DURING the last 12.12 sale, Shopee sold a record-breaking 12 million items in the first 24 minutes and at its peak, 1 million items were bought in a single minute. Shopping activity surged at midnight on December 12, with four times more items sold in the first hour compared to 2019 with a recorded 450 million views on Shopee Live across the 12.12 sale.
Rival site Lazada, on the other hand, said it doubled its sales during the same 12.12 Christmas sale compared to last year, with shoppers spending a total of more than 420 million minutes on the platform. Lazada’s first-hour traffic reached a high of 1.6 million shoppers on the app at once searching for the best deals and 1,006 Lazada Millionaire Sellers were recorded during the three-day shopping festival.
According to the “e-Conomy SEA 2020” report from Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, Internet usage in Southeast Asia (SEA) continues to grow, with 40 million new users this year alone (400 million year-to-date versus 360 million in 2019). Here in the Philippines, given the extensive Covid-19 lockdown periods, people went online searching for answers to their sudden, new challenges. A significant number tried new digital services: 37percent of all digital service consumers were new (slightly higher than the SEA average), with 95 percent of these new consumers intending to continue their behavior post-pandemic.
The report said e-commerce and online media have seen the least impact from Covid-19. E-commerce has driven significant growth in the Philippines, at 55 percent. This ascendance has largely offset declines in travel, transport and food delivery. Overall, in 2020, Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) is expected to reach a total value of $7.5 billion, having grown at 6 percent year-on-year.
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER
SHOPEE and Lazada might be the biggest, but they are certainly not the only e-commerce sites in the Philippines. There’s also Zalora, Carousell, Metrodeal, BeautyMNL, Argomall, Galleon and eBay Philippines, just to name a few. Last week, another company officially threw its hat in the online market ring, promising a better shopping and shipping experience.
VeMoBro is the newest online shopping platform that’s made for Filipinos by Filipinos. Oddly enough, instead of focusing on some grand marketing strategy, it highlighted compassion as one of the key elements that differentiates it from the rest.
VeMoBro stands for “Velocity, Mobility, and Broad” and this homegrown e-commerce site identifies itself as a Covid baby—born out of a very challenging time that made it pivot its focus from automobiles and electronics to essential products.
Launching at a time when Filipino consumers need more e-commerce options, it puts emphasis on providing superior services to both online customers and sellers through its unique take on digital shopping and on the most critical aspect of e-commerce, which is logistics. Furthermore, VeMoBro commits itself to empowering Filipino retailers of all sizes, with focus on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
VeMoBro wants to focus on improving the online-shopping experience by making sure that everything on the platform is legitimate and not fake—still one of the biggest pain points for online shoppers and a recurring issue in many e-commerce platforms. Aware of the proliferation of fake products and online scams as online shopping gains more popularity, VeMoBro ensures the legitimacy of the products on its marketplace to protect both consumers and sellers.
The company adopts fail-safe features to filter out fake sellers and implements a system that regulates and ensures accurate, easy-to-read product descriptions to deliver peace of mind while shopping.
VeMoBro Founder and CEO Engr. Vergil Bargola says, “VeMoBro’s utmost mission is to create a platform that puts high value on consumer trust. By carefully filtering out [illegitimate sellers], investing in and supporting legitimate sellers, we assure our customers that our platform does not only attend to their essential needs but also provides a safe e-commerce space.”
The platform offers a wide array of “new essentials” comprising food and grocery items, home essentials, tech gadgets and accessories, and automotive products. VeMoBro’s easy-to-use and clutter-free digital platform lets customers track their purchases in real-time.
When asked how they plan to go against those giant ecommerce sites, Bargola said, “We can’t go toe to toe with the giants. What we can do is address the concerns of Filipinos. In a pandemic situation, community is important. We are Filipinos, so we take care of our own.”
Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Rain M. Ibajo stressed that VeMoBro seeks to provide an additional way of empowering Filipino retailers of all sizes, with focus on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. “One of our goals is to be a platform for growth. We understand how the pandemic took its toll on Filipino businesses, and we are here to work with them to achieve recovery. Whether you’re an established brand or an aspiring start-up, you are welcome to join our growing list of partner merchants as we work together to succeed in this industry.”
The VeMoBro app is now available on Google Play or you can shop via browser at vemobro.com.ph. The platform provides customers with several payment options such as cash-on-delivery, online banking or e-wallet payment through GCash, GrabPay, Coins.ph and Dragonpay. First-time users are entitled to a P100 discount for a minimum total purchase of P1,000 until June 30.