In the midst of a rapidly growing ecommerce market, Zyllem, an enterprise SaaS leader in solving distribution challenges, has announced further expansion into the Philippines. Ecommerce in the Philippines increased its GMV by 93 percent from US$9 billion in 2020 to US$17 billion in 2021, while the logistics transport services sector represents a US$11 billion market opportunity ripe for disruption through digitalization. To meet this exponential demand, the supply chain industry has had to keep up with the growth.
Zyllem, named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer in 2021, is a cutting-edge cloud-based software that enables businesses to manage and operate their entire logistics distribution network in a more efficient, simplified, and transparent manner. Its key clients in the Philippines include pharmaceutical giant Zuellig Pharma, Metro Drug Inc, logistics firm Airspeed, and wholesale grocery distribution company Suy Sing, and it is actively looking to acquire more market players.
Lisa Nguyen, Chief Operations Officer and Co-founder at Zyllem shared, “Southeast Asia’s digital economy has been spurred on by the rapid pace of digitalization from consumers and businesses and has witnessed unprecedented acceleration by the pandemic. Zyllem is poised to capitalize on this growth as more businesses are seeing the necessity to provide better and faster services and look to optimize their logistics network to meet their customer’s orders. As the fastest growing digital economy in the region, the Philippines is an important market for us to achieve that. The Philippines presents an exciting opportunity to help companies digitize and optimize their logistics network, eliminating legacy systems, despite the numerous unique logistical challenges that the country presents.”
Logistics in the Philippines is a huge challenge due to its geographical makeup, which relies heavily on maritime transport to move goods both domestically and internationally, which is complicated further by inconsistent regulations between port authorities. While road transport is primarily used to transport goods to and from ports on each island, infrastructure remains poor, with congested urbanized areas. Furthermore, Cash on Delivery is still a popular payment method for both customers and businesses. All of this contributes to a low-output environment in which shipment delays are common, customers are dissatisfied, and providers are underperforming.
“Logistics networks are often fragmented with companies having to manage multiple third-party logistics partners and middlemen. Zyllem solves operational pain points with data gathered and fed into a unified dashboard, where customers will be able to take control of their logistic network and streamline their operations. We are able to optimize routes and reduce time spent on planning by 85%, allowing drivers to complete up to 30% more deliveries per day. With more predictable deliveries and real-time tracking, we also enhanced the experience for the end customer and eliminated the need for any customer calls,” said Joanna Pawluczuk, Head of Sales at Zyllem.
Rosemarie Rafael, Owner at Airspeed International Corporation added, “One of the best decisions I made was to get involved in the process of choosing the technology to invest in. We as business owners must get involved because we know best our strategies and goals. It is important to choose a provider that understands your processes, stays with you, and supports you throughout the journey. When it comes to costs, it is important to consider the things you cannot afford not to have. Through our partnership with Zyllem, we have been able to streamline our logistic operation and monitor all shipments in real time. We are impressed with Zyllem’s ability to radically improve our set up and make it more efficient and resilient.”
Since its go to market in 2017, Zyllem has been working closely with pharmaceutical, logistics, retail, and F&B brands to solve their supply chain problems across Asia. Headquartered in Singapore, Zyllem has presence in eight countries in Asia and manages two million monthly delivery orders, with 20% coming from the Philippines. Zyllem is funded by Philippine’s conglomerate JG Summit Holdings and leading early-stage venture capital firm Wavemaker Partners.
Paul Santos, Managing Partner at Wavemaker Partners, highlighted, “The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for the digitization of supply chains. Zyllem uniquely enables enterprises to have full control of internal and third-party logistics providers on a single platform. Today, the company helps manage over two million deliveries per month, which we expect to more than double again this year."