The Covid-19 pandemic maybe nearing its end, but Filipino brands are encouraged to focus on two core areas to succeed in the e-commerce space, which is seen to continue its growth trajectory.
“[The] Philippines is the fastest growing e-commerce market globally,” Etaily Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Cofounder Alexander Friedhoff told reporters during the media launch of the Etail Insider roundtable series held in Taguig City on Thursday, September 15.
Statistics show that there were 73 million active cyber store users in the country in 2021, bringing the total online sales to $17 billion. This year, e-commerce is seen to expand by 20 percent to 25 percent amid the easing health crisis.
“We are very much convinced that we see this in our numbers not only in the Philippines but in the entire [Southeast] Asia that it will grow post-pandemic significantly,” he said, while attributing this to the average 10 hours plus time spent by Filipinos in using the Internet.
“When you look at the Internet penetration and the Internet users in the Philippines, it increased by 4.2 million from 2020 to 2021, and it’s even higher now from 2021 to 2022. So we really have to understand how many new users are there whom we have to target,” he added.
To capitalize on the vast opportunity and gain a strong foothold in the digital shopping space, local brands ought to have an accurate and deep understanding of the changing online customers, as well as business strength to adapt to the demands of the times. These are the two keys for them to thrive in the post-pandemic digital era.
Friedhoff recommended that the first thing they need to do is “building the trust of the new consumers, and once you have built trust and loyalty, you will always have them.” The second is investment in a “multi-location, tech-enabled, more efficient supply chain” that can precisely monitor the customers’ orders in real-time, deliver them fast and safely, and study and anticipate their future needs via data analytics.
Resilience in e-commerce can be achieved by “a whole stack of capabilities to help the brands further in their e-retail journey,” he continued. For him, these new kinds of operations that are tech-enabled and supply-chain-optimized also address the biggest problems of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) on the web: high volume and low margins. He cited, for instance, that “multi-warehousing solutions reduce delivery lead times, lessen delivery costs, and improve order-to-cash cycle.”
Hitting the right audience
EVEN though Century Pacific Food Inc.’s pet food brand Goodest is a newbie in its category, it has set a good example of how spending much time and effort to know the online customers could lead to success.
Alexander Lim, head of innovations and general manager for pet food at Century Pacific, conceded that e-commerce “was a new frontier” after working in FMCG for a decade.
“Know your territory and your customer if you want to succeed in the digital frontier,” he said. “We went at digital 100 percent and tried things that Century hasn’t done.”
Doing so was not by its lonesome but with the help of partners like Etaily. He noted, “We learned so much from them in a short time. One of Etaily’s big contributions was managing our digital assets, making sure our online presence was seamless.”
Thankful of the e-commerce enabler, he said that Goodest has made it to the Top 5 of the most popular digital marketplaces—No. 3 in Shopee Pet Care and No. 5 in Lazada Pet Food—despite being in a tough market.
“FMCGs know how to make a good product and do good marketing, but we do need to know digital,” Lim pointed out.
For Colourette Cosmetics, on the other hand, which initially lacked capitalization and a manual to guide them in starting their foray in the e-commerce landscape, the company’s CEO, Nina Dizon-Cabrera, shared that they depended more on social media and “the power of content” to reach and create an impact to their target market.
Consistency, likewise, has worked for the start-up. The three things that are always present in her content, she said, are: “Inclusivity: I wanted to make a make-up brand for Filipinos by Filipinos. Advocacy: people support brands who believe in the same things they believe. Community: it must be in everything that you do.” At present, Colourette is one of the top brands of TikTok Shop, a digital shopping platform of the popular Chinese app.
Riding e-commerce trend
FMCGs must consider a post-pandemic customer trend, per Lazada FMCG Senior Category Manager Joey Ermita Bienvenida.
“E-commerce is ingrained in our daily lives and here to stay. What is important right now is bridging the experience from offline to online,” he said.
Of all the product lines online, it is the beauty segment that is getting much attraction with the reopening of the economy. Bienvenida said: “We are seeing the demand for beauty products because we see people more often than before.”
Jonah Ople, TikTok Shop’s Global E-commerce SEA Philippines lead for acquisition and incubation, added that brands must pay attention to the “change of guard in the customers: the Gen Zs who need to resonate with your brand.” The app’s creatives can amplify the brand’s message since they entice such clients to actually “participate, review, and create interesting videos about your product.”
Alexandra Garcia, FMCG director at Etaily, gave an overview of the e-commerce industry: “Most FMCG brands are still in the foundational stage of their e-commerce channel, building their understanding and knowledge but the demand is already there. With more people buying online, the companies realize they do not have their e-commerce capabilities set up, and they must double-time to have the result that they want. They also realize that they need experts, and this is where Etaily comes in.”
Image credits: Contributed photo