- Shippit, a logistics Software as a Service startup, which powers more than 50 million deliveries a year across Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia since 2014, officially launches in Singapore
- Partners with Shopify to launch a Cash on Delivery model for Southeast Asian merchants and retailers, in a region where three-quarters of consumers are unbanked or underbanked and e-Commerce is becoming a daily necessity due to COVID-19
- Shippit is the first shipping platform in Asia to provide carbon neutral deliveries on all shipments completed through Shippit, at no extra cost
- Aims to expand into Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia in the near future, with a focus on talent that has a deep understanding of local markets
Fast-growing logistics technology company Shippit officially announces its foray into Southeast Asia, opening its Singapore office. Using Singapore as a launchpad into the rest of the region, Shippit aims to accelerate the Southeast Asian e-Commerce industry valued at US$38 billion in 2019, by launching its new Cash On Delivery (COD) service for retailers. By partnering with leading ecommerce platform Shopify, Shippit now provides instant access to simpler shipping and Cash on Delivery capabilities for Asia’s growing online retailers.
Founded in 2014, the logistics Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company, has raised almost US$10 million, led by Asian investment firm Aura Group. By using automation and machine learning to simplify the order fulfilment process, Shippit serves more than 6,000 customers a month across Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, powering delivery for Sephora, UNIQLO, CottonOn, Harvey Norman among thousands of leading retailers. The Shippit platform which enables retailers to instantly ship with Asia’s leading carriers, share seamless tracking and notifications and access dedicated delivery support, processes hundreds of thousands of orders daily, and has already begun powering delivery for small business like Common Man Coffee roasters in Singapore since April.
Southeast Asia presents a huge opportunity for Shippit with an internet economy expected to more than double to US$150 billion by 2025 — it also presents a big challenge: as a region with about 296 million (74%) of the population either unbanked or underbanked, cash is still largely king. This is especially relevant today, when the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in e-Commerce and deliveries becoming a daily necessity.
Lavneesh Arora, Director of Market Development at Shippit, said: “Southeast Asia has one of the fastest growing internet economies in the world, and due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve seen a rapid acceleration of e-Commerce, with many businesses realising they need to go online. However, we’ve also seen the majority in Southeast Asia are still heavily reliant on cash over credit cards and online banking. Shippit can be seen as an e-Commerce enabler: by providing Cash On Delivery as a new service, we allow online retailers like Shopify to access a huge section of the market that they would not be able to reach.”
Logistics is a sector that has seen opportunities amid the crisis. Since nationwide lockdowns were implemented due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Shippit has seen a 400% increase in online purchasing rates in Australia from April 2020. Delivery volume growth has broken records previously set by Black Friday and Cyber Monday — which are typically the biggest shopping events in the year. This same trend is also seen in Southeast Asia markets with more turning to e-Commerce platforms, a trend that will likely continue even after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.
Shippit’s Cash On Delivery (COD) service is specially designed for the Southeast Asian market. This offering makes Shippit the first end-to-end shipping solution for retailers to instantly offer COD to merchants and retailers after signing up for a Shippit account and connecting their Shopify store. Through its partnership with Shopify, one of the world’s largest e-Commerce platforms, Shippit will immediately offer COD as a payment option regardless of order volume or business size. Shopify retailers also do not need to negotiate COD rates with their couriers, as this is taken care of on Shippit’s end automatically. To better help partners on the platform scale internationally, Shippit also has instant discounted rates for regular cross-border delivery.
Shippit is also committed to a future of sustainable retail, and offsets 100% of the carbon emissions for all deliveries at no extra cost. It does this by purchasing carbon offsets to support projects that prevent and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
With Singapore as a first market in Southeast Asia, Shippit will tap on the country’s strong preference for e-Commerce. Singapore has one of the most active online buyers in the region, with 2 out of 3 Singaporeans purchasing products online at least once a year, and an internet economy worth US$12 billion in value, and expected to more than double to approximately US$27 billion by 2025. With Shippit’s COD offering, Singapore retailers will also be able to access other markets in Southeast Asia that prefer cash.
Timing of Shippit’s launch is just right as retailers seek to expand delivery options and enhance their shipping practices. Shippit’s award-winning software platform is determined to disrupt the way growing and established online retailers deliver orders to their customers in Asia and is excited about working with Shopify to accelerate ecommerce growth across the region.
As a logistics startup, Shippit is a scalable shipping platform that can be used by enterprise-level firms such as the likes of Sephora and UNIQLO, fast-growing companies, as well as e-Commerce businesses just starting out. From multi-channel, international retailers to homegrown sellers, Shippit unifies order fulfilment across sales channels and leverages its proprietary allocation algorithm to connect retailers to the best delivery partner for every single order.
