Virtual showroom to cut promo costs of exporters

CEBU, Philippines – The Confederation of Philippine Exporters in Cebu (PhilExport-Cebu) will put up a virtual showroom to help ailing exporters promote their products abroad despite financial limitations.

PhilExport-Cebu advocacy and information officer Jun Abines said that the virtual showroom will benefit more than 250 export companies in Cebu to promote their products abroad without spending so much money as compared to attending international fairs and exhibit.

In recognition with the change of preference of the “future customer” and “future market,” these virtual showrooms aim to provide market sustainability for Cebuano export firms to continuallybe in touch with the international market

Philexport-Cebu already sent the project proposal to the Export Development Council to fund the project through the P1 billion export support fund.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) recently announced the availability of the P1 billion export funding, however applications of would-be beneficiaries will be coursed through the EDC.

The virtual showroom project, which uses an e-Commerce platform, is a web-based marketing tool where Cebu exporters can sell their products online.

Abines said the facility is user-friendly and will enable foreign buyers to quickly initiate a purchase by choosing the products they like and pay for the purchase online using their credit cards or Pay Pal accounts.

He said that e-commerce has become a popular way for customers to shop through the internet. He added that it is high time for Cebu-based exporters to capitalize on this new innovation.

He, however, said that some exporters tend to shy away from maximizing marketing efforts through the internet as developing an e-Commerce-capable website of their own are costly and technical requirements are a bit complicated.

This virtual showroom facility will be made available to all its members for a fee but getting as many members to join the virtual showrooms will help spread the cost among exporters and will result in an affordable price to each export company that will subscribe to the facility.

The group will also hire local and international IT experts in developing competitive yet price-efficient e-commerce-enabled virtual showrooms in its website.

Philexport-Cebu is the umbrella organization of nine export sectors in Cebu, including the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation, Cebu-Gifts, Toys, and Houseware, Cebu- Fashion Accessories Manufacturers and Exporters, Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines, Association of Food Industries, among others.