Enjoy an Al Fresco Dining Experience with Your Bike Buddies at Market! Market!’s Stop Bite

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Park your bike, grab a snack, and satisfy your cravings safely and conveniently!

Manila, Philippines - Market! Market! has just made dining out extra convenient for cyclists. The mall recently took the initiative to install bike racks at its al fresco Central Plaza Bite area, creating a new Stop Bite dining space specially designed for bike riders. These innovative bike racks are fitted with tabletops, allowing cyclists to simply park and eat within the same space, instead of leaving their bikes at a separate parking space away from the dining area.

Mall-goers can choose from a variety of restaurants around Market! Market!’s Central Plaza Bite dining area for their dine-in or takeaway orders. The al fresco space is an ideal place for everyone to indulge in a quick meal or snack, with outdoor seating said to be a safer option for those who wish to satisfy their food cravings.

Now, through Stop Bite, Market! Market! becomes a great dining destination for bike riders in the city as well. This comes at the perfect time, with more Metro Manila residents now enjoying cycling as a form of exercise, a fun recreational activity, and a safe and convenient way to get around amid the ongoing pandemic.

Biking enthusiasts around the city are all welcome to enjoy a safe and convenient al fresco dining experience at Market! Market!’s Stop Bite, together with their fellow cyclists, families, and friends!

For more information on mall activities, schedules, and promotions at #iLoveMarketMarket, like and follow Facebook.com/MarketMarket, @ilovemarketmarket on Instagram and TikTok, and @MarketMarketBGC on Twitter. You may also visit www.ayalamalls.com.

International forum lauds GCash grassroots programs for millions of Filipinos

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GCash, the Philippines’ undisputed no.1 mobile wallet app, provided the bright spot for Southeast Asia at this year’s Qatar Economic Forum, an international gathering of global business leaders, heads of state and policy innovators coming together to look forward as the world emerges from the economic shock created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The country’s leading mobile e-wallet elicited positive reactions for its strategic programs to provide financial access and solutions for all Filipinos, especially for the “unbanked” sectors, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

During the virtual roundtable discussion entitled “Virtual Money: Reshaping Post-Pandemic Payment Technologies”, GCash president and chief executive officer Martha Sazon shared the exponential growth of GCash during the pandemic which is swiftly making the vision of financial inclusion a reality for Filipinos. Sazon highlighted that in January 2020, GCash had only 20 million users and this number ballooned to 40 million in April 2021, with users accessing the GCash app at least twice a day. She explained that wide access to GCash “encourages velocity of the movement of money and diversification of the use of cash. Because every transaction is just a tap away using GCash, it accelerates financial literacy. Filipinos are now more actively involved in decision making and in managing their finances.”

Sazon also highlighted how GCash opens up opportunities for merchants and small enterprises as the app now has 2.2 million merchants and social sellers as active users. Citing an example to drive home her point, Sazon shared her experience at the beach where fisherfolks were trying to sell her their catch of the day but after saying she does not have cash on hand, the fisherfolk offered to accept payment using GCash.

“It’s so heartwarming to see that we now have fisherfolks using e-wallet and subscribing to various financial services,” shared Sazon. “Because of that, opportunities have opened up for the “unbanked” like the wet market vendors and tricycle drivers. They are now more financially involved, so GCash’s vision of financial inclusion is slowly becoming a reality.”

To help keep the economy going and support various businesses when the country imposed strict lockdown restrictions, GCash introduced a number of innovative financial services and products, including the QR on Demand: a new and better way to send and receive money in place of giving their GCash number for safe and hassle-free payments ─ whether it’s for personal use or for small businesses.

Within the app, users can find GLife where they can access their favorite apps without needing to download them separately. In financial services, there’s GInvest, an easy investment feature, GInsure for insurance, GSave, an online savings bank, and GCredit, a personal credit line with up to P30,000 credit line.

With the app’s host of products and services, Filipinos now have easy access to money transfers and purchasing essentials, enabling merchant cashless payment options. It has also become the platform of choice to help other people through donations or government aid, and kickstart Filipinos’ journey towards availing of financial services.

“It is important to note that the Philippines is a vastly different market from the rest of Asia. We aren’t China with more banked users already. With a diverse set of cultures, anyone trying to make it in the Philippines must have an appreciation of the country’s uniqueness -- both in its gems and challenges,” said Sazon.

Joining Sazon in the discussion on virtual money were Jemery Allaire, co-founder of global financial technology firm Circle, Ran Goldi, CEO of First Digital, Jan Pilbauer, CEO of BankservAfrica, Dax Grant, CIO of HSBC and Salvador Perez-Galindo, VP for Govt Affairs of Visa. The session was moderated by Julie Chariell, Senior Analyst for Fintech and Payments of Bloomberg Intelligence. This year’s Qatar Economic Forum brought together over 100 world heads of state, diplomats, academic, business and economic leaders.

Shopee Mall Launches Brand Memberships Program to Help Brands Grow Customer Loyalty and Retention

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MANILA, JULY 2, 2021 – In conjunction with the 7.7 Mid-Year Sale, Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, officially launches the Shopee Mall Brand Memberships program to help brands capture more growth online. It is a new customer management and retention tool that will enable brands on Shopee Mall to build deeper connections with potential and existing customers, converting them into valuable lifetime customers. The tool has been rolled out across seven markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

As more people shop online, e-commerce platforms are increasingly becoming a key channel for brand-building in the entire customer journey. Over the years, Shopee Mall has grown steadily to become the region’s leading online mall featuring over 25,000 international and local brands across the region. More shoppers are also turning to Shopee Mall to shop for their favorite brands, with the daily average searches for brand names doubling in the past year.  

Martin Yu, Director at Shopee Philippines, said, “With consumers now spending a larger part of their shopping journey online, we want to empower brands with more ways to capture their customers at every touchpoint. Hence, we are proud to launch this program that will not only support our brand partners in achieving more sustainable growth by driving conversion and higher spending, but also deliver greater value to shoppers. We have already seen how brand members tend to spend twice as much per order compared to non-members, demonstrating the effectiveness of this tool in building greater brand affinity in the long-term.”

Improving customer management and retention

The Shopee Mall Brand Memberships is designed to give brands more control in cultivating their customer relationships on Shopee, similar to the way they oversee their own loyalty programs. This in turn helps to drive more conversion and repeat purchases for brands online.  

For instance, brands can customize their own membership program for shoppers, including the welcome gift, number of membership tiers, and brand loyalty points awarded to members for every purchase. Members can accumulate and redeem these loyalty points for exclusive benefits such as upsized vouchers and gifts with purchases. Shopee Mall Brand Memberships vouchers can also be stacked with other Shopee vouchers, thus unlocking even more savings, helping to promote further sales for brands. 

In addition to customer retention, Shopee Mall Brand Memberships also provides brands with an effective way to identify and manage different customer segments through an understanding of their profile, purchasing habits, and preferences. With deeper insights, brands can create more personalized experiences over time and run more effective retargeting campaigns in the future.  

In the future, Shopee will be progressively rolling out a pipeline of new features to enhance the membership program. This includes creating a more seamless shopping experience through omnichannel integration, where brands can integrate their offline and online CRM systems and loyalty programs with Shopee Mall Brand Memberships. 

Brands see positive outcomes 

Leading food company, Danone, took part in the Shopee Mall Brand Memberships soft launch earlier this year for three of their Specialized Nutrition brands in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, and saw an average increase of 15% in repeat buyers since launching in April. 

Deborah Chong, Head of ECommerce, Danone Specialized Nutrition Global, said, “We were really pleased with the performance in terms of new buyer sign-ups and order uplifts. Aligned with our One Planet One Health vision, our focus has been to contribute to the health of the planet and people by inspiring healthier food choices. Reaching more consumers enables us to educate and encourage them to choose healthier products. This is a wonderful initiative by Shopee as it gives us the ability to better understand new and existing customers on the platform, which will help us build stronger relationships with them in the long run. We look forward to partnering with Shopee on more initiatives to enhance the consumer journey from end to end.” 

Grand launch at  7.7 Shopee Mid-Year Sale 

The Shopee Mall Brand Memberships Grand Launch campaign has officially started, and brands can leverage the increased traffic and media buzz throughout 7.7, the biggest mid-year sale, to maximize sign-ups. Over 200 brands on Shopee Mall across popular categories will be participating in the Grand Launch, with many more brands joining the program down the line. They will offer attractive launch perks such as new registration bonus points, upsized vouchers, and exclusive welcome gifts. The Brand Memberships program can be easily accessed by each user under the ‘Shopee Loyalty’ tab.   

To know more about Shopee Mall Brand Memberships, visit https://shopee.ph/m/brand-membership. Download Shopee for free on App Store or Google Play Store. Check out with ShopeePay to enjoy more great deals on Shopee.

WWF-Philippines, Cisco Systems make pitch for food security in Northern Palawan amid pandemic

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A farmer plants rice in a field on the island municipality of Dumaran, Northern Palawan. WWF-Philippines and WWF-Singapore are pushing for food security for Dumaran. Photograph © Alo Lantin / WWF-Philippines

Philippines – In a bid for sustainable food security, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines, with the help of Cisco Systems, has committed to the construction of food sheds in rural communities in Northern Palawan.

The project comes in response to livelihood disruptions caused by the pandemic. With lockdown restrictions making travel between towns difficult, many farmers and fishers have had difficulty selling their produce. Regional tourism has also plummeted, pushing coastal communities once reliant on visiting tourists further into poverty.

Loss of livelihood and rising poverty has also placed additional pressure on natural resources, as ailing communities increasingly turn to fishing to meet their daily needs.

To counteract this, WWF-Philippines will oversee the construction of food sheds in twenty communities across the island of Dumaran. A third-class municipality in Northeastern Palawan, Dumaran is separated from the mainland by a thin stretch of water – and in turn has suffered resource shortages throughout the pandemic.

“What they need is a way to grow their own food in the absence of stable livelihoods. With a food shed, you can grow healthy food for less land, with less of an impact to the environment. Food sheds offer a very good, very stable supplement to their current food production methods,” added WWF-Philippines Project Manager Monci Hinay.

Hinay has overseen the construction of food sheds in farming communities across the country. Through the Sustainable Food Systems program, he and his team have promoted sustainable livelihoods and food securities in towns struggling with sparse resources.

The food sheds slated for construction in Dumaran are a combination of low-tech, low-cost gardening innovations that are easily replicable in rural communities. Made of bamboo poles and recycled plastics, the food sheds combine container gardening and hydroponics systems in a multi-level food production system that can handle both poultry and a wide variety of crops.

Each food shed also lowers environmental pressure from fishing communities. With a sustainable supply of fresh produce growing in each food shed, their reliance on fisheries decreases, granting fish stocks room to grow.

Home to endangered species like the Philippine Cockatoo and the Philippine Pangolin, Dumaran is a biodiversity hotspot and an important site for conservationists. Dumaran and the neighboring Araceli are part of a group of six municipalities that comprise the Northeast Palawan Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network, a system of connected MPAs established by WWF-Philippines for the conservation of the regions’ marine resources.

“We’re looking at a win-win scenario, both for these communities and for the environment. People need to eat. The environment needs room to recover. With these food sheds, both is possible,” said Hinay.

A fisher checks on his nets off the coast of Araceli, Dumaran. The communities of Dumaran rely on their fisheries for livelihood, but pandemic restrictions have made it difficult for them to sell their produce. Photograph © Alo Lantin / WWF-Philippines

Dumaran fishers gather shells along the beach as fishing boats pass behind them. The food sheds to be constructed by the WWF Network will help address food security, while granting communities an alternate source of livelihood for the pandemic and beyond. Photograph © Alo Lantin / WWF-Philippines

Alex Eala victorious in singles and doubles action of J1 Roehampton in London

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Alex Eala’s build-up towards Wimbledon is off to a roaring start as the Filipina tennis star beat Darja Vidmanova of Czech Republic in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, in the J1 Roehampton tournament on Thursday morning (Philippine time) in London.

The 16-year old tennis sensation and long-time Globe ambassador is looking to conquer Wimbledon and win her third grand slam tournament in her young but decorated career. But first, she is looking to gain some more experience playing on grass and is using this International Tennis Federation (ITF) Grade 1 tournament to further sharpen her skills heading to the 2021 Wimbledon tournament, which starts on Monday, July 5, 2021.

The no. 3 ranked juniors player in the world had no trouble disposing of the 18-year old Vidmanova, who is currently ranked no. 35 in the ITF juniors rankings.

Eala’s next opponent will be Matilde Paoletti of Italy.

Meanwhile, Eala was also victorious in the doubles tournament as she and 18-year old Indonesian Priska Madelyn Nugroho slipped past Nicole Rivkin of Germany and Hanne Vandewinkel of Belgium, 7-6, 7-5. The Eala-Nugroho tandem has had tremendous success in the past, winning the Australian Open girls’ doubles title back in 2020.

Eala and Nugroho’s opponent in the next round will be the pair of Barbora Palicova of the Czech Republic and Radka Zelnickova of Slovakia.