Singapore’s Carousell, PHL’s Xend seal e-commerce partnership

Singapore’s Carousell has partnered with Philippines’ e-commerce logistics firm, Xend, in what the companies say is “a strategic bid to accelerate Philippine social commerce growth in a thriving ecosystem.”

The deal offers preferential privileges to Carousell users who send the items they have sold via Xend, as well as mount co-branded promotions in each other’s channels, both online and offline, the companies said in a joint statement on Monday.

“The Philippine e-commerce landscape has fundamentally evolved. Sellers and shoppers are now more discerning and adoptive of coherent, frictionless experiences. This collaboration enables us to consolidate the mobile commerce segment and mobilize each others’ resources towards more customer-centric solutions,” said Bjorn Pardo, Xend’s founder and CEO.

The Carousell platform now has 158 million listings across 7 markets, said Jamie Lee, Carousell’s senior manager for growth markets.

“Shipping has been one of the most requested features from our users in the Philippines and Xend provides a unique, cost-friendly logistics solution for our users,” Lee noted.

With over 9.5 million listings in the Philippines marketplace, fashion and beauty remain as the most popular categories among its users in the Philippines.

Xend has already breached the 25-million mark for deliveries locally and abroad, and has a user based of nearly 500,000. It has Asia Pacific’s first Facebook Messenger booking bot, and 6,000 integrated land and sea logistics network with PhilTranco, FastCat, Jam Liner, Ceres, and Quick Reliable.

JT Solis, Xend’s vice president for Partnerships & Business Development, led the negotiation and structuring of the deal with Carousell.
 
“As a next-tier innovation, Xend and Carousell will be collaborating to offer district-oriented meet-up points that leverages Xend Group’s “pick-up and drop-off” hubs of 350 neighborhood partner outlets and possibly the stores too of 7-Eleven, one of our formidable strategic partners,” Solis said.

With over 158 million listings, Carousell operates in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. It is backed by Rakuten Ventures, Sequoia India, 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, DBS and EDBI.

In the Philippines, it has 32 categories of new and pre-loved items, including fashion and accessories, lifestyle gadgets, furniture, cars, and sporting gear. —VDS, GMA News