Retailers should to new technology to compete — exec

Go

BUSINESS owners especially in the retail industry should adopt to new technology and innovations in terms of payment systems to grow their business and compete.

Robert Go, president of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) Cebu chapter, said this amid the aggressive promotions and marketing campaigns of some digital payment companies.

“It is already very aggressively advancing. And probably by the end of the year, many will also catch up already with using these kinds of payments, unless you’re a traditional store without a credit card terminal,” Go said.

“If you don’t use those kinds of payments … of that kind of technology, you will lose out to your competitors. If your competitor uses that, easily they will get more customers because if you don’t use it, they don’t buy for you,” he added.

Go said this amid the growing number of retailers who are discussing and opening up to the idea of using this kind of payment option.

“They are very aggressive in talking to us and wanting us to accept their businesses. We retailers are also opening and discussing some of these schemes because it is the way of the future. It is a kind of payment that will soon be the way of payment,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Among these firms are UnionPay and PayMaya.

Go said representatives from both companies have already starting talking to the PRA as well as other businesses to partner with them last week.

Representatives from UnionPay presented their company during the general membership meeting of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industy (CCCI) last Friday at the Summit Galleria Hotel.

Vincent Ling, deputy general manager for Southeast Asia, said in his presentation that local businesses would benefit from installing UnionPay terminals in their point of sale (POS) systems as more Chinese tourists are expected to come to the province especially with the opening of the new terminal of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

Chinese tourists eyed

“120 million people are traveling out of China and more than 35-40 percent are between the ages of 18 to 25. Many young Chinese travelers are going to visit beach resorts and Cebu has very nice beaches, I have personally visited as well,” he said.

In 2017, Ling said there were 1 million Chinese tourists that came to the Philippines who visited the country’s beaches especially in areas like Cebu, Bohol, Dumaguete, and Boracay.

For 2018, he said officials are targeting 2 million Chinese tourists coming into the Philippines, possibly becoming the top contributor of foreign tourists this year since the Chinese are catching up to the Koreans.

Sought for comment on this, Go agreed on the need for businesses to capture these Chinese tourists who are mostly using UnionPay credit cards.

“Most of these Chinese visitors use credit cards that pay with UnionPay. If they use their cards on terminals with no UnionPay, it will be very expensive for them, so they will not use it,” Go said.

Aside from the new MCIA terminal, Go said the addition of more direct flights from different cities and provinces in China going to Cebu would also spur the surge of Chinese tourists here.

On the other hand, PayMaya is also aiming to partner with more stores and retailers to make use of digital payments using mobile phones.

Last January, PayMaya Philippines launched its partnership with the SM Store by putting up payment counters in department stores of SM City Cebu, SM Seaside City Cebu, and SM Consolacion.