The Philippine e-commerce market is set to continue growing for the foreseeable future, with a recent report indicating that it could reach a value of PHP 2.2 trillion or USD 39.5 billion in 2028. This continuing rise in value is directly related to the continued expansion of the Philippine middle class and the country’s ongoing digital transformation.
However, despite the e-commerce market’s overwhelmingly positive growth prospects, maintaining an efficient, secure, yet still scalable online store continues to be an elusive goal. This is especially true for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) with limited resources, but it can still be the case for larger businesses that are still tied up in legacy technologies.
Regardless, difficulties in publishing a modern e-commerce site can significantly slow down sales, lead to higher operational costs, and negatively affect the customer experience. Solving these hurdles also takes on a more urgent nature in light of the data security and payment fraud challenges of Philippine businesses. As more buyers turn to cashless payments, adopting secure technologies is going to be critical for maintaining trust and positive growth.
To take advantage of today’s emerging e-commerce opportunities, you’ll want to make sure your website is up to the task. Here are some essential technology solutions you should integrate to keep up with the ongoing Philippine e-commerce boom.
1. Secure Payment Gateways
A reliable payment gateway will allow your site to accept all electronic payments while also protecting sensitive customer data. For Philippine businesses, Maya Checkout has emerged as the de facto standard. Thanks to its seamless support of credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, as well as QR Ph transactions, it’s the best choice for efficiently solving your site’s payment issues.
Maya Checkout can also quickly integrate into popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, making it a great choice for established websites. For example, if you have the WooCommerce e-commerce plugin for your WordPress site, all you have to do is download and set up the Maya Plugin for WooCommerce. You’ll soon have a secure WooCommerce payment gateway that accepts all digital payments and keeps your customers safe.
2. Payment Links for Seamless Transactions of Chat and Email
Your website shouldn’t be your only digital payment channel. With Philippine internet usage largely centered around social media platforms, it’s a good idea to have another channel that’s compatible with this preference. This is where Maya Payment Links comes in.
This solution enables you to accept all digital payments over e-mail and other places that enable live links, such as social media messaging apps. It’s ideal for small businesses that operate through social media, but it also serves as a valuable alternative for larger businesses that want to accommodate more customers. For B2B or preferred customers, you can also use Maya Invoice Payments to create custom professional and on-brand invoices.
3. Mobile-Friendly E-Commerce Platforms
A significant portion of Filipino consumers use mobile devices for their discovery and online shopping needs. Social media sites and major online marketplaces have long recognized this, which is why these platforms are highly optimized for mobile users.
You should take a page out of these businesses’ playbook by keeping your website optimized for mobile devices. This can be simple if you use a platform like Shopify or WooCommerce but it can be a bit more challenging if you have a custom site. In any case, prioritizing mobile-friendliness is worthwhile as it directly improves user experience and boosts your site’s conversion rates.
4. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
A CRM system can help you better organize customer data, enabling you to build personalized marketing campaigns that pay off. The possibilities of these systems are virtually infinite. However, most businesses can use them for certain critical activities:
- Retargeting site visitors who haven’t made a purchase
- Offer highly relevant ads to existing customers based on previous behavior
- Organizing customer complaints and other communications
- Social media monitoring
- Highly effective personalized multichannel marketing
In these ways, a modern CRM can increase your conversions and brand value without significantly adding to your sales and marketing costs.
5. Inventory Management Software
Stockouts and overstocking are both serious issues that can degrade customer trust and increase your operational costs. Using inventory management software that integrates with your electronic cash register, Maya payment solutions, and website enables you to update inventory info in real time. You can then streamline stock replenishment to maintain ideal levels, preventing stockouts and avoiding excessive warehousing costs. Current levels can also be accurately displayed on your website to encourage conversions when stocks run low.
Adopt Tech-Driven Improvements into Your Business Processes
Maya offers a full spectrum of payment solutions to help your business ride the Philippine e-commerce boom. Sign up for Maya Business today to integrate secure payment gateways and other tech-driven solutions that will boost your online business.
Signing up for Maya Business grants access to a high-performance Maya Business Deposit account for settling your online payments. Your Maya Business Deposit account offers an industry-leading 2.5% per annum interest rate, earning your funds PHP 25,000 per year for every PHP 1 million. Even better, you can also use Maya Business Deposit to transfer cash to partners and suppliers for free via InstaPay and PESONet, saving you cash on regular transactions.
New Maya Business users will also receive a Maya Flexi Loan offer of up to PHP 2 million within just 3 months. Whether you’re setting up a new e-commerce site or updating your existing one, you’ll get more ways to improve your online sales. Just keep using Maya as your primary processor for all wallet and card payments to improve your next loan offer.
Sign up for Maya Business today to offer world-class payment experiences to your growing pool of loyal online customers.
