By Ailthea De Jesus
Since the pandemic plagued the whole world, everything was stalled. In the Philippines, the nationwide lockdown forced upon us by the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the lives of everyone we know. It has caused anxiety as health and safety concerns coupled with economic and income uncertainties weighed down every to the Filipino people setting back a broad spectrum of businesses especially the MSMEs.
The problem in the export business became bigger, due to the availability of shipping lines, and the call to observe strict health and safety protocol in the whole gamut of the supply chain and logistics. Not to mention the rigorous process and other unnecessary charges imposed by the port and the service provider. All of these have affected many entrepreneurs involved in the export business, whether they are manufacturers or traders.
In export, the key to profitability and success depends so much on the efficiency of the system, supply chain, logistics, documentation, and a lot more.
Mindful of the plight of the Filipino MSMEs, Caravan (caravan.1export.net) e-commerce platform has provided a business solution that has already helped over 450 local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) involved in export. Through the leading digital exporters in the Philippines. our MSMEs overcome the export barriers and enter the world of international trade. Caravan offers a wide variety of Filipino goods produced by these MSMEs on its tech-enabled platform and provides the local suppliers access to the overseas market, especially the growing community of Filipinos abroad who are looking to start and grow their own reselling businesses.
Currently, Caravan is in fifteen international (15) markets and has been fully committed to championing Filipino entrepreneurship in the United States, Europe, Australia and Middle East, among others. Caravan ships to 800 online and offline storefronts globally. With Caravan’s export-compliant products and robust export solutions, coupled with its 100% port clearance rate, the initiative has consistently facilitated efficient partnerships between local suppliers and overseas Filipino resellers and businesses.
“Many MSMEs in the country have lost their local demand during the pandemic, and suffered from substantial losses. Through Caravan, we provide these businesses opportunities to create new markets and to continue to grow, all the while creating and empowering more Filipino entrepreneurs overseas,” said Mel Nava, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of 1Export.
With a wide range of supplier partners from the Philippines, Caravan works with everything from social enterprises to legacy brands. Caravan was able to provide as much as $20,000.00 worth of export sales for small businesses in just the 1st quarter of 2021. As a whole, they’ve contributed $400,000.00 or ₱20 million in MSME export sales throughout the course of the pandemic. Moreover, for many of Caravan’s supplier partners, the concept of export remained but a pipe dream.
‘At the heart of it, Caravan aims to empower Filipino MSME through exporting. It links MSMEs to the wide untapped and underserved market of Filipinos abroad. The Filipino overseas population is one of the largest in the world. Yet in a world where you can get anything and everything online, it is still extremely difficult to get Filipino products abroad. Caravan brings the flavors of home to our kababayans abroad’ said Daniel Remo Chief Operating Officer of 1Export.
The impressive traction of Caravan even at its early stage allowed 1Export to successfully secure formal funding from the prestigious Singapore-based startup accelerator Iterative Venture Capital, to further support the upward-growth of the business model.
Aiming to revolutionize the export space, Caravan as an online B2B2C platform is the best place to be—with its continued commitment to develop and showcase Filipino MSMEs talent, and change the lives of individuals through global trade.
