SINGAPORE-BASED fashion and lifestyle e-commerce platform Zilingo has entered the Philippines hoping to “democratize the fashion and beauty industry” by streamlining the supply chain and “empower[ing] businesses” by providing services including product development and working capital.
“Zilingo isn’t just about B2C (business to consumers), we’re trying to help the entire ecosystem,” Ryza Dipatuan, marketing director for Zilingo Philippines, told BusinessWorld during the platform’s Philippine launch on March 21 at Antonio’s in Tagaytay City.
“We’re trying to solve the highly fragmented fashion supply chain,” she said during her presentation.
Zilingo, established in 2015 by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor, does this by having six services — Zilingo, the consumer app; Asiamall, the business to business (B2B) site; Label by Zilingo which provides private label as a service; Z Seller which provides electronic point of sale (EPOS) and inventory management; Z Trends which provides trend forecasting; and FZ which serves as the company’s investment arm.
Ms. Dipatuan said that currently the Philippines has the Zilingo site, with some sellers having been given funding or are selling via the B2B platform.
The Zilingo site opened in the Philippines during the latter half of January.
“I think the goal really is to bring all these services to the Philippines soon,” she said.
Despite being in the country for barely three months, Ms. Dipatuan said they are optimistic Filipino shoppers will take to Zilingo because the current e-commerce market in the country is “mature enough” and it can handle a new player in the market with a different value proposition.
They might have a limited number of brands on the Philippine site but Ms. Dipatuan said they are actively recruiting sellers to their sites and are encouraging sellers, especially those selling plus size garments, to put their wares on the site.
“We’re very inclusive and we welcome everyone,” she said before adding that they aim to “democratize fashion and the freedom of its expression.”
They even have a dedicated tab for Muslim fashion.
Zilingo, Ms. Dipatuan explained started when Ms. Bose went to Thailand’s Chatuchak market which has over a thousand stores and wondered why some stalls didn’t sell their wares online.
Four years later, the site currently has 25,000 merchants and 1,200 factories across 15 countries including the United States, Australia, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.
Ms. Dipatuan said that while they cannot claim to have the lowest prices, they have lower prices than other platforms due to the company “optimizing the supply chain” by cutting out the middleman ensuring “30-70% efficiencies for merchants and customers.”
The company has partnered with the Panasonic Manila Fashion Festival and will be bringing the designs straight from the runway to the site.
Zilingo can be accessed via www.zilingo.com/en-ph or via the mobile app free for download on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. — Zsarlene B. Chua
