By Ehda M. Dagooc (The Freeman) Updated December 31, 2011 12:00 AM
CEBU, Philippines - Consumers will expect more sophisticated products, affordable yet good items, and wider array of choices across consumer product lines, as more shopping malls, boutiques, and branded names will be opened in Cebu in 2012.
The upbeat retail sector in Cebu in the last few years, will be further sustained in the “Year of the Dragon,” as purchasing power of Filipinos, specifically Cebuanos is on the rise, boosted by the active tourism, real estate, BPO sectors and other industry investments.
“Now more than ever, retailers are preparing their innovative programs in order to compete. This will benefit the consumers, as bringing down the prices to competitive levels is one of the priorities of retailers while competition is in its hottest,” said Philippine Retailers Association (PRA-Cebu) incoming chairperson Melanie C. Ng.
Interestingly, the strong usage of social networking among Filipinos is expected to beef up the growth figure of the retail industry in 2012, as this phenomenon pushes people to frequently buy new things, as well as update travel plans.
Retailer Jay Jonathan P. Aldeguer said that the advent of social networking has changed the movement of retail and travel businesses, while vacation plans now are not dictated by season, but depends on the availability of airlines’ low fares, prompted largely by also updating people’s networking pages through new photos, especially on Facebook.
Buying new gadgets, apparel, trying new restaurants, among others also pushed Filipinos, for the sake of showing off to friends within their network.
According to Aldeguer, this trend is based on a study recently conducted, indicating the strong impact of social networking to retail and travel in both domestic and international destinations.
“Because what you do is now being published in social networking sites, this encouraged people to keep on updating their gadgets, apparels, as well as travels,” said Aldeguer.
Aldeguer, whose company owns apparel retail and travel firm the Islands Group, said that impact of social network to these businesses have helped these industries achieve good performance, amid the unpredictable economic situation.
Also, Aldeguer mentioned that the advent of social networking such as Facebook, and the existence of Bloggers in the Internet, have made a significant impact on influencing consumers’ attitude.
People are so trusting—even on strangers. Bloggers whom people do not know of even can generate impact on consumers.
“Reactions now are so fast. Everybody knows instantly about what’s new, what’s not to try, or must try product and services,” he said adding that these among other factors that affect the choices of consumers have to be dealt with seriously by retail players.
“The world is changing. So with the retail game,” said Aldeguer, who company owns the chain of Island Souvenir Shops in the Philippines, and other tourism-related businesses.
Although, retail and travel have stayed dynamic in the fragile economic state, players are also encouraged to look at another dimension of challenges, where competition is tougher, and consumers’ attitude is too complicated.
The improving market confidence and the growing capacity of purchasing power of Cebuanos have fueled the promising outlook of retail sector in Cebu, Ng said.
Past PRA national chairman Bernie Lie said that 2012 is a different and more exciting year for the local retail sector, while players are now challenged to be at par with the international retailers in terms of providing quality product, superb customer service, while still enjoying good business.
“We are optimistic about 2012. The government has already announced to pump-prime the economy, the more that people will have capacity to buy,” said Liu who owns the Golden ABC Inc., the company that operates several power-brands in the apparel sector, like Penshoppe, For Me, Regatta, among others.
Unlike in the past, that consumers were only limited to what they can see on display in the physical stores, now competition already includes the existence of online market, said Aldeguer.
While purchasing power is strong, and consumers are active, retailers on the other should not be complacent, but urged to always keep their “hands and eyes” in the business all-the-time.
Malls will be sprouting within Metro Cebu area within the year, following the recent opening of the J Centre Mall in Mandaue City, SM chain is set to open its north-based shopping mall in Consolacion within the year.
Also, Ayala Center Cebu, will start its P2 billion mall expansion in the first quarter of 2012. The opening of the Ayala Center expansion which is set to complete before the end of 2013, will house signature brands like Louis Vuitton and other luxury names. (FREEMAN)
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