By Alithea De Jesus
There is no stopping the e-commerce boom in the Philippines as the phenomenal growth continues to provide opportunities to many enterprising Pinoys.
With the encouraging forecast of around one million e-commerce enterprises by 2022., this is not only attainable but also realistic as the upper trajectory growth of 70% in 2019 to 80.2% in 2021, one can safely assume that this will continue. Needless to say, others dub e-commerce as a way of doing business.
Even traditional business experts see that the-commerce usage will continue to grow and may become a permanent trend in the retail industry. Even Trade Chief Ramon Lopez noted that the pandemic will further accelerate the adoption of e-commerce, and the government sees further growth beyond 2022.
As the online businesses and e-Commerce in the Philippines are continuously growing, it is interesting to note that business experts predicted that this will hit almost $28B (PHP1.4 trillion) by 2025, according to Bain & Company, Google, and Temasek. To fuel this growth further, seasoned Filipino e-Commerce champions join forces in driving LOCAD, a cloud-based logistics company, to support more brands and merchants in their online success.
LOCAD uses the power of tech to provide all the back-end support needed by e-Commerce businesses of all sizes — from warehousing and inventory management, all the way to picking and packing, and last-mile logistics. With a team of Filipinos experienced in the supply chain industry, LOCAD is confident that their tech and fulfillment services will empower more e-Commerce entrepreneurs to spend less time managing logistical challenges and more time focusing on growing their business.
The Filipino e-Commerce Champions
“I’m an online business owner myself, and I understand how a growing business can be both an exciting and exhausting experience,” shares Ray Caguin, Associate Director and the Lead for LOCAD’s Philippine Market for Sales and Business Development. Caguin brings his extensive e-Commerce management and sales experience to LOCAD from top marketplace platform, Shopee.
“I believe in LOCAD’s value because I have experienced all the problems its services solve,” he said, adding: “Currently, a lot of MSMEs think all you need to grow an online business is to be part of an online marketplace. However, many are now beginning to realize how efficient warehousing, fulfillment, and shipping are just as essential to growing a sustainable business — and something LOCAD provides to all Filipino MSMEs as well as major brands.” His first-hand experience of running a business has allowed him to understand how logistics can make or break a business. He also notes how almost all of LOCAD’s sellers have doubled their sales at near 100% order fulfillment in the recent 9.9 sale. For Caguin, on-time and efficient order fulfillment is the new key to the growth of many businesses — resulting in happy and loyal customers.
Lorenzo Orbeta, Growth and Market Expansion Lead, shares how Filipino entrepreneurs have responded positively to their product: “It’s nice to see that we can relate to businesses and entrepreneurs when we talk about how we can help solve their current pain points — one of which is how LOCAD’s affordable services help even the smaller of players in the market.” Orbeta developed a first-hand view of the local logistics industry during his stint at Entrego, understanding the needs of entrepreneurs and fulfilling the shipping requirements of enterprise-grade e-Commerce businesses.
Equipped with her experience from the leading delivery app Lalamove, Cheenah Lacanienta explains how being a Business Development Executive at LOCAD empowers her to support clients, in their goals in life — from growing their businesses to getting back more time for personal pursuits: “I remember one of our clients, Meryll Yan of SKINNI Swim, telling us how LOCAD helped her practice her brand’s message of self-love by having more time for herself and family. Apart from the freed-up time and excellent rates, she also raved about our ability to cater to clients like her who are particular in their packaging,” she says.
Winning e-Commerce for Filipino Sellers
LOCAD provides an unparalleled e-Commerce experience to all Filipino online entrepreneurs, whether big or small.
The e-Commerce champions share how – through a digital platform called the LOCAD Control Tower – entrepreneurs can integrate all their marketplaces into one dashboard. And by doing so, they see a clearer view of their inventory and sales across multiple channels. Taking it offline, LOCAD’s scalable warehousing and logistics solutions give entrepreneurs the flexibility of managing their business wherever they are. By providing a strong back-end infrastructure, LOCAD also ensures that an e-Commerce business is future-proof.
Caguin explains that this online and offline synergy allows LOCAD to serve as a one-stop shop for warehousing, picking and packing, fulfillment, and shipping service that businesses need.
Founded in November 2020, LOCAD saw the need to champion the success of e-commerce brands by building a simple, scalable, and automated supply chain service for the market. In less than a year, they have helped multiple brands spread across the Philippines, Australia, and their headquarters in Singapore.
Fulfilling Dreams for More digital brands and Online Sellers
For these e-Commerce champions, their mission is clear: to combine their expertise and LOCAD’s fulfillment services to help Filipino entrepreneurs grow their online business.
Lacanienta says that the team is ready to champion LOCAD’s growing client base: “The role of an e-Commerce champion is to equip entrepreneurs with the mindset and tools to navigate their business operations efficiently and successfully. I am proud to be part of a team of e-Commerce champions and we look forward to supporting more Filipino entrepreneurs.”
As a message to the e-Commerce community, Caguin says: “I would like to say congratulations to all the brands and sellers in the ecommerce ecosystem. Despite these challenging times, we all continue to strive and improve, create and grow, and LOCAD is here to help you succeed.”
Going Above and Beyond with Additional Benefit to New Clients
To support its mission of empowering more e-Commerce entrepreneurs in the Philippines, LOCAD is giving a 30-day free storage benefit year-round to all clients for their fresh stocks. On top of this, LOCAD is currently offering additional benefits to new clients until December 31, 2021 to support more brands and online merchants in their growth during the peak season.
Upon signing up at www.golocad.com and after a short talk on how LOCAD can help in their growth, a business can begin getting fulfilled by LOCAD in less than 2 weeks.
Orbeta shares that the added benefit aims to provide more avenues for entrepreneurs to experience an end-to-end fulfillment solution such as LOCAD: “Our service is designed with our customers in mind. We make sure that whatever improvements we make to the service offering is based on feedback from our customers and we hope our added benefit for new clients would help more Filipino entrepreneurs in their growth.”
Ray Caguin, Associate Director and Market Lead for Philippines