Carousell Group integrates Laku6 team, AI-first diagnostics technology to drive mobile recommerce expansion across Greater Southeast Asia
- Written by The Bulletin
SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 2 February 2023 - Harnessing the scale of two million listings listed in the electronics category every quarter, leading multi-category platform for secondhand in Greater Southeast Asia Carousell Group has doubled down on driving electronics recommerce across the region since acquiring control of Laku6, the leading AI-first end-to-end electronics recommerce platform in Indonesia.
The Group has integrated the Laku6 team's expertise and proprietary AI-first diagnostic technology with Carousell Group's tens of millions of monthly active users across Greater Southeast Asia to launch new features to make selling and buying secondhand electronics more trusted and convenient.
Laku6's dedicated Diagnostic Centre for the Singapore market, as well as their Singapore team, are now housed in the same space as Carousell's Singapore office and regional headquarters to centralise operations and facilitate collaboration. Additionally, both the Group and Laku6's tech teams have been working closely to continually enhance the recommerce experience for our customers across the Group's platforms.
"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. Together with Temasek unit Heliconia Capital, we had made one of the largest capital investments in the region for electronics recommerce, by earmarking US$25 million for the expansion of electronics recommerce. We have seen strong results in the past few months. Laku6 has continued to maintain its leading position in Indonesia's online mobile recommerce market, having inspected and transacted over half a million mobile phones. Carousell has seen a growth of 55% in the past half year alone in mobile phone transactions," said Quek Siu Rui, Group CEO and Co-founder, Carousell Group.
Instant cash for time-starved sellers
One of the new features from the Laku6 integration is the launch of end-to-end service Sell to Carousell in Singapore, where users have 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 exclusive partnership with iStudio, the largest Apple Premium Reseller in Singapore, provides Carousell access to over 20 drop-off points across the island, significantly optimising logistics, and in return, provides iStudio with new selling opportunities.
With Sell to Carousell, users fill in a short form about their phone condition on the app or website to get an estimated quote generated by the Group's smart pricing algorithm. They can choose if they want to have a Carousell agent visit their home for device inspection and instant payout or visit a physical store themselves to complete the process.
Sell to Carousell is able to provide quick on-the-spot diagnosis with the use of Laku6's proprietary AI-first diagnostic technology, which can inspect the condition of secondhand mobile phones in under two minutes, and smart pricing algorithm to confirm the final quote. This process is fully automated to remove the element of human error during assessment, and users are free to change their minds on selling with no obligations upon receiving the final quote.
Founder of Laku6 Alvin Yap said, "Almost 60% of users in our user research say that they do not consider selling their old phones as they felt it was too much of a hassle to do so. Hence we have been working on developing solutions tailored for local market needs, using Laku6's proprietary technology, to provide additional choices on top of our current open marketplace. Since the soft launch in September 2022, the program has shown signs of a strong product market fit with thousands of phones processed," said Mr Yap.
"We have seen how Sell to Carousell has been able to unlock new user segments by reaching out to time-starved buyers who want to sell secondhand phones. We will soon launch similar products in Vietnam and Malaysia, where we have a leadership position in classifieds through our brands Cho Tot and Mudah.my respectively, and continue to make the recommerce market more accessible in the region. Additionally, our next milestone as a Group is to provide an advanced option to buy certified mobile phones that come with warranty for users who want to buy secondhand phones with the peace of mind and convenience of buying a new phone. These will give our users more choice and flexibility on how they wish to shop secondhand," said Mr Quek.
For more information on Sell to Carousell, please visit https://support.carousell.com/hc/en-us/articles/11110830582169-Sell-your-Mobile-to-Carousell
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About Carousell Group
Carousell Group is the leading multi-category platform for secondhand in Greater Southeast Asia on a mission to inspire the world to start selling, and to make secondhand the first choice. Founded in August 2012 in Singapore, the Group has a leading presence in seven markets under the brands Carousell, Cho Tot, Laku6, Mudah.my, OneShift, Ox Luxe, Ox Street, and Refash, serving tens of millions of monthly active users. Carousell is backed by leading investors including Telenor Group, Rakuten Ventures, Naver, STIC Investments and Sequoia Capital India. Visit here for more information.
