BUSINESS TECH | E-commerce platforms team up with Smart, enabling digital lifestyles
Shoppers who frequently shop on Zalora and toktokmall can now easily add to cart and checkout Smart Bro Pocket LTE, PLDT Home WiFi, and its bundles, and have them delivered straight to their homes.
PLDT wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc (Smart) has made it easier for customers to access telco products and devices on e-commerce platforms ZALORA, toktokmall, and Pick.A.Roo.
ZALORA is Asia Pacific’s leading platform of online fashion retailers with a strong presence in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Taiwan. On the other hand, toktokmall is a Philippine-based online marketplace with over thousands of active online resellers. Lastly, Pick.A.Roo is a new all-in-one and on-demand premium lifestyle delivery app which offers a from store-to-door shopping service.
With the help of Airspring Telecoms – Smart’s retail partner, shoppers who frequently shop on ZALORA and toktokmall can now easily add to cart and checkout Smart Bro Pocket LTE, PLDT Home WiFi, and its bundles, and have them delivered straight to their homes.
Smart will also provide SIM cards to toktok riders who are not Smart subscribers, to ensure better communication during deliveries.
Meanwhile Pick.A.Roo patrons can easily tap to buy Smart SIMs and Smart Bro devices on the website or app and have them delivered hassle-free, through the support of Remitbox. Smart customers will also be able to purchase airtime load via Pick.A.Roo by fourth quarter of 2021.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to serve our customers, our true north, by providing them with simple and convenient access to our data products and devices, by being available right there in the virtual places where they shop. Our partnerships with these well-known digital lifestyle brands enable us to reach and deliver our services to them straight to their homes,” said Precy P. Katigbak, first vice president and head of National Key Accounts at PLDT and Smart. “We would also like to thank our retail partners, Airspring Telecoms and Remitbox, for working with Smart and helping us cater to the growing demand for data and connectivity nationwide.”
PH’s most number of data users
The wide availability of Smart’s products and services complements its nationwide network coverage. To support Smart’s mobile customers, Smart had increased as of end-June 2021 the number of its base stations to over 68,500, up 16%, compared with end-2020. This includes more than 4,500 LTE base stations deployed in the first half of the year alone. Smart currently serves the most number of data users in the Philippines at 39.5 million.
Smart has also been cited as the fastest 5G network in the Philippines as reported by Ookla®, the global leader in internet testing and analysis. Smart also recently reaffirmed its dominance as the country’s fastest mobile network for the fourth year in a row, based on analysis by Ookla of tests taken with Speedtest® covering the Q1-Q2 2021.
Supporting Smart’s mobile network is PLDT’s extensive fiber infrastructure, now at over 524,000 kilometers nationwide as of end-June 2021.
PLDT and Smart’s initiatives to provide connectivity for all is aligned with the companies’ long-standing commitment to help the Philippines attain the UN Sustainable Development Goal #9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.