By: Staff Writer
December 3, 2021
A regional e-commerce platform has finally made its way to The Bahamas, making it the 38th country to have a presence throughout the Caribbean and Central America all while promising a “low barrier to entry” for merchants, its chairman said.
Sebastian Bastian, chairman of Aeorpost, speaking at the company’s launch event, said that this “Amazon like ” marketplace will be focused on the Caribbean and Central American region and will be a vehicle that allows for small businesses to be able to sell their goods online through the portal.
What this portal will do is allow merchants to have an online storefront to consumers throughout the region and world by extension. In a time where small and medium sized businesses are hit by closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, having a virtual storefront is an amazing opportunity for their business survivability.
Aeropost was bought by Mr Bastian through a company he co-owns, Click Partners that is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
Detailing what makes Aeropost different from other online e-commerce websites, Mr Bastian said, “We have our own catalouge where we are direct seller relationships, we also have an integration with some of the major retailers one is Amazon. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for on our catalogue and our search bar, you can copy and paste the link from any website.
“So if you’re browsing on Google or Amazon, when you see a product you can just copy the product link, paste it in Aeropost’s search bar, hit the search button and in seconds you will be presented with a fully landed price of that actual item. So in that short space of time is actually calculating the shipping costs, the duty costs and the delivery costs into those regions.”
Aeropost will allow merchants to post their items on the platform’s catalogue and will arrange for the shipping and logistics of the goods between the consumer and the business.
Aeropost is already in 38 countries throughout the Caribbean and Central America and is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands through a company Mr Bastian also co-owns called Click Partners, which is a private equity vehicle for acquiring technology based ventures.
When asked if he intends to acquire any more businesses in the technology space, Mr Bastian didn’t shy away from the possibility as his “eyes remain open” but did not confirm any upcoming acquisitions.
Mr Bastian also said the reason why he decided to incorporate Aeropost in the BVI and not The Bahamas was because it is a “global company and not a Caribbean-centric company.”
He added: “We operate in 38 countries and for the ease of doing business across all those regions, we picked the jurisdiction for our parent company accordingly.
Mr Bastian also said: “Currently Aeropost employs 700 employees throughout our entire company and in the Bahamas, we have about 20 plus currently, and that’s going to continue to grow as we expand.”
Supply chain delays have also hit Aeropost’s business, where Mr Bastian lamented, “As you can imagine, operating in 38 countries, we are experiencing delays in certain regions. The Bahamas isn’t one of them, fortunately for us we are 183 miles from our headquarter logistics hub which is in Miami, Florida and there has been no reported supply chain or delay and shipping in the supply chain into this region.”