Visa launched the Where You Shop Matters campaign to encourage Filipinos to support local businesses while helping SMEs go digital in response to the onset of COVID-19. The campaign is part of Visa’s broader initiative to help 10 million small and micro businesses in the Asia Pacific region, and part of the global commitment from the Visa Foundation of USD 210 million to provide COVID-19 emergency relief for the small business sector.
As part of the new campaign, Visa has partnered with online e-commerce platform Shopee to help support thousands of local small businesses selling on the platform. Visa and Shopee will also be creating further 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% of Filipino consumers will purchase from local retailers to support small business recovery,” said Dan Wolbert, Visa country manager for the Philippines and Guam.
“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” adds Martin Yu, associate director, Shopee Philippines.
Visa has also announced that Visa cardholders will enjoy PHP 100 discount on selected Shopee retailers when the campaign goes live on August 15.
A Visa study has also found that 77% of Filipino consumers believe that it is important for local retailers to have an online presence. To encourage SMEs to go digital, Visa has announced that they will be providing them 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 businesses up and running. Additionally, Visa is offering SMEs with physical stores free Visa POS signage to build trust with customers.
“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 Wolbert.
“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 on our website. We can show them the new designs of our collections, answer their inquiries and fulfill their orders easily and securely through card payments using Visa, at the convenience and comfort of their own home,” said Jowee Alviar, co-founder of Team Manila, one of the six marquee merchants in the Where You Shop Matters campaign.
To find out more about the Where You Shop Matters, you can visit Visa’s website.