MANILA, Philippines — Social media platforms play a vital role in helping young entrepreneurs find ways to connect not only to their friends and family, but also to potential markets to jumpstart their businesses. However, while the digital platform provides a new avenue to jumpstart a venture, startups still find it difficult to grow their businesses in the physical retail landscape.
This problem was addressed by a retail entrepreneur who created a retail concept store that provides spaces for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at reasonable prices in some of Metro Manila’s biggest malls.
“Right now we cater to young retailers, mostly those that started and are starting to have their own online business,” said Gary Ramirez, creator of Pop Culture, a concept retail store that houses small retailers at Ayala Malls.
“I really want to help young entrepreneurs get some sort of a venue to sell and showcase their products,” Ramirez said.
Today, Ramirez has a number of Pop Culture stores across the metro. The brand has since become exclusive to Ayala Malls. Among the Pop Culture branches operational today are located at Trinoma, Alabang Town Center and Ayala Malls the 30th.
The brand also launched pop up stores in malls such as UP Town Center in Quezon City and Solenad in Laguna.
Ramirez is keen on expanding the Pop Culture brand, opening another branch at Circuit Makati. “And then we’re still negotiating for Bay Area, the one across City of Dreams,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said the Pop Culture brand was created to help SMEs get into malls and grow their businesses.
“We try to make our rates affordable because the main thrust of Pop Culture is also to give opportunities to young entrepreneurs to penetrate the malls. It’s very difficult to get into the mall if you are a newbie,” Ramirez said drawing from his humble beginnings as a young retailer himself.
At present, each Pop Culture store houses 16 tenants on average. Ramirez said the challenge is how to keep the stores attractive and at the same time, keep the rent low.
“ We don’t really make a lot of profit, but it is important to fill up the space, so that we can at least generate some profit,” he said.
“The support of Ayala has been tremendous because they understand that we need a good price for spaces. We don’t really need a big margin. We have to make sure that the price is always low so that our tenants can afford the space,” Ramirez said.
Growth stories
Having been around for more than a decade, Ramirez explained that one factor that may have contributed to the success of the Pop Culture stores is his good relationship with tenants.
“I think the reason why we’re still here is because our tenants know that we support them. We have their backs and that we will not do anything to take advantage of them,” Ramirez said.
He said the Pop Culture stores have witnessed growth stories of tenants who started their business in their stores, but eventually branched out and opened their own stores. Clothing brands Nava and Girlshoppe are some of these stores that have expanded their businesses.
“A lot of them expanded in other places, but I have tenants that have been with me since we opened,” Ramirez said.
Pop Culture tenants get more value for their money with the affordable leasing rates, allowing them to offer their products at reasonable rates to customers.
Due to the rising popularity of this concept, various lifestyle concept stores as well as bazaars that house these small retailers have started to appear all over the metro.
“I actually welcome them because it gives more venues for small entrepreneurs to showcase and sell their products. I never considered them a threat because I want more of people to get into business,” Ramirez said, adding that “our country needs more entrepreneurs. We need more people to get into business and work for themselves and not just settle working for a big company.”
He said the rise of more entrepreneurs would help the economy, at the same time, provide better lives for more Filipinos. “My goal is to encourage young people to be entrepreneurs and promote the entrepreneurial spirit. That has always been my goal,” Ramirez said.