As an adaptive and truly dynamic organization, the Primer Group of Companies has been going through digital transformation for several years now. Today, the ever-expanding retail and distribution company has been making strides in doing just that.
From just establishing its presence online and in the country’s biggest e-commerce platforms, the Primer Group and its brands have been growing and maturing digitally, and even receiving multiple awards for doing so.
At the recently concluded Digicon Omni 2020, a virtual conference on “Navigating the Post-Digital Age” featuring global keynote speakers and renowned experts last October 5 to 9, Primer Group’s very own Vice President Paul Vincent Sy, along with consultant and Katapult CEO Albette Buddahim, shared about Primer Group’s digital journey.
In the past six to eight months, Primer Group has been reaching higher digital maturity levels day by day, and it has been done by pouring its efforts into its people, processes, and technologies.
Primer Group has created a digital committee focused on Primer’s digital transformation journey in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
The 10-member digital committee, along with its subteams, covers all aspects of e-commerce, such as integrations and marketing.
The company also invested in its people and provided training and certifications to get the right mix who can enable digital and e-commerce growth.
The team also strengthened its hardware and software architecture to improve e-commerce systems. This is also to help enable the web development teams to further our digital platforms.
Primer also invested in its own facilities and system for warehouse and logistics to innovate its distribution. It is also making its last-mile delivery capability better through its own and a 3rd party contractor.
In terms of processes, Primer did not instantly automate everything. Primer reevaluated and innovated its processes, and invested in its systems one step at a time. One of the first few things it did was to fix its systems first– and continues to do so– before coming up with even more innovations.
The company also enhanced the capability of each pillar of its e-commerce structure, including account servicing, customer service, digital marketing, merchandising, tech and development, data analytics, and business development.
With these milestones, even the Internet Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines, who is the organizer of the said conference, acknowledged that “what Primer has laid out here is quite phenomenal”.
“We have been fluid. We adapt based on how the business progress and on the macro environment. To progress, we have to look more deeply into our CRM and develop our customer engagement programs. Eventually, we’re planning to link our online efforts with our offline, as we are looking at an omnichannel development,” says Paul Sy about the future of digital for Primer Group of Companies.
Primer Group has already taken huge steps to establish its presence and dominance in the digital world, and it will continue its journey as the road to digital presents huge opportunities and a bright future for the retail company.