Filipinos’ online shopping becomes more streamlined with the merging of OLX Philippines with Singapore-based classifieds marketplace platform Carousell. The landmark merger will form the Carousell.ph brand, active beginning July 15.
“From now on (starting July 15), we’re using the Carousell brand. All traffic from OLX Philippines will be redirected to Carousell. The idea behind this is we want to be the leading classifieds player in the region, thus we’re taking one platform, one brand across,” Carousell Philippines general manager Raffy Montemayor told Manila Standard at a media briefing in Makati.
Montemayor said the partnership is a “game-changer” and revolutionizes e-commerce in the Philippines as it offers “Filipinos the best shopping experience and inspires them to start buying and selling online.”
Basically, the merger takes advantage of OLX’s strong commercial hold over the past 13 years, and Carousell’s consumer-consumer/business-consumer platform and innovative technologies.
One of the most frequently-used features on Carousell is smart listings powered by artificial intelligence. Through this feature, sellers can streamline their selling process to just seconds by taking a photo of their item.
The AI-powered technology auto-fills listing fields such as category, title, and even suggest a price based on other similar listings. Sellers can also take advantage of Carousell’s free “unli-posting” where they can get unlimited free ads in selected categories to maximize their sales.
New users and those migrating from OLX.ph can also look forward to Carousell’s vast community of buyers and sellers.
Carousell is present in six markets, including Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Here in the country, Montemayor said, it currently has close to 14 million listings and has helped sell around 4.5 million items.
Further, the merger combines the strong segments of the two classifieds marketplace platforms.
Montemayor said OLX Philippines, formerly known as Sulit in 2006 prior to its rebranding in 2014, is popular with male users looking for and selling mobile phones, consumer electronics, and automobiles and accessories—both brand new and secondhand.
Carousell, on the other hand, is popular with the female segment, with strong fashion, health, and beauty categories.
“We have six million active users on OLX Philippines, and we want to make sure it’s a super smooth transition for them,” said Montemayor.
The general manager said Carousell has been notifying OLX users to migrate to the former in the past few weeks, “and we’ve been hearing a lot of excitement,” he said.
“With the OLX-Carousell partnership, I am able to sell and reach a wide customer base, showcase my creativity, and promote my zero waste advocacy. It helps me grow my business,” said Mayumi Organics.
Many Carousell users selling preloved items expressed excitement on the merger.
“With this partnership, I can find new homes for my preloved collectibles. This is a great platform for me to find a wide market that can cherish my old items as much as I did,” said user hannayng.
Another Carousell user, Quency, shared, “I’ve been using Carousell for quite some time now, normally for shopping preloved clothes, until recently I used the app for selling my own products.”
As part of the merger, Property24 will likewise be part of Carousell Philippines, allowing real estate sellers posting on the former to cross-sell with the latter. “With Property24, we’ll be in a unique position—there’s so much diversity,” said Montemayor.
