• Realizes single sign-on to all internal systems and simplifies employee lifecycle management

• Drives productivity across offices with collaborative file editing features

• Supports swift transition to hybrid workplace model during COVID-19

• Accelerating business expansion by facilitating collaboration with external partners

For online fashion retailer ZALORA , maturing from a startup to a multinational business with more than two million active customers in South East Asia and nearby regions has been an exciting journey. But it also requires continuous improvements in work arrangements to support its rapid growth amid the e-commerce boom.

With offices spread across six countries, one of ZALORA’s earliest and most important decisions was to decide on a productivity and collaboration suite to run its business. After shopping around for the right solution, the company landed on Google Workspace in 2012 for its easy access and comprehensive collection of collaborative software.

“Google Workspace is easy to purchase and meets our business requirements,” says Nicky Ang, Associate Director of Infra Ops at ZALORA. “Besides facilitating our internal collaboration, it can also help us manage our growing partnerships with brands and businesses that sell through our websites and applications.”

Ang says that one of the greatest advantages of using Google Workspace for ZALORA is that most people in Southeast Asia, where the company is primarily operating, are familiar with Gmail and Drive , so the learning curve for its employees to use Google Workspace is near zero. ZALORA is therefore able to execute its business quickly with minimum technical limitations.

ZALORA’s 2,100+ employees across six countries now rely heavily on Docs and Sheets to process documents and spreadsheets. The sharing and collaborative editing features of the two tools have significantly enhanced the work efficiency of the multinational team.

“Part of the beauty of Docs and Sheets is the fact that they enable us to work on a single file across several workstations,” notes Ang. “The sharing and editing features are super helpful, as it means that we don’t have to send emails with different versions of files back and forth.”

Using a combination of Sheets and Slides , the ZALORA team is able to make presentations efficiently by embedding slides in multiple presentations and creating master slides that incorporate data from a Sheet that updates in real time. Calendar also provides the team a convenient and straightforward way to lock in meetings and book meeting rooms, which has helped enhance meeting efficiency.

Having experienced and benefited from the high efficiency and flexibility of remote work, ZALORA has decided to make the hybrid workplace model a part of its company culture. Currently, more than 80% of ZALORA’s employees have adopted its hybrid workplace culture. Ang says that flexible working is aligned with ZALORA’s corporate principles, which include putting the safety and welfare of its employees first, and shaping a sustainable fashion ecosystem while reducing its environmental impacts.

Meanwhile, the company continues to use the Google Workspace tools to further enhance work efficiency and increase employee engagement. It has recently developed an intranet that hosts various company policies and useful self-help documents with Sites , which according to Ang, allows users to easily create web pages like writing blogs.

ZALORA is convinced that it made the right call by adopting Google Workspace because of its high level of security and availability.

“We’ve benefited extensively from Google Workspace and the entire Google ecosystem, especially during COVID-19,” he adds. “Google Workspace has been the backbone of our business for years and will continue to be a key platform to help us realize our ambition of being the fastest-growing online fashion destination in South East Asia and beyond.”