Sari-sari stores’ e-wallet acceptance up 75% at end-Aug.

THE availability of e-wallet payments at small mom-and-pop stores grew 75% year on year at the end of August, tech startup Packworks said.

In a report, Packworks also found that 20% of such stores, known in the Philippines as sari-sari store registered a doubling in e-wallet use by their customers, while 20% showed a 50% increase, while 10% recorded a 10% rise.

Packworks Co-founder Chief Platform Officer Hubert T. Yap noted that store owners have been adopting digital tools to diversify their services.

“They are now diversifying their product range, offering high-margin, value-added financial services and integrating digital tools such as our app to fundamentally improve their operations and function as near-frictionless nano-banks for the neighborhoods they serve,” Mr. Yap said.

Digital wallet use allows store owners to keep up with their customer preferences in terms of goods purchases, funds access, and bill settlement, Packworks said.

Packworks, which offers a digital store-management application to the sari-sari industry, found that 66% of owners generated 20% of their revenue from e-wallets, while 21% said their e-wallet transactions account for 10% of revenue.

The study found that up to five e-wallet accounts were in use among store owners, led by GCash, which was present in 85% of stores, followed by Maya with 15%.

Mr. Yap cited the need to support the industry with fintech tools to digitize operations.

“There’s an urgent need to support these micro-entrepreneurs with the right fintech to ensure they can fully capitalize opportunities,” he said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) estimates that online payments account for 57.4% of retail payments by transaction volume.

The BSP has set a target of bringing digital payments to about 60-70% of retail volume by transaction payments by 2028. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz