The SM Store and PayMaya lead retail industry transformation with cashless payments

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The SM Store and PayMaya Philippines are once again redefining the shopping experience in the Philippines with a new campaign to provide added convenience and delight to customers through a nationwide 10% rebate on all purchases made using PayMaya QR. 

Through PayMaya QR, shoppers at The SM Store can just open their PayMaya app, tap the “Scan” button, and point their phones at the special QR codes displayed at The SM Store’s Mobile Pay lanes to complete their transactions. PayMaya's cashless system has been made available since last December in all branches of The SM Store nationwide. 

To encourage more Filipinos to experience cashless convenience, PayMaya is offering an introductory promo where shoppers can get a 10% rebate (up to P100 per branch per day) on their purchases whenever they pay using PayMaya QR at all branches of The SM Store from January 15 to April 15, 2018. For every P1,000 spend, shoppers also get the chance to win an iPhone X. 

10% rebate on all PayMaya QR transactions plus more

“We are happy to have a new way to make shopping more convenient for our shoppers,” said The SM Store President Chelo C. Monasterio. “The retail landscape is changing, and The SM Store is proud to lead the way with partners like PayMaya.”

The SM Store and PayMaya stepped up their collaboration to revolutionize the shopping experience of Filipinos with PayMaya QR, formally launched at the Mega Fashion Hall, SM Megamall on January 17. Present during the event were PLDT, Smart, Voyager and PayMaya Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan (third from left); The SM Store President Chelo C. Monasterio (third from right); PayMaya President and CEO Orlando B. Vea (second from left); Smart Vice President for Wireless Key Accounts Development Precy Katigbak (second from right); SM Mart, Inc. Executive Vice President for Controllership Ricky A. Lim (rightmost); PayMaya COO and Managing Director Paolo Azzola (leftmost).

“More and more Filipinos are using cashless payments with PayMaya, and we're excited to work with like-minded companies such as SM in innovating on the retail shopping experience with the help of our payment technologies. With companies like SM taking the lead, we’ll see PayMaya QR in a lot more stores and establishments all around the country,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman at PLDT, Smart, Voyager, and PayMaya.

Easy payments, top-ups at The SM Store 

Be it the latest fashion items, toys, shoes or home products, Filipinos can now easily pay for all their shopping finds at The SM Store with just their phones with the help of PayMaya QR.

Getting a PayMaya account is easy. All they have to do is download the PayMaya app on the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, register for an account using any mobile number from a Philippine mobile network, load up their account in any of the more than 15,000 PayMaya load-up touchpoints nationwide, and use the “Scan” QR feature within the app to instantly pay for their purchases.

Paying with PayMaya is also made more convenient with load-up options at all SM Business Services inside The SM Store. Account holders can also load up their PayMaya accounts at 7-Eleven, ExpressPay, TouchPay kiosks, Palawan Pawnshops, Shopwise, Wellcome, 2Go outlets, Petron stations along NLEX, and Smart Padala centers, as well as through Unionbank ATMs and RCBC retail online banking.

"SM has been an early partner of PayMaya as a load-up center for our customers, as well as a valued partner of our Smart Padala remittance service. This is a natural progression of our collaboration as we make it easier for our customers to use their PayMaya accounts anywhere they are in the country. We thank our partners like SM for helping accelerate cashless adoption among consumers," said Orlando B. Vea, President and CEO at PayMaya Philippines.

Building a Cashless Philippines

PayMaya’s partnership with The SM Store for QR-based payments builds on its trailblazing initiative of building a “Cashless Philippines” in line with National Retail Payment System initiative led by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas that aims to increase the share of electronic transactions in the country by 20% in 2020. 

To support this vision, PayMaya has launched game-changing innovations including PayMaya QR. Various merchants are now equipped with the payments technology, including all Smart Stores nationwide, food parks like The Yard Timog, Pioneer Street Market, and Hue Hotel and Resorts and Station X in Boracay, as well as establishments such as Fairmont Makati and Army Navy, among many others.

Today, PayMaya is also the largest online and mobile acquirer in the Philippines, powering card payment acceptance of some of the biggest e-Commerce retailers in the country, including the likes of Lazada, Zalora, Philippine Airlines, and Cebu Pacific. Most recently, PayMaya has enabled McDonald's to accept card payments in its restaurants and online delivery card acceptance will also be available soon. 

PayMaya Philippines, the country’s pioneer and leader in cashless payments, is the digital financial services arm of PLDT’s Voyager Innovations. 

To know more about PayMaya’s products and services for consumers and businesses, visit www.paymaya.com.

Globe myBusiness helps SMEs become future proof

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Globe myBusiness has brought its valuable expertise and tried-and-tested products and solutions to the country’s favorite tourist destination, Boracay, to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) become future-proof.

Participants of the Globe myBusiness workshop for Boracay SMEs

The workshop, dubbed as Globe myBusiness Digital Tools to Future-Proof Your Business, centered on the most prominent industries currently flourishing in Boracay such as tourism, hotels and accommodations, restaurants and food establishments, and retail.

In the four-day event, entrepreneurs, managers and various other staff members from all over the island were able to pick up a wealth of knowledge that allowed them to better understand technology and what it can do for them.

Derrick Heng, Senior Advisor for Globe myBusiness said:  “Employing technology in business isn’t instantaneous. Rather, it’s a step-by-step process. It may take years for a business to fully maximize its digital potential, but the results are definitely worth the challenge.  Globe myBusiness is here to assist entrepreneurs every step of the way.”

As a first takeaway from the workshop, the participants learned about the importance of social media which is the simplest way to use technology for business.  Through social media, entrepreneurs can spread word about their business, get feedback, and contact their clients or customers in the blink of an eye.

“Digital marketing was the most important lesson for me, that you really need to make the most out of it through social media,” said Lourdes A. Ramirez of Secret Garden Boracay.

June Myrrh Dueñas and Dane Aldeguer of Isla Chicas Travel Consultancy added:  “We understand that everything’s online, and everything’s on mobile phones, and we need to be a part of everything that’s happening. We have to grow with the changes, with technology.”

At the same time, Globe myBusiness educated the participants about different business solutions that can help them sell online such as Shopify; boost efficiency through the Gsuite online suite of productivity tools that can be used anywhere and on any device; and advertise their business like the Adblast targeted texts to consumers, among others.

“The workshop was very helpful for me. The things discussed were added nutrients for what I need for my business, like customer advocacy, offline tools, online tools … they’re very helpful because I discovered what else I need in order to improve the business,” said Jeyna Azugi of Team Sir George Salon.

Digital technology, however, has to be embraced not only by the decision-makers but the whole team for it to make a bigger impact.

“We learned a lot that could help us with our future plans for the business. We are most interested in the concept of GCash. Our consideration now is how we’ll train our employees, because they’re already doing things a certain way, so it’ll be a [challenge] helping them adapt to technology,” said Flory Jhen and Flory Vhel Alvarez of Shinyou.

However, technology only emphasizes what business owners already know and live by, that it is quality that still gets the customer. Thus, technology has to work side by side with current sales, service and marketing strategies in order for it to work.

CES 2018: LG showcases OLED’s full capabilities

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At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), high-tech companies and manufacturers are given the opportunity to showcase their latest upcoming products and concepts, pushing the boundaries of bleeding edge technology. It's only fitting, then, that LG Electronics opted to show off some of the best-ever demonstrations of its flagship OLED technologies. 

For CES, LG wowed attendees with its OLED Canyon, a mesmerizing walkway that consists of over 246 LG Open Frame OLED displays. Audiences walked through the Canyon, which was 90 feet in length, flanked on both sides by hundreds of concave and convex displays showing brilliant natural imagery, ranging from waterfalls and caves to glaciers and seascapes. 

The rich, vibrant colors of the OLED screens contributed to an unparalleled sense of immersion that had audiences snapping photos at every turn. 

Another one of LG’s incredible showcases was a 65-inch rollable OLED display. While it's not the first time LG demonstrated the amazingly flexible properties of OLED panels - in 2016, LG demoed a bendy 18-inch prototype - it's the first time that the technology has been seen scaled up to the size of a typical large TV. When unrolled, the huge 4K display featured all the hallmarks of LG’s best OLED televisions, with incredible contrast and vivid colors, but at the touch of a button, it retracted into its base until it was completely out of sight, rolled up within. 

Other options included partly descending into the base, switching from a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio to a 21:9 ultrawide, allowing you to view movies shot at cinematic aspect ratios without any letterboxing. Another option caused the display to sink almost all the way into the base, revealing only a small strip that displayed updates, controls, and notifications. 

While these technologies represent visions of the future that may not be coming to your living room any time soon, LG had more up its sleeve for current customers in the form of the LG Signature OLED W8, its latest flagship TV. The W8 includes further enhancements to the display technology, along with a whole host of new features that highlight it as one of the best TVs you can buy. One feature is the integration of Google Assistant into the webOS Smart TV platform, allowing you to use intuitive voice commands to control the W8, search the Web, control IoT and smart home devices, and more. 

Another is the inclusion of a 4.2 Dolby Atmos soundbar that provides incredible sound to match any content that you can throw at it. The soundbar also serves as the input source for the TV, and connects to it via a stunningly thin cable. 

As other manufacturers enter the market with their own OLED models, LG’s pioneering efforts and technological leadership in the field are what allow it to stay on top. 

These and other demonstrations of LG’s OLED technology truly cement LG’s status as the No. 1 OLED brand.

To experience LG’s OLED technology for yourself, please visit LG dealer stores.

Jollibee’s new Pop-Out Pens make doodling more fun this New Year

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This 2018, jolly kids can kick off a new year with some fun and creativity with Jollibee’s new Jolly Kiddie Meal Pop-Out Pens.

Start the year right and let your kids show their imagination through some arts and crafts. There’s no better way to make doodling more fun than with these cute pens that come in five colorful designs featuring Jollibee, Popo, Yum, Hetty and Twirlie. 

Kids will surely be excited to click and draw with these adorable pens. They can simply press down the knob to see the Jollibee and friends’ body pop out and use the pens to unleash their creativity as they sketch artworks of princesses in enchanted forests, superheroes flying around the city or even of Jollibee and friends in Jollitown. 

The Jollibee Pop-Out Pens come with every purchase of a Jolly Kiddie Meal: Jolly Spaghetti Meal at P95, Yum Burger Meal at P90 or Chickenjoy Meal at P123. 

Grab these cool collectibles along with your own Jolly Joy Box.

The Jolly Kiddie Meal Pop-Out Pens will be around until January 31, 2018. So what are you waiting for? Collect and complete the entire set and draw with the Jollibee and friends pens,

Jollibee Brings Together Two of our Favorites in One Indulgent Treat! Strawberry Choco Sundae!

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The country’s number one fast-food brand, Jollibee, start the year 2018 with another sumptuous treat - the all-new Strawberry Choco Sundae!

Loving chocolate and strawberry? This is treating yourself to a new flavor-packed dessert indulgence like no other. 

Strawberry Choco Sundae

Indulgent experience with every scoop of The all-new Strawberry Choco Sundae!

(L-R) Celina Tan, Brand PR and Engagement Specialist; Cat Trivino, Brand PR and Engagement Manager; Kay Segismundo, Senior Marketing manager for Complementary Products; Ralph Rebulanan, Assistant Brand Manager for Complementary Products and Shaun Si, Assistant Brand Manager for Complementary Products

The all-new Strawberry Choco Sundae takes Jollibee’s classic vanilla soft-serve to a whole new level by topping it with a layer of indulgent chocolate fudge and delectable strawberry syrup. To finish it off, Jollibee even added a crunchy chocolate coating and chunks of chewy brownies for contrasting textures. The result is a well-rounded dessert treat that delivers a full-bodied, indulgent experience with every scoop.

“The Strawberry Choco Sundae will be the first sundae innovation that Jollibee is launching this 2018,” said Kay Segismundo, Jollibee Senior Marketing Manager. 

“This exciting new dessert is inspired by the emerging ultra-indulgence trend in the food scene, where the “more is more” philosophy is balanced out by a thoughtful combination of classic flavors and contrasting textures. What’s great about the Strawberry Choco Sundae is that it truly feels like a sweet indulgence, but with a very affordable price tag.”

Indulge in the wonderful flavors of chocolate and strawberry with the Strawberry Choco Sundae, which will be available in all Jollibee stores nationwide starting January 15, 2018. 

This dessert lover’s dream-come-true will be available for dine-in, take-out, delivery, and drive-thru for only P39.00* (solo).

“As we celebrate Jollibee’s 40th anniversary, Filipino diners can expect the launch of even more exciting products and truly delectable flavor innovations that will bring more joy to the table,” added Kay Segismundo.

For more information on Jollibee’s latest products and promotions, like Jollibee Philippines on Facebook or follow @Jollibee on Twitter and Instagram.

  #JollibeeStrawberryChocoSundae 

 * Prices may vary across different locations.