Xend teams up with Carousell in the Philippines to provide convenience and safety

• Carousell users can now meet up at pre-vetted safe locations with no extra cost
• Xend’s collaboration with other e-commerce players also in the works

ONLINE marketplace Carousell has recently partnered with Xend, a Philippine-based e-commerce logistics company, in an effort to boost e-commerce growth in the Philippines.

Xend founder and CEO Bjorn Pardo (pic), said that the partnership would improve Philippine users’ experience of Carousell, in terms of both convenience and safety. “Now you have the option to ship your item to your buyer using Xend, as well as the option to meet up with your buyer at any of our safe locations, which was not an option before.”

He affirmed that the meet-up spots are already in full operation. “We have opened up our entire 350 physical locations around the Greater Manila Area. All 350 locations were pre-vetted by both Xend and Carousell.”

No extra charges

When asked if their partnership would lead to added cost for Carousell users in the Philippines, Pardo stated that neither the buyers nor sellers would be charged any extra delivery fees. “We’re providing the meet-up points and shipping services for them. There won’t be any extra fees. If anything, it would actually be cheaper.”

For example, he elaborated, the deal offers a weekend promotion where, for every five items a seller ships on a Saturday, the delivery fees for the seller’s next two items will be waived. “Doing so helps to increase shipments on certain days and help entrepreneurs overall.”

Addressing the concern of how that might affect their financial growth, Pardo assured that the deal was still financially viable. “E-commerce is growing rapidly in Southeast Asia and the Philippines, in particular. So with whatever promotions that we’re doing, it’s still sustainable.”

Commercial or branding reasons?

As the deals provided from the collaboration do not seem aggressive in terms of boosting profits for the firm, Pardo was then queried as to whether the effort was more for establishing their brands rather than for commercial purposes.

“It’s definitely a combination of both,” he answered. “We [Xend and Carousell] are both trying to make a bigger name for ourselves in the e-commerce space.” He added that while Carousell is very popular in the Philippines, there are also other big players competing in the e-commerce market.

Having said that, however, Pardo asserted that their main focus is to explore ways for the business to grow. “I think both Xend and Carousell are pretty well-known to begin with. Now it’s mainly for us to try and find the right partners and grow in the industry for our businesses in any way we can.”

Collaborations with other online marketplaces

Xend’s commitment to join the big boys in the e-commerce domain does not end there. Pardo disclosed that the company also has plans to collaborate with other e-commerce players. “As a logistics company, we want to collaborate with everyone and anyone –whether it be big marketplaces or entrepreneurs selling independently on their websites – we’re exploring ways on how we can help the community and entrepreneurs in general.”

For example, he revealed that a similar collaboration with Shopee is currently in the works. “Next month, Shopee will be having a site-wide sale, and we will be participating in it.”

Xend is also working with eBay to facilitate the cross-border business between the Philippines and the US for faster transactions, he added. “We’re trying to promote cross-border e-commerce. As eBay does a lot of cross-border business, we’re working with them to utilise our US warehouses for the local merchants in the Philippines so that we can get their goods to their end customers in the US faster.”

As for any future plans to expand their partnership with Carousell and other e-commerce players to other countries in the region, Pardo replied in the negative, saying that they do not have operations in other Southeast Asian countries besides the Philippines for the time being. “In the future, once we do have operations in other countries, we would definitely like to work with them. But for now, we’re 100% focused on the Philippines.”

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