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Realizing the Potential of E-Commerce in Philippines

Tag: E-commerce

Realizing the Potential of E-Commerce in Philippines
Mohab Super Merchants 0

Realizing the Potential of E-Commerce in Philippines

Philippines has always been ahead of the curve in ASEAN when it comes to embracing mass market technologies. First it started with SMS, and then came Facebook penetration, which is really high (50% +) in Philippines, as per recent studies.

What’s the future for Philippines?

Well, all indicators point out that Philippines is ripe for an e-commerce boom. E-Commerce is projected to grow at a 10 year CAGR of 34% with e-commerce accounting for 4.7 % of total retail in the country*. The Asia Pacific nation has witnessed a large number of merchants taking to e-commerce to sell their goods locally and globally without really pumping in capital.  It is a classic case of e-commerce adoption by merchants.

The ingredients for a massive e-commerce boom are already in place in Philippines. It is not just SMS & Facebook penetration. Smartphone penetration in the country stands at 117%, which is among the highest in the world, according to IDC research. The rise of smartphones in the Pacific Island nation is a good ingredient for sustaining a strong and robust mobile commerce landscape. Mobiles will play a key role in e-commerce growth in Philippines, as not many can afford laptops.

As a testimony to the potential to mobile commerce, 60% of shoppers on Lazada, shop through the mobile^. Lazada is Philippine’s largest online marketplace.  While releasing an e-commerce roadmap for the country, last year, Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry has pointed out that the country’s 930k+ MSMEs are being urged to leverage e-commerce to tap the global marketplace and achieve business growth. The pacific island nation’s government has been pushing MSMEs to enter the global value chain & gain global market access via e-commerce.

This goes to show that Philippines is poised to make a huge mark in the global e-commerce landscape. As MSMEs from the country seek global market access through e-commerce, we at PayTabs are committed to Philippines by providing a truly global payments solution, which keeps international payment worries at bay for merchants in Philippines. Sign Up for a Free Demo to experience the true value of PayTabs.

*Data Source: Report by Google & Temasek 

^Data Source: ASEAN 2017: Prosperity for All Summit

7 years ago
Starting Your E-Commerce Business: Key Points
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Starting Your E-Commerce Business: Key Points

Worldwide e-commerce sales is projected to grow to $4.5 trillion* by 2021. That’s almost double the current value. While at the face of it, the value seems mind boggling but it doesn’t come as a surprise because globally, e-commerce has been witnessing staggering growth, propelled by the sprouting of various e-commerce startups across the world.

Considering the growth of the industry, it is a lucrative proposition to start an e-commerce enterprise. Hence, if you have an idea and are willing to navigate through the challenges of building and running your own e-commerce enterprise, here are the key points you need to keep in mind:

  • Name & Registration: Choose a name for your business that separates you from the competition. Do a corporate name search to ensure that the name you have chosen is not in use. You would need to register the name and select a business structure for your startup, it can be a sole proprietorship/partnership/LLC/Corporation.
  • Domain name & Website: Ideally, your business name should be the domain of your e-commerce site. If the domain is not available, chose a domain name, that’s easy to spell and pronounce.
  • Banking Regulations & Identification number: Make sure you have your company’s identification number, as per the respective country’s law and ensure that you open up your company’s bank account. These are generally for tax & corporate records purposes.
  • Business Licenses and Permits: Check the operating licenses that you require to run an e-commerce business in your country and ensure you have all the licenses in place before starting business operations.
  • Find the right vendor: If you are going to running a marketplace, then you wouldn’t need a vendor for products that you would sell. But if it’s a standalone e-commerce platform, you would need a long term commitment from a vendor for supplies/raw materials or products.
  • Inventory: Make sure you have stocked your inventory. It would help tremendously, when your orders come through. You should be able to provision for x number of order and ship on time.
  • Logistics and Delivery: It is imperative for any e-commerce to have the logistics and delivery sorted. It is not only delivery for your customer orders but the delivery of your supplies that need to be streamlined as well.
  • Technology & Software: Having the right shopping cart plugin or building your own shopping cart is a must for any e-commerce site, the experience of your customer while shopping on your site, depends on your cart. Additionally, you need to ensure that you gradually invest in productivity software such as email marketing, CRM, etc…
  • Marketing: To start off with, use all digital marketing mediums, especially social media to spread the word about your business and drive sales. Prepare blog posts and social media properties well in advance.
  • Compliance: Your business will grow at the speed of light, but you must be mindful of the fact that you follow the regulations as per compliance, i.e. reporting annual results or quarterly results to regulators. Even the annual fees for your business permits and licenses. Do not ignore any aspect of being a compliant and legal e-commerce site.

Last but not the least, for transactions to occur on your e-commerce site, you would need a payment gateway to be integrated with your website. Sign up for a free demo to unlock the value that we can provide for your e-commerce venture, as a comprehensive payments solution provider.

*Data Source: Statista

7 years ago
PayTabs: Adding Value to Your Business
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

PayTabs: Adding Value to Your Business

In one of our earlier post, we touched upon the factors that set PayTabs apart as a payment solutions company. We looked at the existing gaps in the payments processing industry and how does PayTabs bridge the gap.

Today, we are looking specifically at some of the business problems that PayTabs can solve for your business, as a comprehensive payments solution company:

  1. Global Business: Your business attracts customers from across the world and it is imperative for you to have a payments solution that processes multiple currencies and offers a seamless experience with your customers. Well, PayTabs has you covered as we can process 160+ currencies on our platform.
  2. Grow your business: Whether it’s multiple channels, schemes, acquiring banks, multiple shopping cart platforms, security infrastructure and systems, risk management and merchant services, we have you covered in all aspects in the context of building, operating and growing your e-commerce business.
  3. Data Security: In a world that is constantly threatened by cyber-crime, it is imperative for you to ensure that you customer’s data is protected. We have the highest level of PCI-DSS compliance apart from having dual layers of fraud management infrastructure in place.
  4. Technology Worries: When you are setting up your e-commerce business, you are determined to get the technology right, with respect to every aspect of your business. We understand technology and the need for agile delivery, hence we have the ability to quickly integrate our solution to your backend, irrespective of the type of backend you have.
  5. Build Competitiveness: We understand that the e-commerce industry is highly competitive across the world; we can help you grow your business & help you become competitive and profitable at the same time. We believe in complete transparency and hence we do not have any hidden charges.

To experience the power and the flexibility of our solution, you can sign up for a free demo or contact us. Moreover, if you wish, you can subscribe to our blog alerts to keep abreast with the latest from the world of payments and e-commerce.

7 years ago
Indian Marketplaces: Shift from Offline to Online
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Indian Marketplaces: Shift from Offline to Online

Circa 2006: You live in Greater Kailash in New Delhi, surrounded by markets, where you would get everything under the sun. One fine morning, your phone fell down on the floor and the screen cracked. You run to the nearest store and buy the phone of your choice.

Circa 2017: Similar incident happens; you login to Amzon/Flipkart and order the phone of your choice. You need not have to be in GK Market, New Delhi. You can be holidaying in Pondicherry or Himachal Pradesh.

What has changed in the past 11 years? Apart from the fact that there have been two national elections in the world’s largest democracy and India winning the Cricket World Cup in 2011, the buzzword amongst Indian consumers have been: E-Commerce, which has grown leaps and bounds aided by significant increase in internet penetration. The result has been massive volumes and massive total amount of transactions done on e-commerce sites, which has been a key driver to domestic consumption in recent years, catapulting India to the fastest growing economy in the world.  No wonder, the Indian e-commerce market is projected to grow to $100 bn+ by 2020.

payment gateway in india

In the past one year, there has been a significant increase in online transactions aided by the onslaught of non-cash payment methods, as a result of the government’s demonetization drive, which has led of increased adoption of digital transactions, not only for shopping on marketplaces, but for day to day purchases as well.

Yet, despite the Digital India initiative and the Demonetization drive, there still remains a significant amount of population who rely on offline commerce, especially in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. This is primarily due to the trust factor associated with an offline transaction, because the buyer and the seller meet face to face.

The Indian e-commerce story is tremendous because it has managed to club convenience of shopping online with trust. It is a paradigm shift in the behaviour in the Indian consumer. In smaller cities, e-commerce hasn’t seen huge growth as compared to metropolitan areas, but that will soon change in the coming years as e-commerce penetrates into smaller cities.

A smaller but an important element of the Indian e-commerce story, is the aspect of export of goods and services. From ages, Indian exporters have been selling goods abroad and in recent years, Indian professionals and agencies have been selling services abroad. Indian small and medium scale businesses constitute a large portion of commerce and exports. This segment of the market deserves to take advantage of the digital revolution and harness the power of e-commerce and online payments.

Learn more about how PayTabs can help grow your business online and accept international payments in a seamless, safe and secure way. Sign up for a free demo now.

7 years ago
Bahrain: An Early Adopter of Fintech
Mohab Super Merchants 0

Bahrain: An Early Adopter of Fintech

As wisdom suggests, regulations are useful when it works. Regulations should enable the economy and not prove to be a hindrance for economic development. Any country which is serious about letting a new industry mushroom and grow, it must create an environment that helps startups and entrepreneurship. Whether it is Silicon Valley or Singapore, favorable business regulations made both these places global hubs for technology startups.

The key ingredients for creating a positive environment for entrepreneurs is building ecosystems and friendly regulatory frameworks which makes is easy to do business in a country/region.

Talking of environment, Bahrain has clearly taken a lead when it comes to pushing forth the case for Fintech Startups. In the month of March 2017, The Bahrain Economic Development Board(EDB) signed a deal with Singapore’s Fintech Consortium and UAE’s Trucial Investment Partners to develop a Fintech ecosystem and a regulatory framework.

The kingdom of Bahrain has already established regulatory incubators where Fintech startups can test their business models and their products without any violation of existing financial regulations.

Bahrain is clearly ahead of the curve, when it comes to jumping the Fintech bandwagon earlier than some of its neighbors in the GCC region. Financial services have traditionally been Bahrain’s forte and pride, with many international and local banks having their presence in the island kingdom. However, much of that traditional advantage has been lost to Dubai in recent times. Hence, focusing on Fintech provides the much-needed momentum to Bahrain’s financial services industry.

As a testimony to the ease of doing business in Bahrain, we take pride in the fact that we have our operational head office in Bahrain. Not to mention, the favorable regulations and government support has enabled us to scale our operations.

7 years ago