As more Filipinos choose to shop online for safety and convenience, Ninja Van Philippines continues to set forth innovative logistics solutions to empower MSMEs in the country. Starting operations in 2016, this courier company is celebrating its 5th anniversary.
Ninja Van Philippines key management personnel share their milestones achieved, newest services, and their role in empowering MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises), especially amidst the pandemic.
With almost 100% nationwide coverage and around 7,000 estimated riders and drivers, customers can ship and receive parcels anywhere in the country with Ninja Van Philippines. Due to the increasing popularity of e-commerce, the company saw a 150% growth in parcel volumes in the past 12 months, and processes billions of pesos of Cash-On-Delivery (COD) payments monthly.
Celebrating Ninja Van Philippines’ journey from the ground up
Martin Cu, country head of Ninja Van Philippines, recalled their humble beginnings from there first office-slash-warehouse in Taguig, which was actually a condominium unit. Now, they have over 300 hubs, stores, and station warehouses to their name, with the biggest one having a total area equivalent to 17 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Their growth over the last five years has been fast-paced, reaching 1 million total deliveries in 2018 and launching Ninja Direct, their drop-shipping service, the following year. Even when the pandemic hit the country in 2020, the logistics provider remained steadfast in providing the best service to its customers.
With so many logistics providers in the market to choose from, Ninja Van Philippines stands out by maintaining excellence in its overall operations. According to their chief operating officer Vin Perez, they do this by strengthening their core delivery business, focusing on delivery speed, and developing more value-added services.
As a way to elevate customer experience and better cater to their needs, Ninja Van Philippines launched new services such as the COD Advance, Ninja Direct, and Ninja Point. These are also intended to make digital adoption and the shift to e-commerce easier for their customers, especially MSME owners.
“As we celebrate our fifth anniversary, we want to highlight our initiatives to support MSMEs through the years, even before the pandemic hit our country. We invest heavily in providing services and tools such as COD Advance and Ninja Direct, and our Ninja Blog and Ninja Masterclass to make the e-commerce process easier for them,” said Sabina Lopez-Vergara, chief commercial officer of Ninja Van Philippines.
Together with the Ninja Blog, they also launched community learning sessions, such as Ninja Masterclass, and online bazaars to help online sellers shape and improve their brand to increase their sales.
Ninja Van Philippines: Beyond 5 Years
Moving forward, Ninja Van Philippines is focused on achieving 100% coverage nationwide, more value-added services for MSMEs, and fantastic service recovery. With the funds that it successfully secured in a Series E funding round, the company is also looking to increase automation in their processes to improve operations quality and deliver only the best for their customers.
This latest round of funding involves participation from both existing and new investors. The funds from this round of investment amounting to USD578 million will be allocated towards Ninja Van’s infrastructure and technology systems as well as its suite of micro-supply chain solutions to help Southeast Asian businesses optimize e-commerce opportunities.
“These additional funds will definitely boost our efforts in optimizing Ninja Van Philippines’ operations through automation, including the addition of a state-of-the-art conveyor belt in our Cabuyao sorting facility that aims to reduce our costs and increase our processing speed. These will also help in strengthening our value-added services such as Ninja Direct and Ninja Point,” said Cu.