Carousell aims to increase trust toward pre-loved items via new feature for luxury goods
Singapore – Recommerce platform Carousell has announced the launch of its ‘Certified Luxury’ feature which aims at spotlighting second-hand luxury items on their platform, and convince users to make secondhand items first on their mind.
In the launch event for said feature, Gijs Verheijke, head of luxury at Carousell said that ‘Certified Luxury’ aims at making luxury items accessible to everyone, adding that by making secondhand an easy and trusted choice, they are allowing consumers to make the sustainable choice and practise circular consumption by choosing secondhand.
“Because second hand luxury is so much more affordable, it is often most people’s first interaction with, or entrance into buying luxury. We want to make that encounter with [second-hand] luxury easy and safe for anyone. And these are the ways we are doing that, with the launch of Certified Luxury,” he said.
He also added that in the same way, Carousell is about good deals, they also believe in providing access to luxury for all.
“With Certified Luxury, you get real luxury at a fraction of the cost, with trust and with the same quality assured. In this way, we allow for [second-hand] deals, with a first-rate experience’, giving our consumers the best of both worlds,” Verheijke said.
Carousell’s launch of ‘Certified Luxury’ builds on the platform’s continued mission of promoting second-hand items in the name of sustainability.
Singapore – As the pandemic thrust consumers to rely more on digital consumption, brands had to recalibrate their presence and leverage online channels to ensure they continued to reach their target consumers. This pandemic-induced reality is what gave way to the third wave of Digital Advertising — prompted by Retail Media.
In the recently concluded conference ‘What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific’ by MARKETECH APAC,JJ Eastwood, managing director at Carousell Media Group, dug deeper into retail media and how it became the way to activate digital advertising’s now ‘third big wave’.
Watch the full presentation of Carousell Media Group’s JJ Eastwood here.
If we’re now in the third, where can we date back the earlier ripples? The study by Interactive Advertising Bureau Southeast Asia and India (IAB SEA+India) and Carousell Media Group revealed that the first wave, in fact, started with the search era in the 2000s and then followed by the social era in the 2010s when social media networks took part in digital advertising. Fast forward to 2020 — retail media networks finally took over.
Retail media networks are classified into digital marketplaces, mass merchant retailers, and commerce intermediaries or delivery providers. To name a few, some known retail media networks are Amazon and Walmart in the US and in Asia, there are Carousell, Grab ads and panda ads.
In his presentation, Eastwood emphasised that five factors are driving the growth of retail media. This includes first-party data, which enables retail media networks to serve customers with relevant advertisements; closed-loop attribution, which helps in better understanding of ads; contextually relevant ads to the consumer; ability to reach relevant audiences at scale; and capability to run full-funnel campaigns.
However, in particular, the growth of retail media was propelled by sponsored search ads which make up almost 80% of retail media networks’ revenue.
Eastwood explained, “Those sponsored search ads are as relevant as organic search listings. This is what is at the core of every retail media network, what delivers results and meaningful insights for brands.”
The existence of retail media fills the needs of the brands since there has been a decline in television advertisements and the loss of third-party identifiers, whilst the stores are starting to shift into the digital world.
With this, Eastwood emphasised the retail media trends that emerged, particularly in Asia, where 99% of the brands and agencies plan to increase their retail media spending over the next 12 months. Moreover, according to Eastwood, 70% of advertisers are seeing an improvement in performance from retail media networks over other channels, whilst brands say that they will advertise on a retail media network despite not listing products in that marketplace.
Marketers face many challenges when advertising, such as measuring marketing outcomes, optimising cross-channel campaigns, and removing third-party identifiers, particularly cookies. Eastwood shared how retail media can solve these challenges.
What’s next for retail media in Asia? Concluding his presentation, Eastwood said, “I think what is gonna happen for the next six to 12 months, particularly in Asia, are more data collaborations. Retailers and brands can come together and enrich each other’s data upon what they know about certain consumer profiles.”
He added, “Through the use of DSPs, Retail media is moving up the funnel into video and digital out-of-home formats. However, through the likes of shoppable videos, retail media will blur the lines between traditional branding campaigns and direct response.”
What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific is the inaugural 2-day hybrid industry conference of MARKETECH APAC which was launched last February 28 and March 1 as a culminating event under What’s NEXT 2023.
More than 200 in-person participants and more than 100 virtual attendees participated in the conference to know more about what’s next in the different marketing disciplines including growth marketing, marketing and technology, retail media, public relations, travel marketing, influencer marketing, customer experience, and many more.
In the virtual conference held on the second day, Eastwood was joined by other marketing leaders from panda ads, Boost, CARSOME, and Hubilo, PrimeCredit Limited and Rentokil Initial amongst others, who also shared their insights about various marketing facets.
Carousell Media Group, the speaker for the keynote presentation, is a proud bronze sponsor of What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific. Carousell Media Group is the advertising arm of Carousell Group, which helps brands across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong acquire new customers and increase sales. With tens of millions of active shoppers and hundreds of millions of product searches on its marketplaces every month, brands can connect with consumers through full-funnel campaigns, drive conversions and gain valuable marketing insights.
Former Carousell MD Djon Nacario moves to lead Lalamove in PH
Philippines – Djon Nacario, who led the e-commerce platform Carousell in the Philippines as managing director for a full year in 2022, has now moved to delivery platform Lalamove to be at the helm of its Philippine operations. The update was shared personally on his LinkedIn.
Nacario assumes the same position of managing director for the platform.
Back in 2021, Nacario became the country head of travel platform Agoda. He brings with him seasoned marketing experience where aside from the mentioned role, he was also previously Agoda’s head of market management.
Other notable experience under his belt is working with consumer goods giant Unilever.
In December 2022, Carousell announced that it has laid off 10% of its staff. The e-commerce is only one of the many large-scale companies that have announced downsizing since the latter part of 2022.
SEA marketers to increase retail media spend within 12 months: report
Hong Kong – Almost all of marketers in Southeast Asia have said that they will be increasing retail media spending within the next 12 months, a new report released by Carousell Media Group and IAB SEA+India reveals.
In the report, around 87% of the respondents intend including retail media as part of their media plans within the next 12 months. Moreover, it is also worth noting that retail media advertising accounts for 1 in 5 advertising dollars spent.
It also noted that around 78% of the marketer respondents will use retail media data for off-platform targeting on new formats such as Connected TV (CTV), while 44% will advertise on a brand-suitable retail media network that does not carry their products.
Miranda Dimopoulos, regional CEO at IAB SEA+India, explained that around 44% of respondents say they will advertise on a retail media network even if they do not have any products listed on that marketplace.
“For marketers, investing ad spend in a retail media network compatible with their own brand values, and those of their customers, is a major consideration,” she said.
Meanwhile, JJ Eastwood, managing director at Carousell Media Group, commented, “Retail Media allows brands to showcase their products to consumers who have specifically searched for that item, or something similar, providing a seamless consumer experience and, of course, a solid return on ad spend.”
He added, “The fact that 78% of respondents want to use retail media data for off-platform targeting, specifically on exciting new formats like CTV, indicates that Retail Media is moving up the funnel and can provide marketers with both direct response and branding opportunities.”
Eastwood will further be discussing the future of retail media at the upcoming What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia-Pacificconference. The panel, titled Digital Advertising’s Third Big Wave – The Rise Of Retail Media, will further explore how brands can tap retail media and leverage it to their advantage.
Carousell and IAB SEA+India had previously worked together in a report, where they tackled trends in the region regarding consumer purchasing attitudes.
Singapore – Recommerce platform Carousell has launched a new end-to-end service ‘Sell to Carousell’ in Singapore; the latest movement of the platform following its acquisition of Laku6, an Indonesian electronics recommerce platform, in the early part of H2 2022.
The new service affords users in Singapore an advanced option to sell their mobile phones directly to Carousell in under 24 hours from the comfort of their homes or by dropping off their phones at any iStudio outlet, the Apple premium reseller.
At the heart of the new solution is the quick on-the-spot diagnosis which is made possible through Laku6’s proprietary AI-first diagnostic technology. Carousell is able to inspect the condition of secondhand mobile phones in under two minutes and confirm the final quote through its own smart pricing algorithm.
Quek Siu Rui, Group CEO and co-founder of the Carousell Group, shared that since the integration of Laku6, they have seen a growth of 55% in the past half year alone in mobile phone transactions.
“There is huge potential for electronics recommerce in Greater Southeast Asia, which is slated to grow over 2.5X to US$18.6 billion by 2026, and Carousell Group is well placed to cement our leadership,” said Quek.
Founder of Laku6 Alvin Yap shared that since finding out consumers’ sentiment of seeing the activity of selling their mobile phones as burdensome through their own user research, they have been working on developing solutions tailored to local market needs.
“Since the soft launch in September 2022, the program has shown signs of a strong product market fit with thousands of phones processed,” said Yap.
The process for ‘Sell to Carousell’ starts with users filling in a short form about their phone condition on the app or website to get an estimated quote. Afterwards, users will be able to choose if they want to have a Carousell agent visit their home for device inspection and have an instant payout or visit a physical store themselves to complete the process.
This process has been made fully automated to remove the element of human error during assessment, at the same time, allows users the flexibility to change their minds on selling with no obligations upon receiving the final quote.
According to Quek, they would soon be launching similar products in Vietnam and Malaysia through its brands Cho Tot and Mudah.my respectively. He further revealed that the group’s next milestone is to provide an advanced option to buy certified mobile phones that would come with warranty for users who want to buy secondhand with peace of mind.
“These will give our users more choice and flexibility on how they wish to shop secondhand,” Quek added
Singaporeans most pragmatic when it comes to shopping sustainably, Carousell Group’s Recommerce Index reveals
Singapore – In celebration of its 10th anniversary, leading multi-category platform for secondhand in Greater Southeast Asia Carousell Group released the Carousell Recommerce Index (10th Anniversary Edition) revealing the sustainability impact its collective community has made by buying and selling secondhand items.
Over the past decade, the Group’s users have extended the life cycle of millions of items, including: 76.8 million fashion items; 33.9 million electronics; 26.6 million hobby items and toys; 11.1 million home items and furniture; and 10.6 million babies & kids items.
To further illustrate the impact, if we take the total number of used fashion listings on Carousell, we can provide every single person in Singapore with 13 outfits. Additionally, assuming all used electronics listed are iPhone Xs, the height when stacked together is the equivalent of over 23,500 times the height of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
The Recommerce Index also showed a study conducted by IAB and Carousell Media Group that Singaporeans topped the chart with 44% choosing “saving money” as their key motivations for buying secondhand.
The report also highlighted key trends in each market, specifically for Singapore:
Top 3 most popular categories to sell secondhand items are Fashion, Hobbies & Toys, Home & Furniture
Top 3 most popular secondhand category to browse are Fashion, Hobbies & Toys, Home & Furniture
All-time top 3 most searched keywords for secondhand items: Rolex, AG06 (Yahama Channel Mixer) and Road Bike
Recommerce refers to the selling and buying of previously-owned products, including both new and used in condition. The report covers data from 9 of Carousell Group’s family of brands across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan markets — Carousell, Cho Tot, Laku6, Mudah.my, OneKyat, One Shift, Ox Luxe, Ox Street, and Refash.
Since its inception in 2012 as a mobile-first app to make selling and buying underutilised items easier, Carousell has grown from a C2C classifieds marketplace into a multi-category platform for secondhand goods in Greater Southeast Asia. To accelerate the next decade of recommerce, the Group has been working on additional capabilities to offer more features and services to users that make buying secondhand items as trusted and convenient as buying brand new items.
Ng Chee Soon, managing director at Carousell Singapore, said, “Carousell was founded a decade ago with the mission of making secondhand the first choice. The Recommerce Index serves as a crucial guide to help us better understand the motivations behind our consumers’ behaviour, especially amidst the post-Covid economic uncertainty. With 1 in 3 Singaporeans using Carousell monthly, secondhand is even more accessible to everyone and we are excited to fuel the shift and for Carousell to drive recommerce growth in the Greater Southeast Asia region.”
The Carousell Recommerce Index (10th anniversary edition) is available for download here.
Singapore– Carousell Media Group, the advertising arm of Carousell Group, has launched its new ad solution, Shopping Ads, to support brands in acquiring new customers and increasing sales.
Carousell’s Shopping Ads will help provide the most relevant ads to consumers via an optimised product feed triggered by the consumer’s search queries on Carousell’s marketplaces, giving an efficient and effective way for advertisers to boost traffic to their e-commerce stores and increase sales.
“Product search ads and their efficacy are the driving force behind the retail media
phenomenon. With over 150M product searches on our marketplaces every month, this ad solution is a natural fit that benefits both consumers and our advertising clients through more relevant and effective ads,” said JJ Eastwood, managing director of Carousell Media Group.
Earlier this year, Carousell Media Group also introduced Connect, a first-of-its-kind recommerce programmatic buying platform. By providing full-funnel marketing solutions, Connect provides advertisers with a viable alternative to closed environments such as Google and Facebook.
Manila, Philippines – Finding ‘The One’ is always associated with romantic human relationships, but the journey of seeking the ‘perfect match’ extends well beyond to other experiences in our lives. This is what recommerce platform Carousell in the Philippines aims to evoke in its newest brand campaign: finding ‘The One’ – the perfect item – that is.
All-in-one marketplaces such as Carousell always bring much excitement, but with such an expansive selection comes the challenge as well of finding that one most suitable item for our needs. Carousell Philippines’ newest campaign, ‘Find The One for Every Want’, simply aims to help and educate consumers in the market in better navigating the recommerce platform for better experiences and more immediate and frequent successes in landing that purchase they’re looking for.
Djon Nacario, GM of Carousell Philippines, shares that the new campaign targets to educate users on the features and tools that are available to them on Carousell so they can experience “the joy in finding the listing that perfectly matches their needs.”
“We’ve seen how consumers searching for items online are confronted with so many confusing choices. With this campaign, we want to help buyers navigate the online clutter so they can find exactly what they are searching for – even if it’s their dream home or their first car,” he said.
A witty hashtag is also at the heart of the campaign, #MayKiligSaCarousell, which speaks to the warm, fuzzy feeling that one gets in love – or similarly – in getting the ‘perfect’ purchase.
Some of the features that the campaign aims to highlight are its easy-to-navigate interface, where users can simply click on product buttons such as ‘Cars’ and further filter the search according to location, budget, and model on one page. Carousell also wants to spotlight its communication features which enable users to chat directly with the seller to obtain information that sales agents usually wouldn’t know.
Furthermore, the campaign boasts its more sophisticated features such as the ‘Inspected’ badge for second-hand cars available on the platform. Cars that carry this badge means they have undergone a comprehensive 188-point inspection process that looks into a car’s mechanical and electrical functions, in and out of the vehicle; as well as the car’s body frame itself, engine bay, undercarriage, and even the car’s registration. Qualified vehicles also carry an ‘Eligible for Warranty’ badge so users can choose if they want to purchase used cars with warranty.
“We’re very single-minded in our intention to help our users find the perfect listing that [matches] their exact need,” added Nacario.
To make sure online buyers and sellers know about these features and benefits, the new Carousell campaign will also include a series of fun online videos, articles, and informative posts to help users find the perfect property or car on the Carousell platform.
Very recently, Carousell Philippines has also held the platform’s regional Caroupreneur Awards, which recognises the top sellers on the platform. Celebrated through a physical event in Manila in September, winners and finalists were named across all its product categories.
Carousell recognizes Filipino entrepreneurs with regional ‘Caroupreneur Awards’
Manila, Philippines – Leading recommerce group in Greater Southeast Asia, Carousell, recently held its Caroupreneur Awards in the Philippines. The Caroupreneur Awards recognises a wide variety of outstanding achievements of ‘Carousellers’ over the past year, ranging from entrepreneurs who started or scaled their businesses online, to brick-and-mortar retailers who digitalised their businesses, and everyday casual sellers who wanted to find valuable use for their pre-loved items and supplement their income.
This is the second iteration of the Caroupreneur Awards where the pioneer awards was held in its home country, Singapore, last year. The regional awards event, which now includes the Philippines and Hong Kong, will be recognising a total of 182 users on the platform’s wide array of product categories for their outstanding achievements throughout 2021.
A physical awards show for the Philippines was held in Manila on 1 September. Winners of the awards were determined through a judging panel made up of Marcus Tan, co-founder of Carousell; Djon Nacario, GM of Carousell Philippines, and Vishal Salunkhe, VP of Seller Success Operations at Carousell.
On the importance of the recognition exercise, Djon Nacario, GM of Carousell Philippines, shared with MARKETECH APAC, “We wanted to recognise the best of the best in Carousell because we recognise that Carousell is not simply a platform in order for sellers to sell, but it’s actually a platform of ‘possibilities’. We’ve seen throughout the years, even during the pandemic, that a lot of our sellers actually resorted to a lot of creativity, and really translated to passion in order to get, I would say, sources of revenue or sources of funds, especially during the difficult time.”
He added, “And we just really wanted to celebrate that type of ingenuity, and also at the same time, recognise the best practices that our top sellers have been doing on our platform in order to inspire more people to start selling and learn from them.”
The Carousell Group lauded the winners and finalists in the categories of Autos, Property for Sale, Property for Rent, Home Services, Men’s Fashion, Women’s Fashion, Electronics, Furniture and Home Living, Toys and Games, and K-Wave. Meanwhile, the Group also named the seller for its top award – Caroupreneur of the Year 2021 – as well as a special award for the Most Meaningful User Story of the Year. The shortlisted sellers were identified through a mix of qualitative and quantitative criteria, such as quality of listings, reviews, creativity, and brand story.
Seller Katherine Mae A. Cipriano, who sold electronics and gadgets through her Carousell page, @TekiCashGadgetsph, was the one who won the Caroupreneur Award of the Year for Best in Carousell: Electronics.
Cipriano shared with MARKETECH APAC her tips for aspiring sellers, and said that it’s all about just making the jump and carving out your first step in selling.
“Actually, I can’t believe that I won, I even thought that it was a dummy account who was chatting with me [about the win], because ever since I started selling gadgets, it’s really my first time receiving an award like this and to add to that – 2 awards,” she said.
Cipriano, whose main source of funds is through the platform, added, “Carousell is really a big help, especially if you just start selling because you will learn to like what you’re doing especially when you’re already earning.”
Full list of winners can be found on Carousell’s website.
Carousell acquires control of Indonesian electronics recommerce Laku6
Singapore – Recommerce group Carousell has acquired control of Laku6, an Indonesian electronics recommerce platform, which positions Carousell Group as a market leader in the Greater Southeast Asia’s electronic recommerce industry.
Temasek unit Heliconia Capital will be supporting Carousell Group in its acquisition of Laku6 and in accelerating circularity in second hand electronics. The deal follows the initial investment Heliconia made into Carousell, less than a year ago in October 2021.
Every quarter, Carousell sees about 2 million new listings in its electronics category, making it one of the largest platforms to transact used electronics, and particularly mobile phones, in the region. Laku6’s proprietary solutions, pricing algorithms and instant cash service, when integrated with Carousell’s wide user network, will make buying and selling used electronics more accessible than ever before for millions of users.
By making it easier for our users to sell their idle devices and buying certified used devices, Carousell and Laku6 aim to extend the life cycle of electronics goods, thereby slowing down the growth of toxic e-waste.
Quek Siu Rui, co-founder and CEO of Carousell, said, “This partnership provides for a potent combination to secure Carousell’s leadership in the Greater Southeast Asia electronics recommerce market–bringing together Laku6’s AI-first remote diagnostic technology, Carousell’s regional recommerce platform of tens of millions of users, and one of the largest capital investments to-date into the region’s electronics recommerce space.”
He added, “We are truly excited to partner with Alvin, Shing Kae, and the entire Laku6 team. The electronics recommerce opportunity is one that is win-win-win: great for users with affordable like-new devices, beneficial to the environment as people sell and buy second hand instead of new, and an exciting business opportunity with over 2.5X electronics recommerce growth potential ahead.”
Meanwhile, Alvin Yap, founder and CEO of Laku6, commented, “It is exciting to be part of a regional leader that aligns with Laku6’s vision. Carousell and Laku6 share a deep commitment of making second hand the first choice and the demand for electronics recommerce is growing faster than ever in Greater Southeast Asia. With Carousell’s scale and investment, we are well-placed to create a winning formula and offer our proven solutions to a very large audience of end-users and merchants.”
This partnership also follows Carousell’s acquisition of Ox Street, an authenticated streetwear marketplace, and Refash, Singapore-based omnichannel fashion recommerce retailer.
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