Boxed Poised for Growth Across Asia
E-commerce grocery platform Boxed Inc. continues to focus on growing its software and services business across the globe. Boxed, an online platform that sells household consumables in bulk and licenses its e-commerce software to enterprise retailers, and Aeon Co. Ltd., one of the largest retailers in Asia, have signed a memorandum of understanding with Aeon’s affiliate, Aeon Vietnam Co. Ltd., launching Boxed’s end-to-end software and services platform in the Vietnamese market.
In September 2021, Boxed and Aeon launched a partnership to use Boxed’s proprietary e-commerce technology to power Aeon digital capabilities in the Malaysian market. Following its successful implementation, Boxed and Aeon will officially expand their partnership into Vietnam and continue to explore expanding into additional markets. Boxed’s technology will be critical in supporting Aeon’s initiatives in developing its e-commerce and omnichannel capabilities throughout Vietnam.
“We are excited to build on the execution of our proprietary software and services platform by expanding our partnership with Aeon into Vietnam,” said Jared Yaman, co-founder and COO of New York-based Boxed. “This will be our first implementation not in English, demonstrating our ability to execute in international markets.”
In addition to Malaysia, and now Vietnam, Boxed and Aeon will continue to explore partnerships and opportunities throughout Southeast Asia.
“Aeon has been a great partner for us in Malaysia, and we are beyond excited to replicate our e-commerce synergy in such a dynamic, growing economy as Vietnam, and potentially other strategic markets in the near future,” said Chieh Huang, CEO of Boxed.
The software and services arm has been quite lucrative for the company. Net revenue from this business surged 127.1% on a year-over-year basis. Additionally, Boxed boosted its net revenue by 14.1% in its first quarter, ended March 31, compared with a year ago, to reach $46.6 million. The platform’s retail net revenue rose 11.3% on a year-over-year basis.
However, Boxed also reported a net loss of $36.2 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $22.2 million, both higher than the prior-year period. Growth-related investments cut into gross profits a bit, including costs related to advertising, labor and professional services. The company spent $6 million more in advertising in the first quarter of 2022 compared with 2021 in an effort to bolster active-customer growth and retention in the retail sector.
Meanwhile, Boxed’s stock was recently added to the MSCI Global Small Cap Indexes – MSCI USA Index, an equity index compiled by MSCI Inc. and designed to measure the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. market. The index has been widely recognized as a benchmark for global institutional investors to optimize their investment portfolios. Boxed’s stock has also been added to the Russell 2000 Index.
Boxed operates an e-commerce retail service that provides bulk pantry consumables to businesses and household customers, without the requirement of a “big-box” store membership. The service is powered by the company’s own purpose-built storefront, marketplace, analytics, fulfillment, advertising and robotics technologies. Boxed further enables e-commerce through its software and services business, which offers customers in need of an enterprise-level e-commerce platform access to its end-to-end technology.
