Canned foods, powerbanks top Singles’ Day purchases

MANILA, Philippines — Canned food and power banks emerged as the top items purchased by Filipinos during Singles’ Day, according to PLDT Inc.’s digital innovations arm Voyager Innovations Inc.

In a statement, Voyager said Spam, a brand of canned cooked meat, was the most purchased item by Filipinos during Singles’ Day or last Nov.11 from the firm’s online shopping discovery platform Takatack.

Singles’ Day which started in China as a way for male and female individuals to celebrate being single, is considered one of the biggest sale events.

Jaguar Powerbank which is used to charge electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets, meanwhile, was the second most purchased item by Filipinos during Singles’ Day.

Of the top 20 items bought from the online shopping marketplace, Voyager said more than half were composed of electronics items, while the rest were imported canned food items.

Seven in 10 online transactions performed in Takatack were from mobile devices.

“This is the first time that Takatack ran a promotion in conjunction with Singles’ Day, and we were really overwhelmed, if not a little amused, by the reception of Filipino online shoppers. Our young people are also a practical bunch as they spotted the best buys in preparation for the holidays,” Marc Concio, head for digital commerce at Voyager said.

During Singles’ Day, majority of the transactions through Voyager’s digital payments service PayMaya were undertaken by millennials or those aged between 18 and 34 years old.

Voyager said at least 80 percent of these transactions were online purchases.

For PayMaya, the top payments destination on Singles’ Day was online marketplace Lazada.

Aside from Lazada, Singles’ Day shoppers spent their money through various digital services (iTunes, and Google Play), freelance ventures (PayPal and Facebook), digital games (Steam and Valve), travel (airlines), fashion (Zalora), and groceries (brick and mortar supermarkets).

“The growth of our platforms during the Singles’ Day event was phenomenal. Compared to the same period last year, PayMaya’s consumer business registered as much as a five-fold increase in transaction volumes while sales transactions from Takatack jumped by a massive 4,500 percent. But more than the traction of our platforms, it was a good occasion for industry players to have a single call to action to support collaborations that will benefit consumers and the whole digital commerce business chain,” Orlando Vea, president and chief executive officer at Voyager and PayMaya Philippines said.

Established four and a half years ago, Voyager has launched various digital products and platforms.

Among its services are digital payments app PayMaya;  remittance network Smart Padala, PayMaya Business solutions which offer businesses the capability to accept card payments for online or face-to-face purchases; digital lending platform Lendr,  TackThis! and Takatack which allow merchants to easily set up an online shop, and freenet which offers free data access to top brand sites and enables enterprises to engage with customers.