ZALORA, Asia’s Online Fashion Destination, is pleased to announce the inauguration of its new Regional e-Fulfillment Hub located in Selangor, Malaysia. Covering a total area of 470,000 square feet – approximately the size of nine FIFA football fields – and split across five levels, the e-Fulfillment Hub plays a crucial role in fulfilling thousands of orders per day and facilitating the movement of fashion goods 24/7 across eight markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia and Philippines.
ZALORA gives consumers access to thousands of local and international brands. To ensure the highest level of delivery experience for consumers across all markets, ZALORA invested heavily in building its e-commerce infrastructure from warehousing facilities to last mile delivery fleets. ZALORA is revolutionising the e-shopping experience across Asia Pacific. The Regional e-Fulfillment Hub will be a key driver for ZALORA’s growth as the regional online fashion player in the years ahead.
Best-in-class facilities and innovative technology
ZALORA invested resources and time to develop in-house logistics and operations systems:
One example is Mobile Picking, a customised solution that transmits picking information of customer orders through mobile devices, allowing greater scalability and on-time fulfilment. Since its introduction, picking productivity increased significantly and accuracy is now at 100 percent, due to the real-time item verification.
To process all orders in real-time, an in-house Order Management System (OMS) was developed for the ZALORA Operations team to track movements of inventory into and out of its warehouses, process orders, manage customer returns and refunds and manage ZALORA’s own delivery fleets.
By leveraging innovative and cutting edge technologies, ZALORA’s average lead-time from item ordered to delivered is now as low as two days for customers in the region.
Driving e-commerce growth in the region
The ZALORA Regional e-Fulfillment Hub holds a single pool of stock for all markets giving the 5-year-old fashion e-tailer the advantage of depth and width. In other words, ZALORA is able to offer a wider selection of goods with higher quantities available for the customers to order. The fulfilment centre can process up to 100,000 items per day and has the storage capacity to hold more than four million items at any time.
Additionally, ZALORA is one of the few companies in Malaysia to hold the AEO status (Authorised Economic Operator). The AEO status gives ZALORA’s Regional e-Fulfillment Hub a form of “express lane” at customs, making 24/7 cross-border movements seamless and helping ZALORA provide an even faster delivery for its customers. ZALORA is the first and only fashion e-commerce retailer in Malaysia to obtain this status.
Commitment to provide customers with best possible online shopping experience
The Regional e-Fulfillment Hub in Malaysia serves as the sole fulfilment centre for Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan and at the same time provides stock support for the Philippines and Indonesia markets. The facility’s strategic location and logistics capabilities make it possible for international brands to expand their reach into the Philippines and Indonesia and at the same time, customers are able to access a wide selection of brands and products including Mango, Ray-Ban, Steve Madden, Adidas, Topshop and more.
ZALORA orders can be easily tracked either through automatic email notifications or by visiting ZALORA’s app or website in the ‘Order Tracking’ section. Thanks to the integration of courier partners into ZALORA’s platforms, the app now allows customers to track their deliveries with real-time updates.
At the Regional e-Fulfillment Hub, returns are delivered daily where dedicated operators process and clear requests to ensure customers get refunded as soon as possible.
Partnership with YCH Group
To tackle an increasingly complex operating environment, ZALORA is collaborating with YCH Group, the region’s leading supply chain specialist. The two partners are working closely together on multiple fronts from infrastructure design, storage, order fulfilment solutions, and procurement. As a long-term strategic partner, YCH is supporting ZALORA’s growth, not only through investment in the e-fulfillment infrastructure, but also by giving the flexibility of future expansion – the warehouse can in fact double its operations area in as fast as six months.
Parker Gundersen, ZALORA Group CEO commented: “ZALORA has experienced solid growth since it was established in 2012 and as Asia’s online fashion retailer, we’re committed to continuously drive e-commerce progress in the region. Offering the best range of products, coupled with a seamless online shopping experience, we are proud to deliver the first and largest Regional e-Fulfillment Hub. We’re thankful for the support of YCH and other logistics partners in the region, without them we wouldn’t have been able to build the infrastructure we, and our customers, need.”
“Southeast Asia is poised to become one of the world’s fastest growing regions for e-commerce. We’re proud to partner with the e-commerce fashion market leader ZALORA in its regional growth”, said Margaret Toh, Executive Director of YCH Group. “Driven by innovation and the evolution of the business landscape, working jointly with ZALORA, YCH has transformed efficiency in infrastructure design and configuration, supported by automation to position the Regional e-Fulfillment Hub as a Centre of Excellence for regional e-Commerce fulfilment. Empowered by the synergies brought about by this partnership, our innovative solutions will equip ZALORA with game changing capabilities to remain competitive among its expanding consumer markets.”