Carousell opens new regional HQ in SG as it advances capabilities

Online marketplace Carousell has opened its new regional headquarters in Singapore at LaunchPad@one-north, a start-up and incubator space. This comes as the brand celebrates its second decade of operations.  

The HQ, dubbed Carousell Campus, will be dedicated to advancing recommerce capabilities as part of its goal to make buying and selling secondhand items more trusted and convenient, according to the group in a statement.

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At the launch, Carousell group CEO and co-founder, Quek Siu Rui said that the space marks a coming-of-age for Carousell as a group. "Recommerce means bringing the best things that we know and like from e-commerce and availing it for secondhand products. We have been building up our recommerce business in recent years. We believe in contributing back to the local startup community and cementing Singapore as the region’s startup hub,” he said. 

The Campus will house Carousell's first Capabilities Centre, which brings the Group’s brands and subsidiaries into one single location to streamline operations, integrate capabilities for authentication and inspection, as well as allow for more efficient collaboration, it said. 

To make peer-to-peer marketplace transactions even safer, Carousell also rolled out enhancements to the secure on-platform payment features in its Singapore and Vietnam marketplaces, with plans to continue in more markets starting with Malaysia by the end of September. 

For instance, when Carousell users make transactions using the ‘buy’ button, they will be able to pay securely via a one-click checkout on the platform. They will also enjoy additional buyer protection policies and integrated door-to-door (D2D) delivery options. This is on top of continuous platform enhancements across a multi-layered strategy to increase trust and safety across the group’s platforms, it explained. 

“Centralising our Singapore-based entities at Carousell Campus has allowed us to strengthen our operations excellence," said Quek. "Our strategic focus on key growth product categories has streamlined our efforts to offer more user value propositions and facilitate more collaboration opportunities to increase circular economy adoption. This has allowed us to roll out a variety of recommerce programmes and features across multiple platforms and markets this year, providing an e-commerce-like experience,”he added. 

Carousell hopes to contribute to the growth of Singapore's start-up ecosystem with this launch, such as through collaborative events with local start-ups and small businesses.

Carousell has been moving forward in advancing its capabilities, making experiences better for its consumers. It recently launched a car subscription service with Carzuno. The Carousell Car Subscription will have an all-in-one pricing system that includes insurance, servicing, roadside assistance, free doorstep delivery and returns to name a few.

The subscription service also promises prices to be fully transparent on the website and will allow users to choose their preferred duration between one to 24 months to suit their budgets and needs. 

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