Visa launched Where You Shop Matters to encourage consumers to support local businesses while helping SMEs to go digital following the onset of COVID-19. The initiative is part of Visa’s broader small business strategy and follows commitments the company has made to support 10 million small and micro businesses in the Asia Pacific, and a global commitment from the Visa Foundation of USD210 million to provide COVID-19 emergency relief for the small business sector.
As part of the Where You Shop Matters initiative, Visa has partnered with Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, to help support thousands of local small businesses who are selling on Shopee. Visa and Shopee will be creating campaigns to enable Visa cardholders to enjoy discounts when they shop at these local merchants.
“We introduced Where You Shop Matters to support our small businesses in the Philippines. The impact of COVID-19 for these businesses along with shifting consumer behaviors to eCommerce reinforced the need for Visa to launch Where You Shop Matters. Furthermore, the partnership with Shopee will help us support thousands of local businesses in the Philippines. We are confident that Filipinos will help support the local economy, especially since our study showed that 95 per cent of Filipino consumers will purchase from local retailers to support small business recovery,” said Visa Country Manager for the Philippines & Guam, Dan Wolbert.
“We are happy to partner with Visa to launch the Where You Shop Matters campaign to help small business owners go digital. Shopee commits to offer our sellers and MSMEs a more secure, seamless, and rewarding way to do business online, and we will continue to explore new ways to help them succeed online” says Martin Yu, Associate Director at Shopee Philippines.
The Visa study also showed that 77 percent of Filipino consumers believe it is important for local retailers to have an online presence.[1] To encourage SMEs to go digital, Visa will be providing them with a Visa eCommerce Starter Kit to help them start, manage, and grow their online storefronts. Visa is partnering with BigCommerce to provide onboarding support and special discount rates for SMEs to sign up and start selling online. SMEs can also benefit from a variety of offers, including Office 365 business packages and cashback on Google Ads to help them get their online business up and running. For SMEs with physical stores, they can order free Visa POS signage to build trust with consumers.
“The pandemic has accelerated several years’ worth of change into the span of a few months, and this rapid acceleration of the shift to digital payments also means that businesses need to go through a digital transformation and adapt to changing consumers’ behaviors to do well,” added Dan.
Said Jowee Alviar, co-Founder of Team Manila, one of the six marquee merchants in the Where You Shop Matters campaign, ” We’re happy to be featured among the local brands in Visa’s #WhereYouShopMatters campaign. It is vital for TeamManila to reach our customers wherever they are, be it through online shopping portals or our website. We can show them the new designs of our collection, answer their inquiries, and fulfil their orders easily and securely through card payments using Visa, at the convenience and comfort of their own homes.”
