Grassroots Digital Entrepreneurship: Neighborhood Rice & Cooking Gas Online

We obviously have seen branded products and high-end items being sold online by large e-commerce providers in almost every part of the world that can support acceptable Internet speed. Here in the Philippines, we suffer from the two outstanding issues that hamper the otherwise explosive growth of e-commerce namely, acceptance of payment from both the buyer and the seller

and the 

expensive cost of shipping. The thing is, online products can be lower compared to Mall or Store prices only if the delivery or shipping cost is kept to a minimum. By buying a product with a higher price value, translating to a bigger savings but having the weight or volume literally light or preferably less than 2 kilos, is the sweetest spot in e-commerce purchase for any buyer. An obvious example of this would be electronic gadgets, which can give a buyer as much as several thousands of pesos in savings while incurring only less than two hundred pesos in delivery cost.

So what if the product being offered has the opposite characteristics meaning has a rather low price but very, very heavy in weight. This then should not even be considered in e-commerce. So what happens then when several Rice and

Cooking gas dealers decided to go digital and offer their product online? The catch is the dealer’s price doesn’t have huge savings for the customers, are very heavy such that if delivered by standard courier provider will be more expensive than the cost of the product itself and the customers are used to paying via cash-on-delivery (COD). An interesting discussion and problem solving exercise then comes to play.

To give some context, these dealers are your ordinary merchants found in various wet markets in Metro Manila. We have encountered such entrepreneur in Pasig, the other in Paranaque and the most recent one was from Las Pinas wet market. All of them wanted to increase their sales and expand their market, but with the current product that they have, geographical presence and reach is quite limited.

To say the least, a customized approach was developed so that our dealers of rice and cooking gas could open their own online store through www.bigbenta.com, get confirmed transaction orders in selected areas, have their products delivered and collect their payment via COD. At the time of writing, I suspect that they could probably be the first online store of rice and cooking gas in the history of the e-commerce in the Philippines. Talk about taking digital entrepreneurship on the grass root level!

A blog written by Mr. Charlie Fong

 BigBenta Marketplace is the only e-commerce platform in the Philippines that features free classified ads (buy and sell), online stores, and service bookings. Through these platforms, it aims to help the Filipino entrepreneur and MSMEs use the internet to grow their business

Picture Sources: Freepik.com

BigBenta.com’s CEO, Mr. Charlie Fong at UST

Last Saturday, February 4, 2017 I spent nearly an entire day in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Espana, Manila to conduct a hands-on training to majority of the Junior and Senior students about Online Marketplace using the BigBenta Marketplace site.  As I personally conducted the training, little did I know that the trainer would become the trainee as my eyes again would open up to the future of digital entrepreneurship at the grassroots level, the students.

All the attending students at the training have two things in common; they are all taking Entrepreneurship subject as part of the course curriculum and all are participating in the school’s university-wide competition aimed at harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit among students. To spice up the competition, the school is proactively promoting not only the traditional approach (brick & mortar business model) in entrepreneurship but recognizing the huge impact of going digital. This is the reason why UST asked BigBenta www.bigbenta.com, having the most comprehensive online marketplace in the country today, to help its students realize their digital entrepreneurship potential. Though the idea of conducting trainings is all too common, my experience last Saturday was everything but.

Mr. Charlie Fong at UST for BigBenta.com’s training sessions

At the start of the training sessions (morning and afternoon), the students  were typically slow and silent, but in a matter of minutes, they became engaging and interactive as the BigBenta service platform was presented. The comprehensive presentation made them recognize the flexibility of the platform to support all kinds of products and services. The students appreciated the fact that BigBenta Marketplace was built to accommodate entrepreneurs regardless of products and services they offer. And because it was built locally, it has the capability to accommodate changes and customize its features based on real customer needs and requirements.  It was also comforting for the students to know that BigBenta has a strong Customer Support team, which is on call to support their needs.

The students and I spent a good amount of time in understanding the various concepts of their businesses and how best to use BigBenta Marketplace platform to achieve their business goals. From putting the best pictures and product or service description, to which products are suited for courier delivery, to enabling cash-on-delivery as payment option, and many more. It was indeed was a very productive session all through out. True to being young, the students were so proficient in digital and internet that during the hands-on session, they were several steps ahead of me in creating their own online stores, despite doing it for the first time.

For a very few, the hands-on training is just a part of the student’s course curriculum but for the most that I had the rare opportunity to understand their immediate and future business interests. They have realized that supporting their family or parent’s traditional businesses using social entrepreneurship or by using social network (e.g. facebook) is not the most efficient way to do business. Coming out from the hands-on session, they have acquired the confidence to move their businesses to digital where most people at my age or older would take if not months, but years to do so.  

UST Students together with the BigBenta.com’s Team

BigBenta.com’s Thess Peres, UST Students and Mr. Charlie Fong

At the end of the training day, the energy and enthusiasm generated by the students is a welcome experience for me not only on the prospect of BigBenta’s business moving forward, but more on seeing my future customers and partners and how they will take their current traditional business into digital. This discovery for me is the best new knowledge to boost my confidence as well. This serves as my personal preview why the future of digital entrepreneurship in the Philippines is not only secure; and it is coming sooner than expected.