Pinoydelikasi.com: An idea that clicked

With Pinoydelikasi.com, Jovelito M. Cipriano not only built a successful business, but also created a multi-award winning e-commerce model. Its products are not hi-tech or scientific breakthroughs, but things closer to our hearts and palates—Filipino delicacies such as danggit (dried siganid fish), pusit (dried squid), and dried mangoes. Donald Trump always harps on "location, location, location" to his Apprentice contestants, but Cipriano’s store is in the worldwide web, which offers global reach and overhead cost-efficiency. His brand name Pinoydelikasi.com was derived from his company’s mission statement "Lutong Pinoy, Delicious Kasi," which was suggested by his secretary. In traditional business, it’s important to have a unique brand name to identify your company. But on the Internet, it doesn’t hurt to register around 50 other names, just as Cipriano did by listing names such as filipinostores.com, lutongpinoy.com or philippinemangoes.com to drive traffic to his site or prevent unwanted competition. Despite setting up an e-commerce site during the dotcom bust, the triple degree holder from the University of the Philippines (computer science, mathematics and tourism) took advantage of his consumers’ familiarity with using the Internet to purchase products and their desire for Filipino comfort food. Passion to sell Cipriano’s best asset is his passion to sell. He was territory manager for IBM Philippines and corporate sales executive for American Express International. Besides selling his delicacies online, he’s promoting the livelihood of fishermen and farmers from different regions of the Philippines. He serves as the vice chairman of the Philippine Unique Products and Traders Association (PUPTA), which aims to "encourage Filipino entrepreneurs engaged in wholesale or retail of rare Philippine products to showcase the Filipino’s ingenuity and promote the Philippines as a contender in the global market of unique wares." The idea for his company flashed when Cipriano carried almost 60 kilos worth of delicacy pasalubong (courtesy gifts) for his family and friends on one of his return trips as territory manager assigned to Southern Philippines. He says "pasalubong," bringing loved ones something unique from a trip away, is part of Filipino tradition. While pasalubong was a courtesy, some of his family members insisted on paying. Already earning a profit from each trip, he thought of turning pasalubong into a business venture. He quit his high-paying job at IBM and started Pinoy Unlimited Inc., the parent company of Pinoydelikasi.com. It was difficult finding investors, since he had no background in starting up a business. He took courses on basics of exporting, merchandising and packaging at the Philippine Trade and Training Center (PTTC). With an initial investment of P10,000, a computer, 24-hour access to the Internet, some storage space out of his home and nine product lines to sell, Pinoydelikasi.com was up and running by January 2000. Hard start The first two years was difficult and Cipriano nearly gave up. "Pinagtawanan ako noong una (At first, I was laughed at) — from making a lot at IBM to selling danggit and pusit." The budding entrepreneur set up a retail store patterned after his web site, for local sales. He had to close shop after a year to concentrate on the growing export market. Logistics were another problem as his first customers were canceling orders when they found out that the price of shipping was actually higher than the product. He kept on going because of his burning passion to sell and succeed as a world-class exporter. This was also buoyed by positive feedback he got from the customers who emailed him regularly. Cipriano initially got his products from the supermarket, but when he got an order for one cubic meter of dried mangoes from abroad, he knew he had to get his goods straight from the manufacturer. He now gets his products from the original suppliers. His danggit comes straight from the fisher community on Bantayan Island in Cebu. His uraro (arrow root cookies) comes from Marinduque, where supplier Mita Rejano has found an outlet for the native delicacy. As his inventory expanded to 100 product lines, his sources also began to include key areas such as Bulacan, General Santos, Iloilo, Bacolod, Ilocos, Bicol, Pangasinan, Quezon, and Davao. From selling to consumers, Cipriano shifted to selling directly to businesses abroad. He also "initiated tie-ups between Filipino stores in Hong Kong, Cyprus, London, Switzerland and the US." He created a franchise business by offering exclusive two-year deals to these stores to distribute his products. Starting from the P10,000 seed money, his business has grown into a P30 million enterprise, delivering Filipino products to the US, Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Cipriano has bagged awards such as the 2006 Best Practices in E-Commerce for Small and Medium Enterprises at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Digital Opportunity Center Awards, Best in E-Commerce at the World Summit Awards in Dubai (2003), and one of the six best E-Distribution models honored by the World Trade Organization (2002). As his business grew, he didn’t forget the people who helped him. For his supplier in Bantayan Island, Cipriano gave subsidized cell phones for better communication. He now lectures at PTTC, where he handles "Basic and Advanced Exporting," "Merchandising" and "E-Commerce." "Our aim is to gather all of these unique Filipino products under one umbrella group and export them bearing the seal of PUPTA. That way, customers will be able to identify that the product is exclusive and unique, and can’t be bought elsewhere. We want the product seal to be synonymous to excellence," he said. With the success of Pinoydelikasi.com, Cipriano added two more websites to showcase more Filipino ingenuity. Through Galingpinoy.com, he offers non-perishable goods such as Christmas lanterns, baskets, capiz ornaments, narra furniture and barong tagalog. He also created Kusinaatbp.com, a free Filipino recipes portal which is a value-added service to Pinoydelikasi.com customers who often request for recipes to Filipino delights such as adobo (chicken or pork simmered in vinegar) and kare-kare (oxtail in peanut sauce). - GMAPinoy.TV