With electronic commerce business in the Philippines seen jumping more than 1,800 percent to $9.7 billion in 2025, local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are jumping into online selling.
In his speech at the Amazon Southeast Asia Online Seller Summit yesterday, Secretary Ramon Lopez of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reported 1,539 business name registrations for online retail has been registered by the agency in January, approximating the 1,700 registered in January to March 15 last year.
Leong Yoong, head of new seller recruitment of Southeast Asia of Amazon, said the Philippines could outsize Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam in terms of e-commerce by 2025 when the industry could balloon to $9.7 billion from just $500 million in 2015.
At the end of 2020, Lopez said online retailers registered by the DTI totaled to more than 86,000.
Lopez noted as the economy’s backbone, MSMEs should be enabled to pivot digitally so that they can become more innovative and competitive.
He added MSMEs need to be “smarter entrepreneurs” to compete in the global market.
DTI has been collaborating with Amazon to support MSMEs to expand their market.
Yoong said Philippine sellers have seen a surge in sales home, apparel, dietary supplements and mobile accessories during the pandemic, ending 2020 with a double digit growth.
This connotes sellers are able to capture the fast-changing trends.
