Megaworld augments digital efforts to support Covid-hit retail partners
FEW could have predicted what 2020 had in store. The Covid-19 pandemic not only forced market shutdowns across the country, but it also changed consumer expectations toward retailers, especially in making shopping safer and more accessible. In a bid to leverage digital solutions to keep its partners’ businesses afloat, property giant Megaworld Corp. is taking on a more proactive, progressive approach to digitizing the retail experience through efforts that include partnerships with contactless payment providers, such as Gcash, Paymaya, and Lyka; starting Viber communities to give inventory updates to customers; and creating a virtual shopping assistant (Megan) as well as a one-stop shop delivery app (Pick A Roo).
“Running multiple platforms and businesses is not easy. It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort, it takes a lot of people, and it costs a lot of money. And while others are still reeling from this pandemic, our group is moving very, very fast,” shared Megaworld Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Tan in a recent virtual briefing attended by members of the media.
According to Tan, safety has taken on a renewed sense of priority among buyers, and this is why they introduced a centralized contact tracing system which they are now utilizing in all of their commercial malls and townships.
“During the lockdown, health declarations [were required] every time you enter the stores. We saw that as very cumbersome so we created Safety on Track, where you fill it out once and all you do is scan [a QR code] and check in on the stores, and that already fulfills the contact-tracing requirements of the government,” he said.
Tan also pointed to recent reports which state that consumers are likely to keep the behaviors they’ve had to adopt amid stay-at-home set-up even after the pandemic subsides, particularly online shopping.
Pick A Roo, Megaworld’s own food and shopping aggregator, provides merchants with an online platform to help them sell their products and tap into the growing e-commerce market. As of writing, its credit-card penetration at 75 percent is the highest among all delivery apps in the country.
Pick A Roo was first launched in August last year under Agile Digital Ventures, the property giant’s wholly owned subsidiary that supports tech start-ups engaged in the country’s food, retail and hospitality industries.
“Obviously at the time, there was no big shift yet to online—and then the pandemic came,” said Tan.
“Right now, we have 500 brands from over 30 different categories like food, groceries, hardware, medicine, skin care, toys, gadgets, pet care, cellphones, baby care... you name it, we have it and we have about 1,200 branches around Metro Manila, which allows us to support people that continue to have physical stores that employ people,” Tan added, emphasizing that the shift toward digital goes hand-in-hand with supporting their tenants’ brick-andmortar operations.
“One of the biggest advantages [we] have right now is we have a lot of alfresco areas. We’re going to be coming up with some new designs all throughout the entire summer and [this] will really enhance our townships,” he added.
In addition, Megaworld has accommodated small businesses, farmers and fisherfolk by converting some of its open spaces and activity areas into farmers markets, and allowed start-up brands and retailers to have food trucks and pop-up stores with temporary rent reprieve.
“All in all, we still ended on a relatively high occupancy rate and most major retailers are still with Megaworld. In fact, in the midst of the pandemic, we’ve even had a good number of openings, and we’re still anticipating quite a number of openings this year which is a testament to our relationships with our retail partners,” Tan said.
“The lifeblood of our business is our retail partners. We have put their welfare way ahead of our pursuit of profit as we know that their survival will not only be beneficial for us, but also for their employees and their families especially during these trying times,” he added.
Since March 2020, Megaworld has waived over P2.5 billion in rental fees and extended rental concessions to its retail partners, some of which are still being implemented until now. Furthermore, it provided transportation among employees at the height of the lockdowns.
“We went the extra mile. We provided rapid testing from the start and since we manage townships, we actually provided lodging and boarding for our retail partners’ employees to ensure some business continuity,” Tan said. ▪