There are 60-70 million active Facebook users in the Philippines per month, which makes the social media platform one of the best sources to find out the buying behavior of Filipino consumers.
To tackle these insights and help business leaders, Globe Digital Ventures invited Industry Head of Facebook Philippines Chay Mondejar-Saputil in DV8: A Globe Digital Conference. The event was meant to help companies take the step into digitization by sharing trends, ideas, and solutions.
Of course, Chay Mondejar-Saputil did not disappoint, with nearly an hour of talk about how Filipinos interact with brands on Facebook.
Here’s what we learned:
33% are already doing E-commerce. 61% are already thinking of doing it right now.
According to marketing 101, the first step is driving awareness. Chay Mondejar-Saputil argues that your consumers are already online. The Philippines is the top country worldwide for time spent on social media – 4 hours. Instead of driving awareness, businesses should go straight to driving sales by leveraging mobile.
For example, brick and mortar stores can augment their revenue with online sales via E-commerce and pair their marketing strategies – social or otherwise – with compelling mobile-friendly landing pages. You need to make sure that there is a way for customers to connect and purchase from you the moment they find your business online.
Digital mobile devices has already redefined our purchase behavior.
Mobile devices have turned from a brick into a sleek gadget with the computing power of a laptop. You can get a date, find a job, book a flight, apply for a loan, pay your bills, and order food through mobile apps. Smartphones aren’t primarily used for calls anymore.
And this isn’t just because of businesses hopping into the market-to-millennials bandwagon. “It takes 2.5 seconds to absorb what you see on a desktop but only 1.7 seconds on a phone,” Chay Mondejar-Saputil reveals. Businesses need to make sure that their mobile marketing strategy is ready to capture and convert every consumer that comes in their way.
Inertia is worse than making a mistake.
When businesses hear the word “digital”, it’s either they don’t know where to start or assume that it involves some software that would need a millennial to understand. Arguably, digitization still involves changes to create cost and operational facility.
Digital transformation can be daunting until you have the right partner. Chay Mondejar-Saputil advised businesses to start as soon as possible and use a trial and error method with a small focus group. Companies can start small by looking at tedious manual processes that they can automate, making it both easier for the company and its employees to deliver the service their customers expect.
Digital is not just a millennial thing, it’s a sign of the times. Keep your workforce connected with a mobile disbursement solution.