An e-commerce fulfillment company for small merchants, Sendbox, has raised $1.8m to help small merchants fulfill their e-commerce orders.
According to TechCrunch, the firm uses a mix of technology and offline methods to provide a more reliable platform fulfilment option to merchants who use social media sites like Instagram and WhatsApp to transact their businesses.
“Sendbox wants to help small e-commerce merchants who sell directly to customers through their own online and offline channels with fulfilment,” the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Emotu Balogun, said.
According to the company, small merchants who use big providers to move local and international shipments might not command discounted delivery rates because they move little volume.
“That’s really the thing that attracts a lot of merchants to us. Because what happens is: they’re able to start small and actually grow their business because we are giving them favourable rates,” Balogun added.
According to the firm, these rates help merchants save on average 30-40 per cent per item and eliminates the need to work with separate logistics providers.
“The revenue is shared with the logistics providers as a reward for chasing a symbiotic relationship. We make local deliveries within Nigeria and international deliveries to over 200 countries,” it said.