As an intern from ZALORA’s Beauty Team I think it comes with no surprise that I am passionate about makeup and skincare. I like to keep up with the latest beauty trends, I love trying out new products as well as new makeup techniques.

With e-commerce emerging at a rapid speed, my frequent visits to various e-commerce sites had garnered interest in this field as well. I often wondered: who are the humans behind all this? Hence this internship is what I believe to be a dream come true for me because I get to combine and apply my interests, passions and knowledge into my work.

As a brand management intern in the beauty team my day to day life in ZALORA consists of communicating with various sellers on their onboarding process for acquisition, as well as keeping in touch with sellers to assist them in their participation in ZALORA campaigns, or even their own monobrand promos.

Whenever a new campaign is up and finally live on site, seeing that the campaign that I helped out and contributed to come to life gives me a sense of fulfillment in my work. It makes the back and forth with not just the sellers, but with the other teams involved worth it.

I would say that my time at ZALORA has been an educational experience for me. I learn something new everyday about e-commerce and ZALORA, with thanks to close guidance from my line manager/supervisor - Cheryl, who has always supported and guided me from the very beginning to the end. This quenches my thirst for more knowledge regarding the behind the scenes of e-commerce.

The work environment at ZALORA definitely took me by surprise. A common misconception that the public has about e-commerce is that because the shopping is readily available 24/7 this means that the staff works round the clock too. However, over here at Zalora I witnessed and was also fortunate enough to be part of this positive, friendly and engaging work environment.

I am so thankful to be working in a team of so many nurturing individuals, especially the beauty AMs, Cheryl, Natasha, Kellsey and along with our manager, Chien Yin. With their valuable advice and guidance throughout my time here I am able to grow and develop more interpersonal skills which is a vital skill for account management and acquisition as it requires reaching out to sellers very frequently.

Because of where I live, commuting to the office daily would definitely be very taxing. Thanks to the hybrid work arrangement, I only need to travel one day a week to the office. The entire team actually lives quite a distance away from the office so this initiative has been a great help for not just me, but the entire team due to the saved time from commuting daily, overall it improves productivity and our mental health, thus cultivating a healthy and conducive working environment.

Thanks to this internship, I have gained deeper insight into what it is like in the working world. The most impactful lesson that I learnt during my time here is how important it is to have people skills. As an introvert, being in account management and acquisition aided me in “coming out of my shell”. I have transformed into a more outspoken person who is no longer shy to voice out my opinions. This showed during team meetings when I provided brand acquisition updates; gradually I had more confidence to present the updates.

I have learnt pitching and negotiation skills during my time here. Pitching to new sellers and negotiating a commission rate, negotiating with existing sellers a co-funding rate, negotiating with existing customers to push for better promo mechanics, have all helped me hone my skills and I am more confident today because of the opportunities ZALORA has given me.

I have many memorable moments in time here at ZALORA. There was once where the Beauty and Lifestyle Team had a team bonding session where we went for a palette knife painting class, it was a very fun and memorable day for everyone. My friendly, helpful, and positive colleagues have made my experience in and out of the office very pleasant. Another fond memory I have was back in January, when our manager Chien Yin got the Beauty team’s January babies (myself included) a cake for a mini celebration at the office. It was a touching moment and I felt very thankful to be a part of such a warm and friendly team. Work wise, my proudest achievement is when a beauty monobrand campaign finally went live. I worked on this promo campaign from start to finish with my supervisor so it was very fulfilling to see weeks of negotiation, back and forth with the seller, and hard work turn into a successful campaign.

My number one advice I would give to any intern joining ZALORA would be to just chill! It is okay to make mistakes, but most importantly learn from them! And don’t be shy to speak up if you do so that others can help you.