A look back at Philippine e-commerce 2017

In 2017, Philippine Government’s Initiative “The Philippine Roadmap for the Digital Start-ups” launched incubator and accelerator programs: AIM-Dado Banatao Incubator, Startup Village, Voyager Innovations, Google Launchpad Accelerator; the passing of the senate bills: The Innovative Startup Bill, Philippine Innovation Act and the development of event management pioneering TechTonic. It’s also in this pivotal year, that the country had its first unicorn in Robbie Antonio’s Revolution Precrafted.At large, Southeast Asia’s internet economy has grown exponentially; recent findings from Google and Temasek 2017 study indicate that the SEA internet economy has reached $50 Billion surpassing its initial growth expectations by 35%. While online travel remains the biggest segment in terms of internet-based spending, eCommerce segment leaps from 5.5 Billion in 2015 to 7.9 Billion in 2017. By 2025, eCommerce is projected to hit $88.1 Billion to become the most valuable segment in the SEA internet economy.With the eCommerce exciting growth in Southeast Asia, iPrice Group analysed the online performance of top eCommerce players using the following metrices: Google Search Interest, iOS, Google Play Mobile Shopping Application Ranking, and Facebook popularity. Based on our findings in the Philippine market, Lazada dominated in all verticals while Shopee emerged as the fastest growing eCommerce. Despite the lead of international players, Beauty MNL entered the top five iOS and Google Play mobile shopping eCommerce apps while Kimstore is the second most popular Facebook eCommerce Page and most searched local player.The Most Searched eCommerce In The Philippines For 2017 In Q1 2017, the Alibaba-backed Lazada hit a record high 91% in Philippine eCommerce market share. To date, Lazada has the highest eCommerce search interest penetration with an utmost 42% search interest lead from Shopee, Zalora, ebay, and Kimstore respectively. In terms of investments, Lazada showed no sign of slowing down with its logistics infrastructure expansion and investment in Globe Telecom’s arm Mynt to develop the mobile payment system.Despite the streak lead of Lazada in the Philippine eCommerce, SEA ltd’s Shopee quickly grew and overtook Zalora in second place by the end of July, the same month it celebrated its founding anniversary. One of the all-time highs of Shopee was during the launch of its first mega sale, “9.9” campaign last September which coincided with SEA ltd filing of 1 billion-dollar IPO. JG Summit, a Gokongwei-led Philippine retail conglomerate, placed a stake in Shopee in its $550 funding which will be leveraged for the growth of its platform, especially for its key markets.Ayala Group entered the internet marketplace through their investment in Zalora to increase its partner stores’ leverage in ecommerce. Zalora on the other hand gained access to Ayala’s technology for digital payments- Globe GCash. Meanwhile, the most searched local eCommerce, Kimstore, has been seized by the Bureau of Customs in Q1 for smuggling Php45M worth of gadgets but later managed to return into operations.The Most Popular Online Sale Periods For 2017With the success of Alibaba Group’s 11.11 Single’s Sale, which surpassed Black Friday and Cyber Monday since 2012, more eCommerce players in Southeast Asia have jumped into the bandwagon. In the Philippines, Lazada’s streak lead in Google search interest has been consistent all quarters. However, Lazada’s biggest leads came in during its campaign, “The Online Revolution,” which was adapted from the 11.11 Single’s Sale campaign but extending it with its own 12.12 Sale. Surprisingly, 12.12 Sale deems the most popular online sale for Lazada, even for its competitors Shopee and Zalora.Despite the regional success of Single’s Sale, the biggest hit online sale period happened during the mark of “sale season” or the holiday season which starts as early as September in the Philippines. Online migration during the holidays can be attributed to the worsening of traffic congestion during this season. Aside from Christmas events, one of the biggest online sales happened during the end of Q1 and the beginning of Q2, which can be attributed in the summer holiday and labour day in the country. The sale interest in these given months: March, April and May, are apparel and home appliances.The Top Mobile Shopping Apps For 2017Lazada leads the Google Play mobile shopping apps of 2017 for all quarters followed by Shopee. Meanwhile Shopee leads the iOS mobile shopping app for Q3 and Q4, ending Lazada’s first two quarter lead. The Lazada-Voyager Solutions partnership enabled consumers using Lazada mobile app to browse the platform without being charged for data consumption.  Lazada has been pushing mobile applications since more than 60% of their sale are from mobile devices.In Q2 Goods, a local m-commerce, jumped its ranking to 5th place replacing Sephora. By Q4, Beauty MNL another local m-commerce overtook ebay on the 4th spot dethroning Goods in the top five list.  Last December 2017, Robinsons Retail Holdings a Gokongwei retail arm of JG Summit Holdings, acquired 20% of Taste Central, the company operating Beauty MNL.The Most Popular eCommerce on FacebookAccording to Google and Temasek’s 2017 forecast, Southeast Asia is expected to increase its mobile internet usage of 3.6 hours per day by next year with the rising of smartphone users in the region. Hence, social commerce or sales driven by social media is expected to also increase in SEA over the coming years despite it being only 30 percent of total online sales in 2016. In the Philippines, Lazada has the most number of Facebook fans with more than 6.6 M likes, local eCommerce dominated the list- Kimstore, Goods and Eazy Fashion with 2.4 M, 1.3 M and 1.1 M likes respectively. While in third place, Zalora has 2.0 M likes.Methodology Most Searched eCommerce Utilizing Google Trends, the findings were collated by analysing search interest from 1 January 2017 until 16 December 2017 in the Philippines. The data were collated by comparing the search interest between the following keywords: ‘shopee', ‘lazada’, ‘ebay’, ‘kimstore’ and 'zalora'.Most Popular Mobile Shopping App The top mobile shopping applications in the Philippines were collated by averaging their rankings on a quarterly basis using App Annie's Google Play data and Apple Play Store data.Most Popular eCommerce on Facebook The data set was provided by Socialbakers.About iPrice Group iPrice Group is operating as a one-stop shop e-commerce aggregator across 7 markets in Southeast and East Asia with key feature in price comparison. Its meta-search feature collates e-commerce products: home and living, cosmetics, grooming, fashion and electronics while its key feature in price comparison specifically caters to electronics.