Helping merchants cater more online shoppers

Filipino online shoppers are estimated to reach up to 42 million by 2025 and will spend about P918-B in purchases online. This is as forecasted by a study conducted by Google and Temasek in 2017, proving the continuous development of the country’s ecommerce market.

As this happens, it opens many opportunities for local merchants, especially since it is not saturated yet. In fact, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is pushing for more developments in the online retail scene through its Philippine E-Commerce Roadmap. By 2020, it aims to contribute at least 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

DTI also revealed that with the country holding the fastest internet users growth, a young population, and a growing purchasing power in Manila and other cities in the country, e-commerce now holds a great potential to become bigger than ever.

Today, merchants reach out to customers not only from the country’s major e-tailers, like Lazada, Zalora, and Shopee, but also through social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram.

According to Ofri Kadosh, CEO and founder of Payo, today’s Filipino consumers have the ability to shop anything at any given time. It has provided them the convenience of being able to browse through items while at the comfort of their own homes or even when traveling.

However, despite the booming ecommerce industry, many merchants are still far from fully leveraging on the opportunities to meet the demands of the country’s online shoppers. Kadosh noted that “this is due to the low credit card penetration in the country, where only eight percent of Filipinos are credit card holders while 72 percent still do not have bank accounts—a challenge that merchants in the Philippines have to face.”