For 36-year-old Grace, her sari-sari store in Quezon City is a way to support the financial needs of her family. A mother of three children, Grace works day and night to ensure that her store is filled with grocery products and additional services such as telco load for her customers.
A sari-sari store vendor for five years, Grace came upon tech-enabled platform GrowSari in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I just saw it on Facebook, it just appeared on my feed, then I installed it on my phone,” she shared. What enticed her the most is the fact that she did not need to spend extra when getting the goods. “I don’t have to pay for additional transportation, it’s free shipping, and they deliver door-to-door. They also suggest additional products that can help me increase my sales,” Grace added, who has been a GrowSari Tindera for three years now.
GrowSari is a business-to-business platform that aims to help millions of sari-sari stores like Grace’s gain access to affordable and on-demand inventory, working capital credit lines, and seamless ordering and delivery of goods through their strong distribution hubs.
Aside from daily groceries, Grace also said that her loading business rakes in income for her store. As trusted telco brands, PLDT wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and TNT continue to serve as a steady source of income for most micro-entrepreneurs. GrowSari has also integrated multiple microservices like telco load, bills payment, e-commerce, WiFi, and other e-services in their portfolio, enabling sari-sari store owners to maximize their capital in one wallet and expand their business.
“Smart and TNT [load] sell really well in our store. We can get up to P3,000 a day from selling load products such as GIGA Video 50 and All Out Surf 20,” she said.
To reward its active sellers like Grace, GrowSari and Smart worked together to launch a raffle promo to delight and inspire them with an iPhone 15 as they enter the new year.
“I did not expect to win this prize,” Grace said during the small awarding ceremony held in her store this month. She shared that it was her first time landing a spot among the top 20 active sellers in GrowSari, and that she just entered once to join the contest. “I am grateful to Smart and GrowSari for this reward,” she added.
Smart has been a partner of GrowSari since 2020, allowing the telco to reach even more customers all over the Philippines through its fast-expanding network of sari-sari stores nationwide.
In its effort to deliver top-class communication services to the millions of Filipinos in the country, PLDT and Smart are relentless in initiating relevant partnerships as part of the PLDT Group’s broader goal to elevate the quality of overall customer experience.