GCash steps up e-commerce promotion

MANILA, Philippines — Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), operator of mobile wallet service GCash, is stepping up the promotion of the country’s e-commerce industry, which is expected to account for 4.7 percent of all retail sales by 2025.

With its 65,000 merchant partners and 20 million users, GCash is well-positioned as a pillar to support the expansion of e-commerce, which brought in $840 million in revenues in 2018 alone, Mynt said.

Mynt believes in the potential of the industry in the country as it hosts some of the world’s most active smartphone and social media users.

JM Aujero, Mynt vice president for merchant solutions, said with GCash, online shopping is made easier because a customer has to enroll only once to immediately gain access to one-click payments for thousands of merchants in platforms like Lazada.

GCash has also started giving out vouchers for various products and services, which presented opportunities for the mobile payment solution to co-fund marketing campaigns with their merchant-partners.

It has also forayed into social payments via Facebook Messenger, hoping to engage the 60 million Filipinos using the messaging platform. 

“The point was to encourage not just repeat usage of GCash, but also brand loyalty to the different merchants… Building a cashless ecosystem does not mean you have to do it on your own. It should be a partnership between stakeholders,” Aujero said. 

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has already come out with the National Retail Payment System (NRPS), a policy and regulatory framework that aims to increase the adoption of electronic retail payments from one percent in 2013 to 20 percent in 2020, and ensure a safe, efficient and reliable retail payment system in the country.

The NRPS aims to give Filipinos easy access to financial services and be able to receive or transfer funds from a digital device anytime, anywhere at a reasonable price.

Mynt said this is aligned with GCash’s vision of financial inclusion for all Filipinos through technology.

“We are now the largest QR payments acquirer in the Philippines, with 65,000 partner merchants across key accounts, down to the smallest sari-sari stores and taho vendors, even some tricycle drivers,” Aujero said.