SMEs, freelancers can earn extra income from the Internet

Two companies advocating the use of e-commerce in the country, Platform2u.com Phils. Inc. and Catalyst Interactive, signed a Memorandum of Agreement in which they will help small to medium entrepreneurs, even consumers, start their business on the Internet.

Platform2u.com Phils.Inc. is the developer of SMilDS.com, a fourth generation e-commerce platform while Catalyst Interactive is an Internet branding and promotions agency providing services for online campaigns.

The MOA signing preceded the “Make Money 2.0” seminar that began on February 13. Two more seminars will take place until March at the Astoria Plaza Hotel, Ortigas central business district. Organized by Catalyst Interactive CEO Carlo Ople and with SMilDS.com as Gold sponsor, the seminars are being held to teach practical money-making tips on the Internet to students, freelancers and micro-entrepreneurs.  

Photo shows SMilDS.com COO Edgar Canlas (right) and Catalyst Interactive CEO Carlo Ople (left) signing the MOA that sealed their collaboration in promoting e-commerce in the country. Witnessing the signing is Edward Ling (center), CEO of Platform2u.com Phils. Inc.

Speakers invited to the first seminar were Edgar Canlas (SMilDS.com COO), e-commerce maven Janette Toral, Abe Olandres, Jayvee Fernandez and Kevin Codamon, who have all become successful Internet entrepreneurs. They discussed the merits of generating income from the Internet through online selling, blogging, writing, web designing, community building.

In his welcome speech, Platform2u.com Phils. CEO Edward Ling described the partnership as meaningful and strategic because both companies will promote entrepreneurship among Filipinos by drawing from their respective expertise in deploying businesses on the Internet. 

The development of the SMilDS.com e-commerce platform,in particular, was meant to help bring small and medium businesses to a more organized manner into the world of enterprise. He said SMilDS.com will help bridge the e-commerce divide in the country. In 2009, it was reported that only four percent of the 25 million Internet users in the Philippines buy online.

Edgar Canlas explained that online selling, having a complete e-commerce solution, and having an e-shopping mall to promote websites present limitless earning opportunities for online retailers because the Internet is the biggest market.

User-friendly, SMilDS.com’s merchant back-office is equipped with a customer relationship management system, e-payment and e-logistics processing, and content management system whose do-it-yourself features makes it easy for owners to embed flash animation and YouTube videos, put up contests and other promotions on their sites. The software has unique features that are firsts of its kind in the global market -- the seven-day escrow payment model and the cross-selling trading engine that allows a webstore owner to sell products of other merchants and earn commissions.

Since its launch in July 2009, SMilDS.com online mall now has 160 merchants selling 1,931 products.

SMilDS.com has three packs – Lite, Full and Enterprise. Interested self-starting capitalists can call 836-1329 or 217-7289 for additional information.

Web developers learn social e-commerce trends from SMilDS.com

Community networking can be empowering if you are looking for anything that will ease the stress of work, of school, or soliciting help from companies to get an important project off the ground.

WebGeek Philippines, a new online community of web specialists and enthusiasts, was one group which needed corporate assistance to launch its first ever web design and programming competition billed as “Web and IT Summit 2009.” SMilDS.com, the brand behind the first online mall in the Philippines, agreed to be a major sponsor.

In his presentation before 30 students, SMilDS.com business development and training officer Christopher Santos emphasized that community or social networking is a great business enabler when applied on the Web.

SMilDS.com, he explained, is the first social e-commerce platform to be introduced in the international market, including the Philippines.

The e-commerce software is a complete electronic retailing platform that includes website development and customization, merchant registration and activation, customer relationship management, payment and logistics management, portal, education and training.

The software’s unique and  innovative feature is its intelligent e-trading engine which facilitates SMilDS.com online merchants to promote not only their own products on their webstore, but also the merchandise of other online store owners on the marketplace and sell it.

Cross-selling and up-selling each others’ products and services are effective sales/marketing strategies that can drive additional traffic to one’s website. It can pique the interest of unique visitors coming to the webstore and make them visit the website again. Repeated visits frequently lead to “pay and click”.

WebGeek Philippines president John Arce thanked SMilDS.com for their support of the campus-wide event and for sharing their knowledge on web development trends and on fully integrated e-commerce platforms that make buying and selling on the Internet safe and easy to do.

Mr. Arce endorsed the software to the students, many of them eager to start freelancing as web designers and developers. AMA University’s current student population stands at 150,000.

Other lecturers invited to the WebGeek IT Summit were Jonas delos Reyes of Yahoo!Southeast Asia, Jay Fajardo of ProudCloud, Joomla Campus of Tour Philippines, Jhondie Abenza of Joomla User Group and e-commerce advocate Janette Toral of DigitalFilipino Club.

SMilDS.com makes a mark in the 2009 DigitalFilipino e-Commerce Summit

Newcomer SMilDS.com joined the ranks of the long-established IT companies in the Philippines when it signed up as a major sponsor at the 2009 DigitalFilipino e-Commerce Summit and Web Awards.

Held at the Hotel Intercontinental on 12-13 November 2009, the e-commerce summit was organized by Janette Toral, one of the country's widely-known and respected IT and e-commerce evangelists.

The annually held summit is among the most awaited technology events among the more than 100 members of the DigitalFilipino Club, even to non-club members who are IT professionals and enthusiasts. It highlights best practices by website owners and it promotes the use of e-commerce and the Internet in business development.

A total of 31 websites were declared winners in the Web Awards, representing interesting categories like blogs, food, automotive, travel, gifts, games, government, music/movie, newspaper, telecoms, restaurant, among others.

Three executives from Platform2u.com Phils. Inc, the company that developed SMilDS.com, the fourth generation e-commerce software used by 618 online retailers in the country, Hong Kong and Malaysia, gave a 45-minute presentation on how they can help bridge the e-commerce divide in the Philippines.

CEO Edward Ling, COO Edgar Canlas and CIO Eddie Lee urged summit attendees to seize the opportunity of starting their online businesses,or bringing their current business to the Internet, because of the huge purchasing power of today’s generation Y (and Internet-savvy) consumers who are slowly taking over the 40+ year-old consumers.

According to the officials, there were 24 million netizens in the Philippines last year. This number will grow to 28 million when 2010 ends. By 2012, there will be 40 million Internet users and total e-commerce transaction value is projected at PhP20 billion. Nearly 32 million Internet users below 30 years old have purchasing power. Retailers are expected to know this but those thinking of starting a business are assured of a good start in online selling.

The SMilDS.com platform, according to the officials, was designed for easy use. As long as one knows basic Microsoft Office applications, anyone who wants to earn an extra income can run an online store. 

Embedded in the SMilDS.com system are tools for website design and development, automated payment and logistics processing, customer relations management. In addition, the SMilDS.com business team conducts training on back-office functions for merchant-partners. The software’s intelligent e-trading engine allows retailers to sell products of other online sellers where they earn commissions agreed between them.

COO Edgar Canlas said the cross-selling engine generates additional traffic to retailers’ websites because buyers from all over the world always want to compare products and prices, eventually leading to sales.

The company which is yet to celebrate its first anniversary in June this year, is making big inroads in the e-commerce industry. The SmilDS.com/ph online mall has 160 merchants selling almost 2,000 items ranging from toys, digital gadgets, clothes and accessories, beauty and personal care, books.

CEO Edward Ling said only about 10 percent of Internet users buy online in the country.  SMilDS.com is determined to raise that number this year.

When you sell online, the world becomes your buyer

About 160 online retailers in the Philippines selling almost 2,000 assorted merchandise are now populating an online mall – the first in the country – hosted by SMilDS.com (http://smilds.com/ph), the flagship product of  Platform2u.com, Asia Pacific’s leading e-commerce platform company. And this is happening after only seven months of opening its Philippine operations.

Platform2u.com Phils.Inc. began operations on 4 July 2009 and the following month, it introduced into the local market its 4th generation social e-commerce platform called SMilDS.com.

At the July launch, Platform2u.com Phils. Inc. chief executive officer Edward Ling announced that the company is committed to helping the Philippine e-commerce sector rise from ground zero.


According to a National Statistics Office (NSO) survey on information and communication technology use,32.4 percent e-commerce transactions were recorded in 2009 or just a third of businesses in the country benefited from e-commerce. 

Platform2u.com CIO Eddie Lee said the e-commerce sector recorded only PhP5 billion (US$100 million) transactions in 2009.  

Edward Ling nevertheless has tremendous hopes in the future of e-commerce in the Philippines, citing the growth of Filipino Internet users to 28 million in 2009 where 83 percent of them are below 29 years old. In 2000, there were only 1 million Filipino Internet users.These 28 million Filipino netizens are part of the global 1.5 billion Internet users who contributed to US$200 billion e-commerce transactions worldwide.

Mr. Ling urged small and medium entrepreneurs to start their businesses and put it on the web. According to him, the Philippines is a very important base upon which to launch the company's flagship product, SMilDS.com. It is in e-commerce where he smells the path to a successful and profitable business.

Microentrepreneurs and large establishments will find a useful tool in the complete e-commerce solution because it will help them build and design an online store in less than a day and start their e-commerce business immediately.

SMilDS.com is available in three packs – Lite, Full and Enterprise – at the cost of having one or two coffee frapps a day.

The SMilDS.com eco-system includes website set up and design tools, portal, customer relations management system, inventory system, payment gateway, logistics management, traffic generator, education and training and global business network.

A unique feature in the software is it can accommodate cross selling where the webstore owner can also sell products of other merchants, earn commissions, increase sales transactions and have buyers from all over the world as potential customers.

Platform2u.com Phils., Inc. chief operating officer Edgar Canlas described this cross-sell function as social e-commerce, where networking (Filipinos are very good at it) is being harnessed into the Internet. He referred to online retailing as an excellent business model because it gives any budding netpreneur a big push towards competing in the global marketplace.

Edgar Canlas and Eddie Lee said that online retailers who take the e-commerce plunge and sell their products on the SMilDS.com e-mall,will -- sooner than they realize -- be competing with other online retailers from around the world, for the attention and purchasing power of the Internet world, the third largest populated domain,after China and India.

There is nothing more personally fulfilling than being able to tell friends and potential customers that they can look at your product catalogue on your website and buy from your webstore, anytime at their convenience 24x7.

The company will soon mark its first anniversary in June 2010. Mr. Ling and Mr. Canlas have one definitive goal and that is to make SMilDS.com the country’s first and largest e-shopping website.

SMilDS.com’s social e-commerce platform is another promising channel for empowering the microentrepreneur and on a national level, make Philippine e-commerce rise from ground zero.