A tech-enabled platform has helped connect sari-sari stores to suppliers by removing middleman rates and other fees to increase sales for vendors.
GrowSari is a mobile app that links sari-sari stores, or neighborhood mom-and-pop shops, to products of FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) brands at distributor prices.
“With the fresh funds, we aim to more than double GrowSari’s existing coverage and service more than 100,000 sari-sari stores, including those in Visayas and Mindanao,” Reymund Rollan, GrowSari CEO and co-founder said in a statement.
“This will also help us broaden our supplier marketplace with new third-party partners and scale our financial service pilots,” he added.
Orders from the mobile app will be delivered straight to sari-sari store owners without additional charges and minimum order requirements.
Products by Unilever, Nestle, Alaska, and Procter & Gamble are included in the platform’s offerings.
Aside from basic goods, it also offers other services to vendors that are relevant to their customers such as load, bills payment, and online shopping.
Sari-sari or neighborhood variety stores are the “backbone of Philippine retail and are an integral part of the economy.” About 84 percent of Filipinos buy essential goods from over 1.1 million stores across the country, with 60 percent of FMCG consumers spending in such stores.
Founded in 2016, the company serves about 50,000 stores in over 100 municipalities across Luzon and plans to expand to 220 municipalities by the end of the year.
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