Tag: Sari-sari store

Manila, Philippines – Philippine-based data analytics platform Packworks has officially launched its business intelligence tool ‘Sari IQ’, which provides data analytics on the behaviour and spending habits of consumers who buy their needs in traditional ‘mom-and-pop stores’, known locally as ‘sari-sari’ stores.

The platform launch was announced by Ibba Bernardo, Packworks’ co-founder and chief marketing officer, at the IMMAP DigiCon Valley 2022 held virtually on October 11, 2022.

The Sari IQ dashboard provides real-time and historic information on consumer spending and can be configured to develop an analysis for product types sold in small retail formats. It gives retailers and multinational brands complete visibility into sari-sari stores’ operations, allowing them to extend their slow-moving products and services to a wider pool of customers. Analysis through the platform also helps them come up with data-driven decisions to increase sales of sari-sari store owners by understanding and predicting consumer demand within their area.

Moreover, the platform tracks information from Packworks’ broad network of almost 200,000 sari-sari stores nationwide that use its super app called ‘Super Sari Store’.

“Sari IQ is the trusted, go-to partner for sari-sari stores that empowers businesses to be on top of their brand’s performance and make data-driven decisions every day,” said Andres Montiel, Packworks’ chief data officer.

In Packworks’ latest study, Sari IQ showed that Filipinos tend to care more about their hygiene than their empty stomach as they prioritise buying self-care products such as hair shampoo and conditioner in sari-sari stores located in areas previously battered by natural calamities.

Manila, Philippines – GrowSari, a local B2B platform in the Philippines aimed at serving sari-sari stores or local mom-and-pop stores in the country, has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with global investment firm KKR where KKR will be investing US$45m to GrowSari to support its national expansion, as well as strengthen its financial service capabilities.

At present, GrowSari is present in 220 municipalities across the regions of Luzon and offers over a hundred types of different services including making bill payments, telco reloads, and wallet top-ups, as well as procurement services for common retail goods and pharmaceutical medicines.

According to Reymund ‘ER’ Rollan, CEO and co-founder of GrowSari, as they are accelerating their presence nationally to more municipalities and cities in the Philippines, the investments will be focused towards expanding in Visayas and Mindanao this 2022. He added that this will bring them a step closer to their mission of creating a positive socio-economic impact to the lives of more MSME owners and the communities they serve.

“In addition, we are doubling down on our capabilities to improve the overall customer experience and look to expand our ability to provide sari-sari stores access to credit and basic financial services, which is a key pain point for MSMEs who have limited access. The industry, operational and financial expertise and network of KKR will be a great complement to the passion, dedication and strong culture of excellence that GrowSari has built over the year,” Rollan said.

Meanwhile, Louis Casey, growth technology lead in Southeast Asia at KKR, added, “GrowSari is aligned with one of our core technology investment themes in Southeast Asia, which is supporting MSMEs with software and financial services. Reymund and the team at GrowSari are excellent operators who have built an impressive flywheel that is powered by a number of proprietary applications. They have also built a very efficient and repeatable go-to-market motion that is underpinning their impressive growth. We look to leverage our global experience, regional connectivity and flexible capital to help GrowSari achieve its ambitious growth objectives.”

Prior to KKR’s investment, GrowSari had raised funding from global financial and strategic investors, including Temasek-affiliated Pavilion Capital, Tencent, the International Finance Corporation, the Gongkowei family-controlled JG Summit, Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., Wavemaker Partners, Saison Capital, and the Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines.

Manila, Philippines – Growsari, a first-of-its-kind e-commerce enabler for the Filipino ‘sari-sari store’ or the mom-and-pop neighborhood stores spread all over the region, has just announced its expanded presence across the Luzon region, aimed at serving 100,000 sari-sari store owners to maximize earnings and get access to best prices. 

‘Sari-sari stores’, which are hyper-proximal stores of sundries situated in the country’s neighborhoods, have been an economical staple in the Philippines. As such, they are considered the backbone of the country’s retail. 

The expansion follows Growsari’s concluded Series B funding in June this year, where it has secured more than US$30m in funding. 

The Growsari app enables sari-sari store owners to quickly order goods, while also providing essential services such as microfinancing support and assistance, and other e-services including telco, bills payment, and remittances.

With the expansion widening its presence to 100 municipalities across Luzon, Growsari aims to add more in the months to come. Among the new provinces where Growsari will now be available are Batangas, Bulacan, La Union and Camarines Norte and Sur in the Bicol region. Growsari expects to cater to almost 220 municipalities across Luzon by the end of the year.

ER Rollan, Growsari’s CEO and co-founder, shared that with their fresh funds, they aim to more than double GrowSari’s existing coverage and service more than 100,000 mom-and-pop-up stores by the end of 2021.

“This will also help us broaden our supplier marketplace with new third-party partners and scale our financial service pilots,” said Rollan.

Manila, Philippines – GrowSari, a local-born business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce enabler, has recently concluded its Series B funding, where it has collected more than US$30m in funding, which will be used to expand its services across clients nationwide.

Said funding was led by Gokongwei-led listed Philippine retailer Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) and JG Digital Equity Ventures, as well as Wavemaker Partners. Other participants included Pavilion Capital, a Singapore-based investment company focused on Southeast Asian and North Asian economies Tencent, China’s leading technology company, International Finance Corporation (IFC) a member of the World Bank Group, ICCP SBI Venture Partners, and Singapore-based growth fund Saison Capital.

GrowSari is a tech-enabled B2B platform that outfits Philippine sari-sari store owners with inventory, infrastructure, and tools to manage and grow their business while generating crucial data and market insights for manufacturers and distributors. 

For context, sari-sari stores in the Philippines are generally defined as mom-and-pop neighborhood stores in the country, and are considered the backbone of the local economy in their respective communities.

There has always been a great significance and dependence to sari-sari stores in the country, as around 84% of Filipinos purchase essential goods at the over 1.1 million stores across the country, with 60% of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) shopper spending happening in such stores. These sari-sari stores are hyper-proximal, with 90% of consumers having a store less than 100 meters away from their home. On average, consumers transact twice a day from their nearest sari-sari stores.

GrowSari primarily aims to tap into the sari-sari store’s potential to be the biggest and most accessible distribution channel in the Philippines by driving efficiencies in route planning while collecting valuable insights on store behavior. 

Through its app, sari-sari stores can double their earnings through access to better pricing for more than a thousand of fast moving sari-sari store stock keeping units (SKUs) from the largest brands across all the major FMCG categories. This is in addition to microfinancing support and assistance, and multiple e-services including telco, bills payment and remittance. 

This objective is supported by its co-founder, ER Rollan, who states that the company aims to empower and significantly increase the earnings of sari-sari stores in the Philippines by providing direct access to a wide assortment of affordable products, e-businesses, and financial assistance.

“With the fresh funds, we aim to more than double GrowSari’s existing coverage and service more than 300,000 sari-sari stores, including those in Visayas and Mindanao. This will also help us broaden our supplier marketplace with new third-party partners and scale our financial service pilots,” Rollan said.

Meanwhile, Siddhartha Kongara, CTO at GrowSari, commented, “Through GrowSari, we want to use proprietary technology to accelerate financial health for Filipino sari-sari store owners, helping them to use, protect, and grow their business in the long run and transforming sari-sari stores into comprehensive service hubs for the Philippines’ grassroots communities.”