ShopandBox raises $704k to give you personal shoppers in 20 countries

Melbourne-based personal shopping startup ShopandBox today announced the raising of S$1 million (US$704,000) in a funding round led by 500 Startups. A group of angel investors from CMY Ventures and Waic Investment Holdings Limited also contributed.

The premise of ShopandBox is simple: to help its users – or Shoppers – buy items that are either not available in their country or are available but at a much higher price.

The investment is the startup’s first since it was founded back in November 2013. When Tech in Asia last talked to them 15 months ago, it had Boxers – what it calls its group of personal shoppers – situated in nine countries. That number has since increased to 20 countries, and the fresh influx of cash will go into pushing that number even higher, according to co-founder and CEO Xin-lung Tai.

“The next batch of countries we’re looking at expanding into are Spain, Portugal – where favorable price discrimination for some of the largest big box brands like Zara exist – and some additional Nordic countries,” elaborates Xin-lung.

Enter the Boxers

Accordingly, the team will also be working on increasing the number of Boxers there are in these countries, in order to “provide a seamless global shopping experience, as far-reaching as possible for our Shoppers.”

Boxers are the foundation on which ShopandBox’s service lies. Mainly “part-time, casual workers,” many of these Boxers “do not mark up the cost of items and simply collect a small service fee as compensation for their time and effort,” says Xin-lung. He adds:

What sets us apart from the myriad freight forwarding services is the very real connection between Shoppers and Boxers. We carefully match Shoppers with Boxers that share their interests so they get a completely personalized and specialized service. Half of our Shoppers come back for more and are constantly building bonds with their Boxers whom they totally trust to find them what they want.

Going strong all over the world

To date, over 95,000 items have been ordered by Shoppers across more than 146 countries. According to Xin-lung, the top countries that Shoppers come from are the US, South Korea, Japan, France, and United Kingdom.

In Singapore, ShopandBox will face competition from up-and-coming startup AirFrov, who pairs up travelers with shoppers. The key difference is that the latter company charges an additional seven percent to cover administrative fees.

“The cost of an item is not marked up by our Boxers, and Shoppers pay exactly what a local on the other side of the world would pay,” he says. “No bargaining or long drawn out negotiation happens because of this, to ensure a fuss-free, simple shopping experience.”