THE country’s largest night food park Mercato Centrale (Mercato) is adding merchants of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the provinces with the digital-payment and microfinance arms of Globe Telecom Inc. to cater to the latter’s 60 million mobile subscribers.
Mercato is preparing to build food parks in major cities in the Visayas and Mindanao, which include Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao and Cagayan de Oro. The sites serve as extensions of Mercato’s food parks to be also set up in the cities of Quezon, Marikina and Makati in Metro Manila. Mercato first opened in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig.
In partnership with Globe, Mercato will be using the digital wallet GCash, which scans QR codes with tablets or smartphones, as an alternative mode of payment. GCash eliminates problems of lack of change and setting up cash machines among vendors and carrying bulk of cash among customers by pushing the numbers of the food prices on the devices and scanning the code.
Customers only need to download the GCash application on Google Store and deposit cash at Globe’s 12,000 commercial partners, including SM and Robinsons Business Centers, Puregold supermarkets and 7-Eleven.
“We’re going to develop food incubators around the country, and GCash is a great opportunity for our MSMEs to serve more clients, expand their customer base and scale up their businesses,” Mercato Centrale Cofounder RJ Ledesma said during the GCash promotional event in BGC on September 15.
Mynt, Globe’s financial-technology arm, will be developing other digital payments with Ant Financial Services Group as GCash becomes operational in the food parks. Mercato will be the launchpad for Globe’s online-payment solutions.
Ant Financial Services Group is the parent company of Alipay, which originated in China and popularized the QR-code-based payment method to over 400 million users worldwide.
“Mynt aims to bring access and convenience in payments to the vast majority of Filipinos through GCash. With our strategic partner Ant Financial Services Group, we will use technology that has scaled for hundreds of millions of customers in China, India and other countries in Asia. We will do this in partnership with local merchants and are very excited to be associated with Mercato Centrale as a pioneer in introducing QR-based payments to the market,” Mynt CFO Anthony Thomas said.
GCash has 750,000 active users a month out of 5 million, while Mercato has 8,000 to 10,000 customers and visitors every night from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. and over 50 food merchants.
“The GCash promo of 10-percent discount on food and drinks for Mercato lasts for a month. But, as we improve GCash and add more merchants, we will be introducing new digital promos and products,” Mynt’s Head of Merchant Acquisition James Mauricio Aujero said.
Aujero added Fuse, Mynt’s microfinance group, will be developing this year technology-based loan products and financial-literacy program for MSMEs starting with food enterprises under MyGlobe Business Network.
Fuse uses alternative credit-data sources and credit-scoring methods that analyze various payment and spending behaviors of customers in commercial and money-transfer establishments in providing loans from P15, 000 to P300,000.
“We’ll be helping Mercato’s food-business incubator with loans, financial literacy and payment solutions. It is our mandate to help MSMEs. We only ask for your identification card and business permit as loan-application requirements, and we usually only see if the business has been operating for six months, then we think how we could help them expand their businesses,” Aujero said.
On the other, Ledesma said Mercato is designing new lecture and online materials to teach aspiring food entrepreneurs basic business operations as it travels the country to gather Filipino-owned food businesses, which also offer Asian and Western dishes.
“If you are a person who wants to put up a business and just knows how to cook food, we can help you learn how to do marketing, get your business going and get financing. We’re working with Globe and Mynt to grow your business. In joining MyGlobe Business Network, we’re not only going to grow the food business market in the country but also the small businesses,” Ledesma added.
Globe said the technology-led and collaborative services form part of its advocacy to promote financial inclusion in the Philippines beyond its current 3,000 MSMEs borrowers.
Image credits: Rudy Esperas
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Totally agree with the “Marketing is essential in every business—big and small”. Finding a niche market or fulfilling a need is only the first step in business. Shouting it out to the world (i.e. Marketing/Advertising) is the next big step – online efforts such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing and offline venues like trade shows, print ads, radio and TV.