⌛ Buying online in the Philippines

In Belgium, a small country with 10 million people, almost everything you can buy online. Electronics, clothes, travel up to daily grosseries delivered on your doorstep the same day.
Is there any facility besides of the two airlines (with a system that doesn't work) that is catering for this huge marked?
Or is this a business opportunity for the future?

 

i have been pondering this issue as well and came to the conclusion that it is (lets call it lack of transparency about importation levies by customs) and all the effort that is involved in this process

 

It is far bigger than that. There is good news and bad. When online purchases work, they do so splendidly. When they don't they really don't!

I reserve hotel rooms regularly in Manila and in Cebu. I have favourite places in both cities. Booking requests are acknowledged instantly and honoured when I arrive.

Some other businesses simply fail to involve themselves or do not care. As a quick instance, Superferry comes to mind. Here, try it for yourself:

SuperFerry - Aboitiz Transport System Corporation

WARNING

You'll be immediately annoyed and, if like me, offended by the very jarring and eternally repetitive jingle. Oh yes, you can turn it off - top right.

You can work your way through all of the fields to book a voyage and give away all of your personal data. In the end, the website will not work! I have written to them. Nothing! Zip! Nada! Now I book my less frequent travel by ferry through a pleasant young woman in a tiny stand opposite the city market.

My attempts to book a hotel room in Ilo Ilo have had an equal result: ZERO! ZERO! As a result, that city has dropped to the bottom of my list of places to visit. I'll try again this autumn and let you know.

I really appreciate when a firm or business honestly tries. In the last few days, I have booked accommodation at a B & B type establishment in Silay. I prefer that lovely small city to Bacolod, This family establishment has gone to the expense of building and opening a website. Here, look:

kumfyhomestead

Their problem is an E-mail address which doesn't work. The people go the extra mile to assist. My text message was responded to by a family member in Australia!

Generally my attempts to order goods (as opposed to services) have been international ones. I've had no problems. Where international firms are represented in the Philippines, URLs are unattended or unresponsive. I have not yet ordered goods in the Philippines.

This situation is a real loss for Philippine businesses. There are technical issues but mainly it is a question of attitude.

 

There are companies who are attempting to build e-commerce businesses in the Philippines: eBay.com.ph, several online classified sites, etc. The greatest hindrance to e-commerce here is the dearth of payment facilities. Most consumers (and even merchants) don't have the ability to make or accept electronic payments. Paypal only added Philippine banks last year and many consumers don't have credit/debit cards, plus merchant accounts are difficult/expensive here due to fraud...many processors simply will not accept online payments originating from a Philippine IP due to excessive credit card fraud and a lack of prosecution of said crimes in the Philippines.

Most Philippine firms that are currently conducting online business require you to deposit cash into one of their bank accounts, then fax or email them a copy of the deposit slip which they verify and then will ship the goods. Needless to say, this is not a very convenient method of conducting business, plus consumers often get stuck paying bank fees for depositing cash at a branch bank that is not the merchant's "home" branch.

 

The GURU has hit the nail on the head.

The acceptance of fraud and corruption as societal norms will ensure that the Philippines is left behind what it is otherwise capable of achieving in the business world.

In the developed world, the acceptance of bank and credit card charges by vendors of goods and services is expected as a cost of doing business and demanded by the consuming public.

 

You are certainly a dreamer

Waaaaayyyyyyy in the future. Right now you could not trust the PI postal system to deliver anything more than a post card. Don't see how you could possibly contain delivery/courior costs in the provinces.