Leading online food and grocery platform foodpanda recently unveiled a new lineup of products and initiatives designed to bolster its support for partner vendors.
The latest products and tools were announced during the company’s recent partner vendors summit, named “CRAVE: Creating Relationships and Advancing Vendor Experiences.” The grand event not only served as a platform for underscoring foodpanda’s commitment to forging strong bonds with its partners, but also celebrated the success and achievements of these businesses.
foodpanda Philippines Commercial Director Luis Antonio Yanga expressed enthusiasm about hosting the summit and connecting with their partner vendors. “At foodpanda, we believe in fostering meaningful relationships with our partners. We are eager to share the innovative initiatives and remarkable products we have for them so that together, we can drive progress and revolutionize the online food delivery industry.”
Vendor support for long-time growth
To accommodate the diverse needs of every vendor, Yanga highlighted that foodpanda adopts a hypercare approach to ensure that programs and solutions are tailored to the needs of its partner merchants, including those who are part of their pandapick program.
First introduced last year, pandapick is foodpanda’s preferred partnership program that allows its app users to discover dishes from brands available only on foodpanda.They also offer merchants access to elevated benefits only available to pandapick partners. “It is crucial to understand each vendor’s top growth objectives and pain points. From those criteria, we will start to customize the benefits most relevant to them – including additional visibility on the app, marketing support, and tools to drive their growth,” Yanga noted.
Prior to the summit, a special gathering was organized to bring together foodpanda’s pandapick partners for a meaningful engagement and facilitate discussions on how foodpanda can contribute to their growth.
foodpanda also offers app users exclusive discounts and deals for dine-in experiences. To drive growth in this segment, foodpanda is introducing an enhanced QR Code scanning process for dine-in orders. This new feature is a strategic response to a rising market demand, evident by the country’s QR Code transactions totaling P 32.7 billion in Q1 2023.
Through Tabsquare, foodpanda partner vendors will be provided with a supply of QR Codes tagged to their own Tabsquare accounts. Moreover, restaurant owners can also review the transactions via TabSquare’s analytics. The partner vendors who attended the summit were provided with a firsthand end-to-end experience using TabSquare, showcasing its convenience, seamless operations, and efficiency.
“By embracing this innovation, we help streamline restaurant operations and simplify customers’ ordering process. We are confident that by offering services such as dine-in and pick-up, we can greatly enhance the value we provide to our partner vendors. These services are specifically designed to help them effectively meet the ever-evolving demands of today’s consumers.”
To provide more insightful perspectives about the latest trends in the food industry, cloud restaurant company CloudEats was also invited to the summit as one of the keynote speakers.
Recognizing exceptional partner vendors
To highlight the achievements and success stories of these businesses, Yanga added that they have recognition programs such as the CRAVE Awards to commend partner vendors who showed exceptional entrepreneurial skills.
During the summit, the prestigious CRAVE Awards honored exceptional partner vendors for their remarkable achievements in brand growth, operational excellence, and outstanding customer service.
Mom Rose Chicken Lechon, a pandapick partner and one of the keynote speakers, began as a small Bacolod-based restaurant. Since becoming a foodpanda partner vendor in 2022, they have expanded to four branches, with a fifth one set to open soon.
They spoke of the gratitude they have for foodpanda for boosting their online presence and expanding their reach across the region. “foodpanda never fails to make us feel valued by recognizing our hardwork and efforts. How they care for their partner vendors and assist through every milestone and step has led us to decide to be a pandapick partner.”
Boosting support for MSMEs
This month’s celebration of MSME Week serves as a crucial reminder of the substantial and invaluable contributions made by micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the Philippine economy.
MSMEs account for about 90% of businesses, around 70% of employment, and 50% of gross domestic product worldwide. Within the Philippines, recent data from Philippine Statistics Authority revealed that around 1.076 million establishments, or 99.9% of local businesses, fall under the MSME category.
foodpanda also has thousands of partner merchants and shops in their food delivery and grocery services, most of which are MSMEs. “We believe businesses across industries – particularly small and medium enterprises – should learn how to adapt to survive. That’s where we can come in and help,” said Yanga.
In addition to the extended reach and added income stream, Yanga revealed other forms of support that foodpanda provides to empower MSMEs. One such initiative involves a partnership with the Online Food Vendors Marketing Cooperative (OFVMC). This collaboration encourages member contribution, shared responsibility, and offers an opportunity to earn interest in their share capital, while expanding their industry network.
Helping businesses expand their market share, foodpanda has also joined forces with Security Bank Finance. Through this partnership, foodpanda partner merchants can access affordable and accessible loan products.
Yanga also conveyed their appreciation for the collaboration with the government, acknowledging the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as a strong supporter of the MSME sector. “We value the opportunity to work alongside DTI in supporting their dedicated efforts to advance the MSME sector – the backbone of our economy. You can count on our unwavering commitment to contribute to the growth and success of MSMEs as we help drive the nation forward.”
