Contxto – Delivery startup Shippify wants to expand its services into more of Latin America. It’s in four countries at the moment: Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Ecuador. Nonetheless it wants to expand into Colombia, Peru, and possibly Central America in 2020.
Among its other objectives, the startup also aims to raise a new investment round.
Shippify and e-commerce
Ecuadorians Luis Loaiza and Miguel Torres founded their startup, Shippify in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 2015. And basically their startup works as a marketplace to connect e-commerce merchants with trusted- delivery personnel, called “shippers.”
These shippers are people whose route coincides with the general direction in which the package is headed. They earn an extra buck for taking the parcel along for the ride. Within Shippify’s grid are urban shippers, bikers, and motorcyclists that guide the delivery along through a country.
So if an e-commerce merchant is interested in distributing their goods but lacks the infrastructure to get it done, it can refer to Shippify’s services. They just use the startup’s network to connect with shippers to arrange the package’s logistics procedure. The delivery reportedly takes less than 24 hours to complete.
Live-tracking and constant communication with the person delivering the package is also possible via the startup’s technology.
Delivery app developments
Anyone that travels through a major city or the countryside in Latin America will find that there are numerous streets and towns that are hard to reach. Some don’t appear on the map or lack a name. Plus, there’s an increasing number of e-commerce businesses that need a hand in moving their goods.
Related article: Mensajeros Urbanos plans to bring B2B delivery service to Chile by 2020
So it’s not surprising to see the increasing number of delivery-based apps in Latin America. Albeit not all of them are from the region (I’m looking at you Spanish unicorn, Glovo). Brazilian Loggi and Chilean SimpliRoute come to mind. Even Colombian Rappi is dipping its toes into package delivery services.
However, they’ll still have to compete with the huge delivery network of major companies like Amazon.
-ML
