Online Shopping in the Philippines | 2018
In the Philippines, shopping is just as important as boxing, basketball, and beauty pageants. It has become part of the culture and is also considered a favorite stress reliever and leisure activity. With the numerous local stores (tiangges) and commercial strips inside and outside the metro, our penchant for shopping shouldn’t be very surprising. Malls, of course, have played a huge part in this, as the Philippines is home to bright, massive malls that are even included in the list of the World’s Largest Shopping Malls, as per the World Atlas.
At present, with the retail landscape slowly becoming digital in all its aspects, the closing of brick and mortar stores may not be far from impossible, and the presence of malls may soon be just for experiential purposes. This is most especially in highly-urbanized areas, where malls are the next best option to visit with the lack of spacious parks and natural recreational centers.
E-Commerce | Making things easier
Despite the continuous construction of large malls inside and outside the Metro, we cannot deny the growth of electronic commerce (also known as e-commerce) in the country.
To those who are not familiar, e-commerce simply refers to the activity of buying or selling products over the Internet. In two words, online trading. Thanks to the advent of digital technologies, we now have the option to shop or settle transactions in the comfort of our own homes. We now have the luxury of making purchases in minutes with just a few clicks (shopaholics rejoice!).
With the worsening traffic condition in most parts of the country, it’s not practical to leave the house anymore just for an item or two. Why make it harder for yourself if there’s an easier way to do it, right? Efficiency saves a lot of money and time.
While there are still a few impediments to e-commerce in the Philippines, such as logistics infrastructure or low credit card penetration, online shopping continues to grow because of the convenience it offers, the wide array of options available for almost every item, various promos, and other efforts of e-commerce companies to attract and retain customers.
Things are looking up
With the growing number of internet users, and with the promising future of e-commerce in the Philippines, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) believes that e-commerce will soon contribute to almost 50% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2022. To add, based on a 2017 forecast by Google and Temasek (a Singapore-based investment company), the Philippine market is expected to generate 918 billion pesos by 2025. Not bad, right? That would be all for now, thanks for checking out the blog. ♥ Andi
