Cebu retailers to ride online marketing trend
WITH the popularity of online marketing and shopping, Cebu retailers are seting up new systems to take advantage of the trend and maximize technology.
The Philippine Retailers Association Cebu chapter is looking into trends like these to prepare members to be more competitive, said Chester Lim, PRA Cebu chapter vice president and this year’s PRA Regional Conference and Expo chairman during a press briefing.
Lim said the group will bring in experts to talk on varied topics during the one-day conference today at Radisson Blu Hotel. An expo at the SM Trade Hall will run until June 24, Sunday.
Janette Toral of Digital Filipino will talk about retail plus the social media.
Dennis Guiling of IBM will talk about social media and social selling.
A panel discussion will follow about how to create a winning social media marketing strategy.
Wilson Ng of Ng Khai Development Corp. will moderate the discussion.
The conference has 200 participants from the region, Lim said.
“We carefully selected the topics based on their relevance to the current trend. We want our members to know more about online marketing and online shopping as a growing trend,” he said.
Lim cited Cebu Belmont Inc. as one store which launched its online shop last December.
“While the sales that we get from the online shop is not yet big, we see it growing every month especially when we use social networking sites like Facebook,” said Lim.
At present, Cebu Belmont Inc.’s online shop offers about 9,000 items for sale.
Other retailers such as Junrex Cellphones and Leonas Bakeshop are still studying how to sell their products online.
One challenge that retailers see ahead is the need for clear government policies and regulations on online marketing and selling in order to protect customers and retailers from online fraud.
“Our government is very reactive and we still don’t have a clear-cut policy in this area, but the trend is already there. We hope we can get them to also look into this,” Lim said.
“We’ll have the Department of Trade and Industry there to talk about what they are doing.”
This year’s expo participants include e-commerce brands, digital marketing companies, financial institutions, furniture companies, traders, and retail solutions.
Other conference topics are sustainable green design for retail spaces, coping with market challenges, integrated retail and business intelligence, the value of music in retail business, market research as new tool for marketing, and green spot technology.
