"We want to make sure that every Filipino has our smartphone in their pocket, or whatever item we sell."
With 65 million Filipinos online and 12 million individuals shopping through the internet daily, the Philippines still has a big potential for e-commerce, according to Karel Holub, chief argonaut of online retailer Argomall Inc.
Argomall is the first e-commerce platform focused on selling smartphones tablets, laptops, smartwatches, audio devices, and related accessories online.
Holub, one of Argomall’s pioneers, is an expert in mobile phone marketing, having worked with the Nokia brand for a long time.
“Opportunities and prospects via the web is exponential. The idea back in 2015 was very simple. The Philippines then had the lowest penetration of smartphone in Asia, so there’s a lot of opportunity for growth,” he said.
“Compared to physical stores which are mostly dominated by promoters trying to sell their products without consideration for customer’s preference or how much they are willing to spend, Argomall is more of a straight forward on the net store focused on selling smartphones and delicering happiness to customers,” he said.
The start-up has been around for three years but has already introduced innovations particularly in payment options and logistics. The platform welcomes all forms of payments whether cash, credit card, G-cash, and other payment facilities. It also widened options for delivery, utilizing in-house and third-party couriers.
The archipelagic nature of the Philippines, its terrain and its climate pose a challenge to delivering items purchased over Argomall’s website, Holub said.
“We are, to a certain extent, the best-kept secret in the Philippines. We are focused on holistic service. We build relationships with each of our customers. The entire experience—from browsing our website to enjoying easy and secure transactions, chatting with our sales personnel about which item suits your needs best and comparing specifications, to receiving the items we deliver and getting good after-sales services—should build trust between our customers and Argomall,” he said.
Human touch Argomall keeps its customers on its website by offering human support for browsing shoppers.
Company staff engage clients with informative and helpful chat. They walk each customer through the process of opening an email account and other online accounts needed to complete the transactions with Argomall easily and quickly.
It also includes assistance to applying for a Home Credit account, a payment option that allows monthly installment for purchased products.
The entire Argomall customer experience revolves around the customer, he said. The site offers the best authentic items at the best prices, with several options for payment, including payment by installment that Filipinos have become accustomed to over the past decades.
As a security guarantee, the entire process is trackable online and via SMS.
“We have people who chat with customers who may not yet have decided which item they really want to buy. We ask what it is they’re looking for in a smartphone, or TV, for example, and do the specification comparison for various items in real time with them. We do not want to become a marketplace that sells everything to customers and yet is nothing to them. We want to have a meaningful relationship with our customers. We have to be true to our brand, true to our values,” Holub said.
Building trust is central to Argomall’s values and brand, he said. People usually only get a smartphone once every three years, so gaining customer loyalty, in this context, is about building trust.
“We want to be the shopping site that our customers return to because they trust us. Every product featured in our gallery is always available and can be ordered or pre-ordered,” he said.
Argomall offers the widest and up-to-date choices of official and genuine products customers may compare and choose from.
Argomall’s focus is all about “being true to our customers, caring about them and learning about them,” Holub said. “This is the most important thing we can do.”
“For some reason, when something goes wrong with the delivery, we are responsible for that. We chose the delivery partner. We are the people from whom the item was bought. So we do our best to ensure the items are delivered in good condition and, when an item gets lost or damaged, we take responsibility for that,” Holub said.
When delays do happen, Argomall’s argonauts maintain close coordination with customers via email, SMS and private message chats on Facebook Messenger.
Delivery personnel are also briefed on the Argomall corporate culture of personalized service.
“There’s a balance between finding a delivery person who fits our culture and ensuring that our items arrive on time. Our delivery partners and their personnel are trained on how they should greet the customer. We are still learning from the feedback we get, and we keep working on improving this important part of the delivery process using that feedback,” he said.
“If you buy an item from us and it needs repair while under warranty, “we pick it up, ship it to the repair shop, and return it to you—for free. If it is no longer under warranty, we tell you the cost of repair and ship it back and forth by COD [cash on delivery],” he said.
Argomall guarantees that all the products they sell come from the official brand manufacturers and distributors.
The biggest challenge for Argomall is delivery, according to Holub. So Argomall strives to keep improving this part of their business. Despite this, they still offer the best after-sales service they can, even where pickup and delivery of items for repair may not be the easiest thing to do.
“We eventually want to carry larger appliances, like refrigerators and washing machines among the products we offer. So we are also looking at how we can make that happen and how we can incorporate the installation of items that do need to be installed by professionals after they are delivered,” he said.
Argomall’s focus is on solid growth—strengthening its customer base that will also help push for bigger returns.
“Building our brand with our customers, suppliers, and partners is very important to us. We want to make sure that every Filipino has our smartphone in their pocket, or whatever item we sell,” Holub said.