Easily one of the more fascinating press conferences I attended this year was last week’s dinner with eLBC’s Express Regalo. I’ve never really been in touch with the local shipping industry and found LBC’s online store to be quite a remarkable set up. They ship anything from lechon, to balloons, to consumer goods, Boyoyong Clown party packages — and get this – even pedicabs (yes dear friends, our local pedicab industry is championed by eLBC)!
You see, eLBC’s efforts smells of the eCommerce industry and they are perhaps the best example of online retail. You might even say that they are the equivalent of Amazon.com here in the Philippines. The triumvirate of services include the very familiar Digiprint – a photo printing and storage delivery service, Express Regalo – an online shopping mall, and Flowers Express, an online flower delivery service anywhere in the Philippines. We were wondering whether the latter was a competitor to Dustin Andaya’s Island Rose but apparently they were also one of the suppliers to Flowers Express, which is a good thing because Island Rose has always delivered me quality stems.
Honestly, I’ve never ordered anything from Express Regalo. My online purchases usually fall in the realm of gaming subscriptions to MMORPGs, shirts from Threadless.com and basically anything that you can’t buy here. I’m figuring that Filipinos have this “mall culture” where window shopping and purchases are fun when you do them, well, in the mall. But I guess that’s evolving. Clothes and bags are now being ordered via independent sellers on Multiply, and I know you can get almost anything as well from eBay. According to Rene Fuentes, online shopping trends point to consumers buying items for themselves and not as gifts which means that local eCommerce is growing within the Philippines and not just from the OFWs purchasing goods for their families.
I’d love to know your experiences with local online shopping vendors! There is still that mentality that online shopping here is “not safe.” True?
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