E-commerce chatter on Social Media

Geography – Philippines

Date Range 1st Jan’2014 to 31st Mar’2014

Research Methodology

Our approachWe listened to conversations and collected the data automatically from a corpus of several million sites, Collection was done on the basis of requirement defined by combinations of keywords. The data was then ran through a layer of text-mining tool to remove noise, refine sentiment and refining themes.

Time Frame: Jan 1, 2014 to Mar 31st , 2014

Multilayered Refinement

The purpose of this report is to examine Ecommerce chatters on the web, the key drivers of conversation around the market and Industry, causes of negative and positive brand mentions, and identify key trends and mindset of people hosting these conversations.

Objectives

Collection

Report

Analysis

Articles and comments were then evaluated by researchers after removing noise, there from assessing sentiment (negative, positive, neutral and ambivalent of the sample selected) and structuring the information into themes. Which indulged manual as well as automated processes to derive qualitative and quantitative analyses of the results to identify the trends in discussions threads.

Present all the results from the analysis in this report

From the total relevant

universe sample was selected

for analysis through Stratified

Random Sampling – Data

captured across all dates and

social media channels,

Analysis done through semi

manual process which also

involves extrapolation of multi

tagged tonality & themes

•Million of web sources

Multi-level iterations to build

comprehensive and relevant

queries

•Derived through removal of

irrelevant content such as ad

links, irrelevant postings etc.

through a combination of

human analysis and text mining

Relevant Universe 58910

Sample Analyzed

2844

Philippines – E-Commerce

It’s said every industry’s future lies in the hands of the youth of their

country. Keeping this in mind here’s an attempt to quantify what

PHILIPPINES’ youth talk about E-Commerce as an industry“ ”

E-CommerceRelevant Universe

58,910(JAN - MAR 2014)

N= 2,844

(Sampling done further at 5%, n = 2,844)

Corporate News

PromotionsPaymentDeliveryCustomer

CareProduct

Line

Our Methodology

STEP 1: SELECT

CRITERIA FOR THE

STUDY

STEP 2: INDUSTRY

SEGMENTATION &

CATEGORIZATION,

DEMOGRAPHIC

BIFURCATION - AGE,

GENDER, etc.

STEP 3: CATEGORY & SUB

CATEGORY WISE

SENTIMENT

Product Line

Customer Care

Deals

Payment

Delivery

1.CATEGORYa. SUBCATEGORY

+ve-veNeutral

KEY INSIGHTS

INDUSTRY – E-COMMERCE

GEO - PHILIPPINES

DURATION - 1stJan -31st Mar, 2014

SOURCES – Twitter, Blogs,

Forums, News & other Social Media Channels

THOUGHTBUZZ ANALYTICS

E-Commerce PHILIPPINES chatter revolves around..

• Travel/Airlines

• Entertainment Tickets

• Transportation/Vehicles

• Apparel• Electronics• Food• Books• Real Estate• Personal Care• Online Gifting

•Customer Query•Response•Complaint

•Gratitude•Quality•Pending Reply•Promptness

•Awareness of Service•Delivery Charged•Misplaced

•Free Home Delivery•On time•Delayed

• Credit Card

• Payment options• Bank Deposit• Paypal• Debit Card• Cash on Delivery• G-cash

• Promos• Discounts• Coupons• Freebies

Corporate News

DeliveryPaymentCustomer

CarePromotion

Product Line

• Merger &

Acquisition

• Market News

• Product &

Branding

Strategies

• Corporate News

Philippine E-commerce

Product & Services 78%

Customer Care 15%

Promotions

4%

Payment 1%

Key Discussions – Overview

“ • Products and services that were sold online in the

Philippines make up most of the E-commerce buzz in

the country. Majority of these mentions were about

airlines and travel-related services.

• Nearly 2 out of 10 of all the conversations were about customer support, which include interactions

between the official social media accounts and the

companies’ customers.

• Promotions constitute 4% of the total E-commerce

discussions, which include promo announcements,

discounts, freebies and coupons.

• Conversations about payment amount to 1% of the

total E-commerce mentions. Most of these were

inquiries about online payments.

• 1% of all the discussions were about deliveries that

were made for online purchases. The greatest

number of these were about awareness of such

service.

• 1% of the buzz around E-Commerce are general E-

Commerce articles such as corporate news,

mergers, and acquisitions of businesses.

Delivery 1%

“Three out of every four

discussions was about product &

services sold online.”

Corporate News 1%

Product Types – E-Commerce PHILIPPINES

All of the observed forums threads, tweets, blogs & news

& network feeds were related to online product lines in

the Philippines.

• Majority (52%) of the product line discussions wererelated to Travel and Airlines. Airlines utilize their Twitter pages to advertise their promotion fares. It has been noted that netizens follow official Twitter pages of airlines in order to be notified about promos and deals, they also seek assistance with various online booking concerns from these Twitter accounts.

• 18% of the total buzz was about entertainment tickets. Most mentions were about buying and ordering concert tickets. Some of were about buying movie, sports and event (e.g. plays, etc.) tickets online.

• 10% of the discussions were about transportation and/or

vehicles. Almost all mentions regarding transportation were on taxi booking apps,(how to avail, advertisements, and customer service-related queries).

• Apparel-related mentions make up 7% of the total buzz. Most mentions were tweets endorsing certain online shop pages. Some endorse their own shops and some endorse other online shops.

• 5% of mentions were about electronics. Netizens use Twitter to ask and recommend where to buy certain electronic products. They also use Twitter to inquire and order products from online sellers.

Treavel / Airlines, 52%

Entertainment Tickets, 18%

Transportation/Vehicles, 10%

Apparel, 7%

Electronics, 5%

Food, 3%

Books, 3%

Real Estate, 2%

Personal Care, 1%

Online gifting, 0%

PRODUCT

RELATED

2247

Product Types – Sample Mentions

Travel/ AirlinesDated (4 Mar 2014) https://twitter.com/CarnavanT/statuses/441074543151820800

Entertainment TicketsDated (27 Mar 2014) https://twitter.com/viccastillo/statuses/449332759794679808

Transportation/VehiclesDated (12 Mar 2014) https://twitter.com/hazelnutzy/statuses/443993817994117120

ApparelDated (26 Mar 2014) https://twitter.com/RhowDannyGlark/statuses/448755961256087552

Key Age Groups – Bifurcation taken for the study

Less than 25 Years Intermediates, College going, Fresher's to the Corporates

25-40 YearsManager level, newly married, Young Parents

Greater than 40 YearsSenior Level, Parents of teenagers and

adult kids

People of these age group were

more interested in apparel and

concert tickets.

Apart from apparels and tickets,

people of this age group were also

interested in online gifting.

No data was recorded for those whose

age is greater than 40. This may be

indicative that younger Filipinos are

more active E-commerce participants.

69% of the observed

31% of the observed0% of the observed

N = 2844

Gender Analysis – Bifurcation taken for the study

Females were almost 6% more active than males

47% 53%

• For both genders, majority of conversations have been inquiries about airlines and books. Females tend to

share details about events and movie tickets, while males tend to make remarks about transportation-

related concerns.

N = 2844

Gender affinity towards Top Product Lines

Females tend to participate the most in E-commerce discussions about apparels. This is followed by tickets, wherein females make articles detailing events.

Males tend to participate in discussions about electronics, which are mostly purchase

transactions of gadgets. This is followed by discussions about transportation and vehicles.

N = 2844

50%

38%

58%

25%

69%

50%

62%

42%

75%

31%

1 2 3 4 5Travel/Airlines Tickets Transportation/Vehicles Apparel ElectronicsTravel / Airlines Transport / Vehicles

Top E-Commerce Categories – Gender Bifurcation

Females were more concerned in discussions related to delivery of online products. Females were also interested in online promotions.

Males were predominantly interested in discussions about online products and services, customer support and the process of paying online.

N = 2844

47% 48%

20%

47%

38%

53% 52%

80%

53%

62%

1 2 3 4 5Product/Services Customer Support Delivery Payment PromotionsProduct / Services

CustomerQuery, 75%

Response, 18.8%

Complaint, 2.8%

Gratitude, 1.5%

Quality, 1.3%Pending Reply, 0.4%

Promptness, 0.4%

Customer Support Related Key Discussions

Almost every second E-commerce discussion in the Philippines were related to customer support.

• Three quarters of the discussions on

customer service were comprised of

customer queries. Almost all of these

queries were sent through Twitter.

• The second highest bulk of discussions

were the responses of the online store

customer service teams to the customer

queries.

• There were only a few complaints (2.8%) –

mostly about delays in replying and

website issues (outage, failed processing) –

and general expressions of gratitude (1.5%)

in the discussions.

• Some netizens (1.3%) also expressed their

positive assessment of the quality of the

online stores’ customer service responses.

• A few (0.4%) express gratitude for the

promptness of the reply of brands.

• A few (0.4%) also contact the respective

brands to express that no one is replying to

their queries and complaints.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

543

Customer Support Sample Mentions

QueryDated (10 Feb 2014) https://twitter.com/mannypot/statuses/433078502565220352

ResponseDated (22 Jan 2014) https://twitter.com/CebuPacificAir/statuses/426208467180060672

ComplaintDated (1 Jan 2014) https://twitter.com/baijoanne/statuses/418321452245323776

GratitudeDated (19 Mar 2014) https://twitter.com/C_Sutcliffe/statuses/446287823969087488

Delivery Related Key Discussions

The least number of E-commerce discussions were about online deliveries. Most of these were mere remarks denoting awareness of online deliveries.

• Around 38% of buzz were about awareness of

delivery services and how it is an advantage

when making online purchases.

• 24% out of the total delivery related discussion

stated that they were charged for the

delivery of goods they ordered.

• About 14% of total delivery discussions were

raised misplaced delivery issues. Many were

unhappy with misplaced goods and some

others were discouraged to buy from certain

stores for they fear that their orders might be

misplaced.

• 10% of the mention are about free home

deliveries. Many customers were encouraged

to buy when free home delivery is a feature of

the web store.

• 10% of the mentions are expressions of

gratitude for deliveries of online products that

were made on time. A few (5%) expressed

that their orders did not arrive on time. This is

particularly observed in food products.

DELIVERY

21

Awareness of Service, 38%

Delivery Charged, 24%

Misplaced, 14%

Free home delivery,

10%

On time , 10%

Delayed , 5%

Delivery Related Sample Mentions

Awareness of ServiceDated (18 Jan 2014) https://twitter.com/KFolie_a_Deux/statuses/424565937920933890

Delivery ChargedDated (22 Mar 2014) http://www.misskatv.com/2014/03/where-i-got-my-us-air-force-jacket.html

MisplacedDated (27 Jan 2014) http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/showthread.php?t=543168&page=15#post69313622

On timeDated (28 Mar 2014) https://twitter.com/raefication/statuses/449527401563697152

Credit card, 41%

Payment Options, 22%

Bank deposit, 16%

Paypal, 9%

Debit card, 6%

Cash on Delivery, 3%

G-cash, 3%

Payment Related Key Discussions

Payment buzz constitute 1% of the total E-

commerce discussions. Most were inquiries and

instructions on the process of online payment.

• Credit Cards: The greatest number (41%) of the

comments were observed around credit card

acceptance.

• 22% of netizens were merely asking about their

choices regarding payment.

• Bank deposit: About 16% of the customers were

inquiring about how they could deposit their

money directly to the bank without having to

transact online.

• PayPal: 9% of the payment-related mentions were

about customers requesting and/or asking for

establishments to incorporate PayPal into their

payment system.

• Debit cards: 6% of the mentions were inquiries

about debit card rejections.

• Cash on Delivery (COD): 3% of the payment

mentions were about COD, with customers

recommending online stores who have a COD

feature to their online followers.

• G-cash: 3%, a small amount of the discussion

online was about G-cash, with the netizens asking

if they could pay for their products with G-cash.

PAYMENT

32

Payment Related Sample Mentions

Credit CardDated (31 Mar 2014) https://twitter.com/GRLONDON/statuses/450580493323350016

Payment optionsDated (18 Feb 2014) https://twitter.com/HellYeahCrisse/statuses/435768614654734337

Bank DepositDated (13 Feb 2014) https://twitter.com/timeepatrol/statuses/434229971758768129

PayPalDated (19 Mar 2014) https://twitter.com/clevearguelles/statuses/446330203690651649

Promotions Key Discussions

E-commerce promotions conversations make up 5% of all the mentions, which were about promos, discounts, coupons and freebies.

• Around 40% of the discussions were related to

online promos created by web stores, (mostly

airlines) in order to increase sales. These

mentions detail particular online contests or

deals that users may participate in.

• Discounts make up around 30% of the

discussions on deals. Discounts were explicitly

stated price cuts from products. Most discounts

come from the travel and airline products.

• Around 27% of the other discussions were

related to coupons. Mentions on coupons were

commonly from transportation, personal care,

food, and travel. Users detail spending the

coupon, where they obtained particular

coupons, and the benefits that these coupons

have such as discounts and freebies.

• Only 2% was related to freebies given away by

different online stores. Freebie mentions are

explicit expressions of gratitude after receiving

a freebie from a certain brand.

Promos, 40%

Discounts, 30%

Coupons, 27%

Freebies, 2%

PROMOTIONS

142

Promotions Sample Mentions

PromoDated (5 Mar 2014) https://twitter.com/montree9/status/441493330883399680

DiscountsDated (9 Feb 2014) https://twitter.com/davidjonescua/statuses/432527752151838721

CouponsDated (31 Jan 2014) https://twitter.com/eenelia/status/429530114729074688

FreebiesDated (15 Feb 2014) https://twitter.com/thatsmyjela/statuses/434668091046649856

WHAT DO THE CORPORATES SAY?

“Travel/Airlines Top 5 Brands”

DISCUSSED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Key Findings:TRENDING : • A high number of discussions about these brands

were related to customer support (26%) and most (65%) of these mentions were queries about these specific brands, followed by responses from the brands (26%) and complaints (4%).

ISSUES :• Netizens tweet the airlines that their websites were

down for days due to booking overloads (specifically for Cebu Pacific Air and Philippine Airlines).

• Complaints have been recorded for the lack of updates (electronic or otherwise) about delayed and cancelled flights.

• Netizens tweet about bad customer relations for Philippine Airlines and Air Asia, for no one answers their hotlines.

• On-time deliveries have been recorded both for Philippine Airlines and Agoda.

• Payment-related concerns include problems with the online payment system of Cebu Pacific Air and declined credit card issues for Philippine Airlines. Some request payment through specific banks.

EMERGING :• Promos and booking discounts encourage netizens’

participation, such as Twitter promos where they retweet hotel and plane booking deals.

44%

26%

22%

5%

4%

Air Asia

Cebu Pacific

Philippine Airlines

Tiger Air

Agoda

46%

40.4%

12.1%

1.3%

0.3%

Ticketnet

SM Tickets

Ticketworld

Sureseats

7107 IMF

WHAT DO THE CORPORATES SAY?

“Entertainment Tickets Top 5 Brands”

DISCUSSED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Key Findings:TRENDING : • A high number (11%) of the buzz about these brands

were related to customer support, and most of which were queries (93%) followed by the responses of the ticket brands (7%).

ISSUES :• Netizens tweet the brands asking about ticket prices

of the events they would like attend. Complaints include prompts for the brands to update their price lists in their respective sites specifically recorded for SM tickets.

• Complaints have also been gathered about non-response of specific brands to queries about ticket availability.

• Netizens tweet that they cannot book tickets due to website outages (SM Tickets and Sureseats).

• Payment-related concerns include disappointment for the exclusive availability of tickets online and not in the venue itself. These frustrations mainly came from non-credit card owners because it is the only means of payment for such sites.

EMERGING :• There seem to be little awareness about the process

of buying tickets online. Netizens ask other users on how to purchase online tickets.

WHAT DO THE CORPORATES SAY?

“Transportation/Vehicles Top 3 Brands”

DISCUSSED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Key Findings:TRENDING : • A number (8%)of all mentions about these

transportation brands were related to customer service, and all of these customer service mentions were queries.

ISSUES :• Complaints that have been recorded include the

arrival of a car that was not the one requested online (Uber). Other complaints were focused on the specific car drivers.

• Some users have also reported not being able to download or install the application. This was specifically recorded for Uber.

• Payment-related concerns include tweets asking if there are other payment methods that may be used aside from Paypal.

EMERGING :• Users seem to be hesitant when booking cars online

because of the safety risks such online services pose. Netizens ask specific brands about the process of booking and whether cars can be tracked remotely. There also seem to be little awareness about the specific areas serviced by online taxi-booking apps.

44%

26%

22%

Uber Manila

Grab Taxi

Easy Taxi

WHAT DO THE CORPORATES SAY?

“Apparels Top 3 Brands”

DISCUSSED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Key Findings:TRENDING : • The greatest number of online apparel brands were

online stores by individuals retailing various larger apparel brands.

• Many of the total mentions about these brands were related to promotions (9%). The greatest number (50%) of these online promotions are promos made by these apparel stores.

ISSUES :• Payment-related issues include a netizen making a

review that compares credit cards versus debit cards in online shopping. The user recommended debit cards over credit cards for they are less-risky to use.

• Other concerns include inquiries about the amount of custom tax that will be required from ordering apparel online from foreign brands.

EMERGING :• Upstart online shop owners are asking established

brands about ordering goods for their online apparel shops. On the other hand, online shoppers ask large brands for specific online stores that retail such brands.

44%

26%

22%

Online Stores

Bench

Zalora

WHAT DO THE CORPORATES SAY?

“Electronics Top 5 Brands”

DISCUSSED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Key Findings:TRENDING : • Some mentions about these brands are related to

customer service (6%), all of which were inquiries about specific brands.

ISSUES :• Complaints include netizens tweeting that they

would like a specific phone model from the online store, but no one answers when following up the status of the delivery, or if they have the specific phone model inquired.

• Netizens talk in forums about cases of fraud in ordering cellphones from, i.e., not delivering the ordered gadget. It was also talked about that the delivery people were reported to ask for “tips.” Lastly, there were reports of broken gadgets delivered. This was specifically recorded for Kimstore, dubbed as “notorious,” by the netizens.

EMERGING :• Netizens start forums comparing the online stores in

terms of reliability. Users are careful in choosing the online stores to buy their desired gadgets, and they value the credibility of the electronic stores primarily in terms if the quality of delivery, especially the warranty for broken gadgets.

88%

5%

2%

2%

2%

Kimstore

Sulit.com

Lazada

Widget City

CMK

FINAL TAKEAWAYS

1

.

PRODUCTS and SERVICES were the main e-Commerce topic: Netizens were more involved in discussions that focus on the product and/or service rather than

those which come after buying the product (i.e., customer care, delivery, or payment). This is

indicative of the importance that must be placed on the customers‘ initial impression of a product

sold online.

YOUNGER GENERATIONS were more participative in E-commerce:The more established 25 to 40 year olds were more interested in online gifting services while

netizens 25 years old and below were particularly interested in buying apparel and tickets. Online

gifting services may be made easier to attract those that belong to the upper age brackets. 2

.3

.4

.

Promotions make up 5% of the total E-commerce buzz: Online promotions were mostly on the promos of specific brands. These encourage participation,

such as the case of retweets of content about discounts. Majority of positive sentiments also come

from deal-related topics.

5.

Payment-related concerns signal the need for OTHER METHODS to be

incorporated in the online payment system:Majority of negative mentions about brands were related to payment. Users who would like to

buy express disappointment in systems that solely utilize credit cards prohibiting them from

purchasing. Brands may explore other payment systems to grow their market.

A significant number of online stores are SOLE PROPRIETORSHIPS:Sole proprietorship stores are specifically apparent in apparel products. Netizens express

awareness of online stores, but are hesitant to buy because of issues of credibility. Netizens value

the reputation of a store and are keen to listen for advice regarding the quality of products.

Thank You

This report and the information contained there in are based on information from online social media and other publicly available data. ThoughtBuzzdoes not warrant the accuracy of such information nor is ThoughtBuzz responsible for the content and accuracy of such information. Advisoryinformation may be contained in the report. Any subsequent decisions made based on the data must be made after proper review and assessment ofthe impact of such information. In no event shall ThoughtBuzz be liable to you or your company for any lost profits, lost revenue, interest, goodwill,lost data, cost of procuring substitute services or for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages of any kind, however arising, that arerelated to these terms, whether in contract, tort or negligence, or any legal theory.