was an urgent need for partnerships in the e-commerce space to create a safe and sustainable ecosystem for all stakeholders. “We look forward to playing an active role in driving progress as well as development in IPR protection standards and industry-wide awareness and are open to working with more partners in the future to achieve this goal,” she stressed. In a recent report based on internal company research, titled “Transforming Southeast Asia from discovery to delivery”, Lazada highlighted some interesting facts and figures that provide plenty of food for thought. The big picture To better understand Southeast Asia’s consumers, Lazada surveyed 38,138 e-commerce users across genders, age groups and household income levels in six countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. According to the report, e-commerce user penetration in Southeast Asia is at 53.8 per cent in 2022 and is expected to hit 63.3 per cent by 2025. The number of active sellers on Lazada has increased by 68 per cent in the first seven months of 2022. Eighty-six per cent of its users prefer online shopping via smartphones over other devices. Online advertisements and influencer marketing is also playing an important role in pre-purchase decisions. Interestingly, the report took a snapshot of certain verticals, and in the fashion industry, the total number of users in Southeast Asia is predicted to reach 196 million in 2022 and 255 million by 2025, with a projected revenue of US$30.34 billion. While the number of online shoppers in the beauty category in Southeast Asia is predicted to reach 131 million in 2022 and 171 million by 2025, generating a total revenue of US$28.9 billion. The last mile More importantly, the report highlighted a new normal for delivery services and the heightened expectations among consumers in the area. Demand for speedy delivery services has grown in Southeast Asia, with more shoppers unwilling to wait for more than three days. The survey found that 80 percent of shoppers in the region wanted same-day delivery, and 61 per cent wanted delivery within two hours. Sixty-nine per cent of shoppers stated that they will be more likely to click a product if fast and free delivery is advertised. It was therefore no surprise that free shipping has been repeatedly voted as one of the most important considerations for online shoppers. Moreover, according to Kantar’s 2021 Asia Sustainability Foundational Study, 63 per cent of Asian consumers factor in sustainability concerns, at least occasionally, when making purchase decisions.  As the importance of sustainable delivery packaging becomes a bigger factor in customers’ purchasing decisions, platforms like Lazada will need to ensure their fulfilment centres are environmentally sustainable too.