E-commerce Era: Opportunities, Pitfalls and Strengths in the Philippine Market

If you’re a consumer who regularly purchases online, you know how it feels to track a delayed order with the courier. They don’t notify you when they’re in transit, will not give the item to someone else even when you specifically instructed them to do so and worst case scenario is, your package will be missing and you wouldn’t know where to start looking.

For merchants, the struggle is real; from capturing orders to coordination with the couriers. You have to attend to customer inquiries and relay them to the couriers and deal with the same issues the customers themselves are experiencing. They also have to bring the packages to the courier branches on their own, under the heat of the sun and the energy-draining traffic of the metro.

Part of the headaches of an online seller is the cancellation of orders. 60-70% of Filipinos don’t have bank accounts or credit cards to use and prefer COD transactions. When orders arrive to their doorsteps, there’s a big chance they will refuse the item for a number of reasons; no cash on hand, changed their mind or no longer want the item just because.

E-commerce has relatively increased its growth in the past few years and will continue to rise within the next ten years according to a study done my Google and Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore. Whether you’re selling brand new or second-hand items, you’re included in the number of potentially successful businesses that will benefit from the booming e-commerce industry.

Here is the result of the research study from Google and Temasek done in 2016, showing Philippines as third in the most ripe countries for eCommerce growth.

With all these factors laid and examined, financial technology companies have already come up with a solution to address these concerns that affect all aspects of e-commerce in general. Included in the results of this Google and Temasek’s report is the percentage of unbanked Filipinos that is 60-70%, which means most of the consumers in the Philippines don’t own a bank account and credit or debit cards, leaving them no choice but to use cash-on-delivery payment method during online purchases.

This mode of payment is especially preferred by many because of its convenience and the safety issues concerning online purchases using credit or debit card. With COD, less information is given away and merchants gain more trust from their customers. Most e-commerce platforms have made COD available as a payment option, which gives customers the luxury to choose a payment method that will work for them.

In connection to this, payment gateway companies have emerged to cater to merchants who offer COD to give them full control of their cash flow and overall convenience in online selling. One of them is Payo Asia, a startup payment gateway company that created a full-suite technology to assist merchants from order capturing to courier coordination. Once an order is placed, a dedicated customer service provided by Payo will validate the address of the customer so parcels are delivered on time and orders are brought right to the customer’s doorstep.

They also offer full customer service support for order tracking inquiries, which means less hassle to the merchant and convenience to the customers as they won’t have to make follow ups directly to the couriers who, if not available to take inquiries, will only give indirect answers causing frustration and headache.

If you are a merchant and you can see Payo as a payment gateway that will work for you, please fill out the form below and our Sales Department will give you a call to learn more about your business and how Payo can help you grow your business.

https://pipedrivewebforms.com/form/dc38ec3e88cdbc13504516dee35fd12d1967480