e-commerce

From offline to online cart: Filipino favorites you can find on Lazada

Rappler.com

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From offline to online cart: Filipino favorites you can find on Lazada
Heritage Filipino brands look to e-commerce to sustain business and expand consumer reach

[Editor’s Note: The radical shift of consumer behavior to online shopping during the past few months could not have been predicted by any of our local businesses. Fortunately, these heritage brands were quick in partnering with LazMall, ensuring consumer access to their products even with the abruptly changing quarantine policies in the metro. Below is Lazada’s press release.]

Filipinos have local brands they know and love, with these staple products always in their grocery carts. With the onset of the pandemic, all types of businesses were affected – from small mom-and-pop businesses to big, established corporations.

Here, we take a look at two heritage Filipino brands that made quick decisions to diversify their strategies in moving online, proving that old players indeed have new and fresh ideas to cater to the ever-evolving consumer market. 

Swift: Building a brand for the new generation

A household name for decades, Swift was established in 1978, growing in popularity in the ’80s and ’90s. Its role in Filipino pop culture was cemented when the Philippine Basketball Association named a team after their signature hotdogs – the Swift Mighty Meaties. At that time, almost every grocery cart had Swift products in it, equating the brand to quality food for Filipino families. 

For the 40-year-old brand, setting themselves apart for the millennial and Gen Z generations was tough as competition became fiercer with modern marketing and technology, along with a bevy of younger and hip new brands. 

“The real challenge for us was to find ways to be relevant to the younger millennial and Gen Z market, as they are not as familiar with our brand compared to the older generation. Beyond innovating our products, we knew we needed to innovate how consumers can access them,” said Nikki Dizon, Century Pacific Group General Manager.

The COVID pandemic didn’t make it any easier for the brand. As restrictions were put into place and fewer people went out to buy their essentials, Swift had to think fast to keep their business on track. 

“Prior to the pandemic hitting the country, we were mainly available in supermarkets, market stalls, and groceries. We had no e-commerce footprint as it was a challenge for us to find platforms that supported cold chain logistics, a roadblock for door-to-door deliveries to our customers,” Nikki added.

The brand saw an opportunity to widen their e-commerce presence and onboarded with Lazada in May 2020. 

“We were one of the first fresh/frozen brands to onboard on the platform via Lazada Fresh. We found our transition to be seamless, as Lazada provided us with the right tools we needed to get started on our eCommerce journey. In tandem with giving our brand a refresh, we fashioned our eCommerce presence look and feel to better cater to the tastes of modern consumers. Within a few short weeks, we were able to expand our reach and access a new set of customers through the platform,” the Swift representative explained.

The swift move to e-commerce paid off for the brand, seeing incremental sales since their onboarding just two months ago. From struggling to break into the awareness of the younger millennial and Gen Z market, the brand found their sweet spot through their quick pivot to adjust to the current situation. 

NutriAsia: Filipino favorite from groceries to your online cart

Starting out in 1990, NutriAsia has grown from a small manufacturer of ketchup, soy sauce, and fish sauce to the successful giant it is today. Their brands have become signature staples in every Filipino pantry, including Datu Puti, Silver Swan, UFC, Mang Tomas, and Golden Fiesta. 

NutriAsia consistently observes top-of-mind awareness with their consumers – whether it is in big supermarkets or small sari-sari stores, their products are a constant feature that Filipinos always have stocked up for home cooking. 

Being a successful heritage brand, NutriAsia didn’t want to rest on their laurels. Prior to the pandemic, they were already taking baby steps in entering the e-commerce space, onboarding on LazMart in November 2019. As the COVID-19 situation progressed, this meant having to expedite plans to further expand their presence on digital channels. 

“Prior to the COVID-19 situation, we were enjoying more than 95% distribution across all offline retail channels. We were hesitant to pivot to e-commerce at first since our core categories – soy sauce and vinegar – were experiencing healthy sales offline. We didn’t know if Filipinos were willing to purchase these items online because they can easily get these in their local neighborhood stores,” said Maybelle So, NutriAsia E-commerce Manager.  

Ramping up their e-commerce footprint, NutriAsia put up their flagship store on LazMall last May. Since the onboarding, they saw their sales grow month-on-month, triggered by the quarantine measures and the changes in consumer’s shopping and consumption behavior. 

“We saw our consumers purchase larger amounts of products online, as more and more families stayed and cooked their meals at home. Our essentials category saw a significant amount of sales since we opened our LazMall store,” said the e-commerce manager. 

Even in their infancy stage in the e-commerce space, NutriAsia saw a big opportunity to sustain its market leadership even in the midst of the pandemic. 

“We were conservative about strengthening our e-commerce presence at first as we didn’t know if our market would respond well. But even with these promising results seen in a short amount of time, we are continuously exploring and learning how to further cement our brand on this new and exciting channel,” Maybelle concluded.

As these established brands are already known and loved by Filipino consumers, the e-commerce space is a totally new ballgame for both NutriAsia and Swift. But in order to remain relevant for more years to come, they knew that they had to quickly innovate and keep pushing out new ways to reach their consumers of all demographics in every part of the country. 

“The lockdowns have changed shopping behavior in a big way, especially for our frozen processed meat category. We anticipate e-commerce to play an even larger part in our business at Swift, seeing that more people prefer the ease and convenience it provides.” Nikki Dizon reiterated, “We want to sustain our competitive edge by continuing to be present in different channels for shoppers, winning every demographic, and catering to when and how they want to purchase their products.”

On NutriAsia’s end, Maybelle So said, “While our offline presence is already strong, we are still concentrated on amplifying and strengthening our presence on digital channels. We’re continually testing and learning new ways on how to further expand our reach and target new customers to patronize our brands. We want our consumers to find us on any channel, whether at the supermarket or on our virtual stores.”

“We are continually growing the roster of brands Filipinos know and love on Lazada. We’re glad to be a trusted partner that helps these Filipino heritage brands bring their products safely and conveniently to consumers’ doorsteps. It is an exciting time for businesses and brands to make their mark on eCommerce, and we’re happy to be part of their journey,” said Carlos Barrera, Lazada Philippines Chief Operating Officer. 

Shop and support your favorite Filipino local brands like NutriAsia and Swift products on Lazada’s 8.8 Bounce Back Sale from August 6-8 at https://www.lazada.com.ph/shop/nutriasia/ and https://www.lazada.com.ph/swift/. – Rappler.com

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