{"id":128,"date":"2021-01-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/markupbackup.wordpress.com\/2021\/07\/21\/durians-daily-179-keeping-up-with-trends-and-scammers-how-carousell-protects-consumers-in-the\/"},"modified":"2021-08-03T09:08:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T09:08:19","slug":"durians-daily-179-keeping-up-with-trends-and-scammers-how-carousell-protects-consumers-in-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"Daily Markup #179: Keeping up with trends and scammers; how Carousell protects consumers in the new normal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>All in a day\u2019s work<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lavone Toh, business process improvement manager at 500-backed e-commerce platform <a href=\"https:\/\/carousell.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carousell<\/a> spoke about measures the startup took to respond to market reactions to lockdown measures and social-distancing guidelines in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrum.com\/news\/2021\/01\/20\/fraud-arms-race-how-carousell-boosted-its-customer-experience-fight-bad-actors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Consumer behavior, such as buying and selling patterns across categories, changed throughout the pandemic in 2020.<\/li>\n<li>For Carousell, the key was using data to drive product decisions and anticipate users\u2019 needs, with an appreciation for differences across countries and categories.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-width=\"1280\" data-height=\"639\" src=\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/img_60f7db37b28b7.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: The\u00a0Drum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>By doing so, Lavone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrum.com\/news\/2021\/01\/20\/fraud-arms-race-how-carousell-boosted-its-customer-experience-fight-bad-actors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">claims<\/a> that the startup has been able to chart out initiatives that catered to what communities needed strategically.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThis includes building automated workflows, using machine learning to develop our internal chatbot for our users to get their resolutions fast and accurately. This will help our operations remain robust and ensure our users are not affected in the event of unforeseen circumstances,\u201d she added.<\/li>\n<li>To achieve its targets, Carousell engaged a customer service platform for its self-service solutions. One such solution is a virtual assistant that guides users to find the answers they need easily via relevant Help Centre articles without reaching out to Carousell\u2019s service agents.<\/li>\n<li>The service logs an average of 30,000 tickets a month, with 77% responded to in less than a day.<\/li>\n<li>Having an improved customer support function has helped Carousell combat fraud, which Lavone describes as \u201clike an arms race\u201d because scammers innovate as quickly as the platform does.<\/li>\n<li>She explained that when the pandemic hit, opportunistic individuals tried to profit from masks and sanitizers by overpricing them. The startup then took the unprecedented decision to moderate listings based on prices set by the government (where available), or an internally developed benchmark (in countries where the government does not set the price).<\/li>\n<li>Carousell also noticed new suspicious activities as panic-buying became rampant, discovering that scammers put up listings on the marketplace without the intention of fulfilling buyers\u2019 orders.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWe had to activate our teams to scan the marketplace frequently. More importantly, we stepped up on the review rate of flags our community of users sends to us so that we take action on bad actors and fraudulent listings with little delay. We also configured our internal keyword detection tool to trigger a safety tip message to the users when it detects potential suspicious activity in chats,\u201d she shared.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrum.com\/news\/2021\/01\/20\/fraud-arms-race-how-carousell-boosted-its-customer-experience-fight-bad-actors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According<\/a> to Lavone, due to Carousell\u2019s efforts, the platform saw the fraud rate spike in February 2020, dropping month to month and going back pre-Covid levels by June across its markets.<\/li>\n<li>What will the startup do next in 2021? Lavone said that it is vital for the platform to keep pace with evolving trends and customer needs. \u201cOne example is building automated workflows for a more consistent experience. Using automations for general enquiries and repetitive tasks will give service agents more time to focus on value-added interactions, increase overall efficiency, and ensure consistency as we scale,\u201d she concluded.<\/li>\n<li>Read the full interview <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrum.com\/news\/2021\/01\/20\/fraud-arms-race-how-carousell-boosted-its-customer-experience-fight-bad-actors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Missed out the last Daily Markup? Go <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a><strong> to check it out.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>You can also find us on <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/500-durians\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a><strong>, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/500durians\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Facebook<\/strong><\/a><strong>, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/500Startups_SEA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Twitter<\/strong><\/a><strong>, and <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/500durians\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Instagram<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" data-width=\"400\" data-height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/img_60f7db38109e5.jpg\"><\/figure>\n<p>500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world\u2019s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.<\/p>\n<p><em>This post is intended solely for general informational or educational purposes only. 500 Startups Management Company, L.L.C. and its affiliates (collectively \u201c500 Startups\u201d) makes no representation as to the accuracy or information in this post and while reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that the information herein is accurate and up-to-date, no liability can be accepted for any error or omissions. All third party links in this post have not been independently verified by 500 Startups and the inclusion of such links should not be interpreted as an endorsement or confirmation of the content within. Information about portfolio companies\u2019 markets, competitors, performance, and fundraising has been provided by those companies\u2019 founders and has not been independently verified. Under no circumstances should any content in this post be construed as investment, legal, tax or accounting advice by 500 Startups, or an offer to provide any investment advisory service with regard to securities by 500 Startups. No content or information in this post should be construed as an offer to sell or solicitation of interest to purchase any securities advised by 500 Startups. Prospective investors considering an investment into any 500 Startups fund should not consider or construe this content as fund marketing material. The views expressed herein are as at the date of this post and are subject to change without notice. One or more 500 Startups fund may have a financial interest in one or more of the companies discussed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All in a day\u2019s work Lavone Toh, business process improvement manager at 500-backed e-commerce platform Carousell spoke about measures the startup took to respond to market reactions to lockdown measures and social-distancing guidelines in an interview. Consumer behavior, such as buying and selling patterns across categories, changed throughout the pandemic in 2020. For Carousell, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[322],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily","tag-carousell"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Daily Markup #179: Keeping up with trends and scammers; how Carousell protects consumers in the new normal - Markup<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Daily Markup #179: Keeping up with trends and scammers; how Carousell protects consumers in the new normal - Markup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All in a day\u2019s work Lavone Toh, business process improvement manager at 500-backed e-commerce platform Carousell spoke about measures the startup took to respond to market reactions to lockdown measures and social-distancing guidelines in an interview. Consumer behavior, such as buying and selling patterns across categories, changed throughout the pandemic in 2020. For Carousell, the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Markup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/500southeastasia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-25T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-03T09:08:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/0IpL948Hbj5gEGJvQ.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"349\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Felicia Chia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/\",\"name\":\"Markup\",\"description\":\"Serving bite-sized news on 500 Southeast Asia&#039;s portfolio companies and insights to fuel your momentum in life and business.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/0IpL948Hbj5gEGJvQ.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/0IpL948Hbj5gEGJvQ.jpeg\",\"width\":700,\"height\":349},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128\",\"name\":\"Daily Markup #179: Keeping up with trends and scammers; how Carousell protects consumers in the new normal - Markup\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-25T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-03T09:08:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9500d05faff850f12de850d9051b7b67\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Daily Markup #179: Keeping up with trends and scammers; how Carousell protects consumers in the new normal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9500d05faff850f12de850d9051b7b67\",\"name\":\"Felicia Chia\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b574d076fbdac43064ec75a7d589d309319c819283cc558025e0ef88192ee849?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b574d076fbdac43064ec75a7d589d309319c819283cc558025e0ef88192ee849?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Felicia Chia\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?author=7\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Daily Markup #179: Keeping up with trends and scammers; how Carousell protects consumers in the new normal - Markup","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Daily Markup #179: Keeping up with trends and scammers; how Carousell protects consumers in the new normal - Markup","og_description":"All in a day\u2019s work Lavone Toh, business process improvement manager at 500-backed e-commerce platform Carousell spoke about measures the startup took to respond to market reactions to lockdown measures and social-distancing guidelines in an interview. Consumer behavior, such as buying and selling patterns across categories, changed throughout the pandemic in 2020. For Carousell, the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128","og_site_name":"Markup","article_publisher":"http:\/\/facebook.com\/500southeastasia","article_published_time":"2021-01-25T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-03T09:08:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":349,"url":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/0IpL948Hbj5gEGJvQ.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Felicia Chia","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/","name":"Markup","description":"Serving bite-sized news on 500 Southeast Asia&#039;s portfolio companies and insights to fuel your momentum in life and business.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/0IpL948Hbj5gEGJvQ.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/0IpL948Hbj5gEGJvQ.jpeg","width":700,"height":349},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#webpage","url":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128","name":"Daily Markup #179: Keeping up with trends and scammers; how Carousell protects consumers in the new normal - Markup","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2021-01-25T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-03T09:08:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9500d05faff850f12de850d9051b7b67"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?p=128#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Daily Markup #179: Keeping up with trends and scammers; how Carousell protects consumers in the new normal"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9500d05faff850f12de850d9051b7b67","name":"Felicia Chia","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b574d076fbdac43064ec75a7d589d309319c819283cc558025e0ef88192ee849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b574d076fbdac43064ec75a7d589d309319c819283cc558025e0ef88192ee849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Felicia Chia"},"url":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/?author=7"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390,"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/2390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailymarkup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}