SM bags Retail Asia awards as Philipines top retailer

MANILA, Philippines - SM Retail received the Gold Award as the Philippines’ top retailer during the recent Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 Awards held at the Solaire Resort and Casino.

Each year, the three top retail companies in 14 Asia-Pacific economies receive Gold, Silver and Bronze retailing awards, with SM Retail consistently a Gold recipient. Puregold Price Club and Mercury Drug Corp. received the Silver and Bronze Award, respectively, while two other companies affiliated with the SM Group – Watsons Philippines and ACE Hardware – also received Certificates of Distinction.

“As with many industries, the retail trade has been greatly disrupted by digital technologies,” said Retail Asia publisher Andrew Yeo. “Many traditional retailers have embraced omni-channel retailing, turning themselves into ‘bricks and clicks’ stores.”

Yeo commended many of the winners in the Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 list for having “risen to the many challenges confronting the industry, reviewing and revamping their operation to provide seamless shopping experiences for today’s highly connected shoppers.”

“You have not only proven yourselves to be adaptable and versatile, but also able to win and maintain the critical core value that all retailers must nurture in their drive to win and retain their customers – trust,” he said.

A part of the lives of millions of Filipinos for over 50 years, the SM Store has undergone major transformations to serve a new generation of customers. This is evident in SM Makati, where the shop-in-shop concept has created different “worlds” within a store.   Each category is designed and conceptualized like an individual boutique with its own look and feel.  Likewise, merchandising features are customized to fit the categories that are to be used.

Here, elements work together to create a bolder, more innovative kind of retail environment, which highlights and defines the merchandise, engaging the elite customer to experience a new sense of space. With that, it brings glamor, luxury, trends, fashion and art together into a chic and exciting shopping experience that has become very affordable.

This is SM’s response to the growing demand for fashionable environments, as well as the company’s efforts to serve more shoppers. Apart from the SM Store, SM’s Retail Group also has specialty store formats that serve niche markets by focusing on a wide selection of merchandise for each category.

Part of this is the Food Retail Group, which recently unified its three formats – SM Supermarket, SM Hypermarket and Savemore – under one brand name known as SM Markets to emphasize the group’s commitment to bring the same friendly service, wide selection and great value across all its stores.

The Non-Food Group, on the other hand, has store formats including appliance stores, fashion discount and toy superstores, as well as Kultura Filipino, a showcase of the best Filipino products.

SM also has tie-ups with global brands – a franchise with ACE Hardware, a joint venture with Watsons and more recently with major global fashion retailers Forever 21 and Uniqlo. 

It also has franchises with American home retailer Crate & Barrel and UK’s The Body Shop; distributes products from UK’s John Lewis and Tesco; and has partnerships with UK’s Joseph and Spanish bands UNO de 50 and Sfera.