Carousell, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing classifieds marketplaces, has recently launched its major team-up with Philippine-based e-commerce logistics firm Xend in a bid to accelerate Philippine social commerce growth.
Carousell senior manager for growth markets Jamie Lee in a statement said the partnership deal allows the platform—now with 158 million listings across seven markets—to enrich the experience of its Philippine-based users and better engage them through a strong logistics partner.
“We are excited to work with Xend to make buying and selling more convenient. 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. With this strategic partnership, we hope to create more value for our community and deepen our presence in the Philippines,” Lee said.
Xend founder and chief executive officer Bjorn Pardo, for his part, said that the partnership allows both players to step up their game in the e-commerce space at scale.
“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 other’s resources towards more customer-centric solutions,” said Pardo.
The deal is seen to offer preferential privileges to Carousell users who use Xend to deliver their sold items, as well as to mount co-branded promotions in each other’s channels, both online and offline.
With over 9.5 million listings on the Philippine marketplace, Carousell said fashion and beauty remain the most popular categories among users in the country.
Xend, for its part, has already breached the 25 million mark for deliveries locally and abroad, and is known for its close to 500,000 user base, Asia Pacific’s first Facebook Messenger booking bot, and a 6,000-strong integrated land and sea logistics network with PhilTranco, FastCat, Jam Liner, Ceres, and Quick Reliable.
“It’s all about unlocking localized synergies and generating incremental value. As a next-tier innovation, Xend and Carousell will be collaborating to offer district-oriented meet-up points that leverage the Xend Group’s ‘pick-up and drop-off’ (PUDO) hubs of 350 neighborhood partner outlets and possibly the stores too of 7-Eleven, one of our formidable strategic partners,” JT Solis, Xend’s vice president for partnerships and business development who also led the negotiation and structuring of the deal, said.
