Singapore – A recent study from Shopify, a global commerce firm, found that 80% of Filipinos consider free shipping among the “must-have” features when making purchases from online stores or retailers.
In the report, it was further observed that use of mobile shops for online shopping (46%) and free returns (45%) is also among their top considerations.
66% of Filipinos, on the other hand, expressed that having attentive staff is the most essential requirement for in-store shopping.
Additionally, the report highlighted that a significant 57% of respondents emphasised the need for sufficient stock of their desired items, while 52% mentioned that attentive service is crucial.
“Experiences in the store are really changing rapidly because, you and I, when we walk into a store today, we pop out a marketplace and read the catalogue in detail before we decide what to buy. We’re not really relying on the salesman to tell us all the details, like we used to 10 years back,” said Bjarati Balakrishnan, country head and director for Southeast Asia and India at Shopify.
Balakrishnan further elaborated, “Invest in unified commerce, but please get your basics right before you enter the world of augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. Let’s get catalogue and content assortment, inventory, pricing, and promotions right.”
“I definitely think mainly the present is omnichannel. How it evolves into being more unified, more driven by technology, more driven by a unified experience for customers, so they feel, no matter where they want to buy you, they can find you, is really what the future is,” she added.
