ELECTRONIC COMMERCE FOR EVERYONE

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE FOR EVERYONE Dear Mr. President: I wish that as soon as possible, every Filipino will be able to sell online, regardless of what product he or she is selling, regardless of how big or small his or her business is. That is happening now, because many Filipinos are already selling online, via Lazada, Shopee and many other online platforms or marketplaces, as they are also called. However, I have also noticed that there are still many small-scale merchants who are unable to sell online, for some reason or another. I think that some of these reasons are the lack of connectivity, the lack of knowledge about electronic commerce, the lack of product development, and the lack of connections to logistics and payment partners. While these might seem to be major obstacles, I thank that with a little help from National Government Agencies (NGAs), Local Government Units (LGUs) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), it could be done. Based on my own observation, every Filipino should have a business, on top of, and aside from having a job, to get out of poverty, and if possible, to achieve some level of prosperity in their standard of living. In this regard, I would categorically say that anyone who owns a business, big or small should engage in electronic commerce, otherwise it would seem that they are not serious about being in business at all. It is widely known that in China, even street vendors are using mobile apps that would enable them to accept electronic payments wherein the money goes directly into their load wallets, just like GCash and Maya in the Philippines. Over there, the popular brands are WeChat Pay and Alipay. Over here, there are also other emerging brands such as GoTyme Bank, www.pouch.ph, www.coins.ph, Squid Pay and Dragon Pay. Right now, I would not be surprised if some street vendors are already accepting online payments, using only their mobile phones. For as long as merchants could accept mobile payments, they could already go into e-commerce, selling any product or service that they have. As a matter of fact, those who would rather not go into the other e-commerce platforms are now getting their feet wet by using Facebook Marketplace, even if there are no “add to cart” features there, just like the marketplaces of Viber and WhatsApp. While it may not cost anything to join the popular e-commerce platforms, they are not exactly user friendly, because there are many requirements to get in, and the commissions charged by them are too high, such that the profit margins of the merchants are much reduced. Either that, or the forced markups would make the prices too high, such that the goods and services are no longer price competitive. Mr. President, I believe that with your help, it would be possible to create a new e-commerce platform that would make it possible for every Filipino to have an online business. For that to happen, all NGAs and LGUs would have to work together in solving operational and administrative problems related to their businesses, such as production, distribution, packaging, financing and logistics, among others. IKE SENERES/09-28-24