Entrepreneurs urged to tap e-commerce

CEBU, Philippines – Entrepreneurs are encouraged anew to tap the digital commerce or e-commerce in their businesses.

“I urge our micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to welcome digital integration,” said Trade Chief Ramon Lopez.

He said the Philippines can be a model country for digital empowerment, with vast interest infused in the demography of the Philippines as the world’s social media capital and with 50 million Internet users, which account for 50 percent of the country’s total population today.

The development of e-commerce is among the key priorities in the country's trade agenda.

According to Statista, a market research firm, it is projected that by 2021, 81 percent of the country’s population will be Internet users.

For the Southeast Asian region alone, the country has the fastest growing Internet audience at 22 percent growth rate, according to the 2014 Global Web Index, which also found Filipinos having the highest total screen time spent in social networking globally at 3.2 hours.

In an interview earlier, e-commerce advocate Janette Toral said one of the targets of the Philippine E-Commerce Roadmap (PECR) 2016-2020 is to encourage 100,000 MSMEs — at least a tenth of around 1.3 million registered MSMEs — to do e-commerce by 2020.

The E-Commerce Roadmap will boost the e-commerce industry that is seen to become a major economic growth driver in the country.

DTI had said the roadmap seeks to see the e-commerce industry contributing 25 percent or one fourth of the country’s gross domestic product by 2020, helping propel the e-commerce industry’s growth and supporting the entry of about 100,000 MSMEs.

The roadmap also eyes to help the country catch up with the fast internet penetration and rising usage in the country.

The Philippines is deemed to be among the fastest growing internet populations in the world, with recent statistics estimating 530 percent growth over the past five years. Every day, an average Filipino spends 6.3 hours using the internet.

Based on the roadmap, the country’s e-commerce adoption has been slow and that it noted missing opportunities that the digital world offers amid woes of slow Internet connectivity and infrastructure in the country.

Lopez said "digital integration is a great equalizer, as it allows MSMEs to gather product ideas and concepts, do market tests and do promotions and selling at practically no cost.”

The Philippines is deemed at the right state for digital empowerment as its economy experiences strong macroeconomic fundamentals and renewed investor confidence. — (FREEMAN)