With online selling on the rise, Carlos Barrera, the CEO of Lazada Philippines, reveals in an exclusive interview with The Business Manual how your business can succeed.

Read the Full Story, Only on The Business Manual: Level up Your Online Business for Success, According to Lazada Philippines CEO Carlos Barrera

As the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and the top online shopping platform in the Philippines, Lazada has truly redefined the way people do business. With a strong presence in six countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—the e-commerce giant features millions of customers and sellers under its wing.

Leading the country’s top online shopping platform is Carlos Barrera, who was appointed as the CEO of Lazada Philippines at the young age of 33. Armed with sharp business acumen, finance knowledge, and a passion for technology, he has pioneered many programs under the Lazada name, which have and will continue to create many opportunities for said brands and sellers to grow their businesses.

“Everyone has a different journey,” Barrera begins. “But everybody should have an online presence. Sometimes, you have an offline business that has been around for quite a while, and they just want to try it out to get that extra boost. There is no downside to having an online business.”

“The reality today is that, in the Philippines, if you want to work with Lazada, the cost of their business is very, very low, and there’s no fixed cost. So trying is always a good experience,” he continues. “You can go online within less than two minutes. You just need one ID, and you can quickly upload your store. And you get the benefits of getting different customers—different eyeballs. Even if you just do it for brand awareness and visibility.”

While online selling is seemingly straightforward, the CEO maintains that just like running any other business, it takes a good understanding of trends and the market to keep it going. “The challenge is always around focus and attention to what’s new and getting familiarized with the new trends. But the reality is that a lot of successful businesses have offline channels that [are] quite powerful and very, very recognizable.”

“Once they’ve tried [going] online, they were so much more successful that they even decided to pivot their business to go fully online,” he enthuses.