Inspire Solutions Asia urges brands to measure what happens after checkout amid Philippine e-commerce growth

 

 Philippine e-commerce is expected to reach USD 24 billion in gross merchandise value in 2025, and online retail revenue is expected to increase by 15 to 20% in 2026. This growth continues in Southeast Asia, where e-commerce is forecast to reach USD 226 billion in gross merchandise value in 2026, according to the latest e-Conomy SEA report.

For Philippine businesses selling on Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop, this means more opportunities to reach new customers. However, during large-scale sales and shopping campaigns such as 11.11 and 12.12, higher order volumes in shorter time frames may test businesses' inventory accuracy, dispatch logistics, and order fulfilment capabilities.

Inspire Solutions Asia, the modular e-commerce backbone for the Philippines, believes these metrics matter as much as sales and customer acquisition.

Inspire says growth should be measured not only by how many orders businesses can take, but by how many they can fulfil.

Why the Philippines' market requires reliable execution

The Philippines has a unique e-commerce operating environment, with varying payment preferences, marketplace requirements and customer expectations that impact how and where orders are fulfilled.

Cash-on-delivery (COD) payments remain prominent in the Philippines. According to the 2026 Ecommerce Payments Momentum Report by Xendit and Cube, COD accounted for about 23% of the total value of Philippine e-commerce transactions processed on the Xendit payment platform in 2026, the highest share of any of the six Southeast Asian markets analyzed.

The report also found that 12% of Filipino respondents said nothing would convince them to stop using COD. The Philippines is projected to be the only market among those analyzed where COD will account for more than a fifth of e-commerce value in 2027.

Reliable order fulfilment becomes more important for businesses as a result. With COD orders, payment is only received upon delivery of the order. If the wrong items are shipped, delivery expectations aren't met, or order issues aren't resolved, the likelihood of an order being returned or unsuccessful increases.

Multi-marketplace selling further complicates order fulfilment. Without consolidated inventory management, stock listed and sold on one marketplace may still be available to be sold on another, even when inventory is low or sold out.

During high-volume sales and shopping campaigns, the time between detecting and rectifying these issues may impact dispatch performance and customer experience.

"A successful sale doesn't end at checkout. The inventory has to be accurate, the order has to leave on time, and someone needs to take responsibility when something goes wrong. These are the everyday operating standards that allow businesses to grow consistently," said Darwin Bustillo, CEO of Inspire Solutions Asia.

Measuring growth beyond sales

Inspire is urging e-commerce businesses operating in the Philippines to place more importance on metrics such as inventory accuracy, on-time dispatch, order exception resolution and returns processing.

These metrics provide businesses with insights into where improvements may be needed in their operations, especially during periods of increased order volume. But it's not just about measurement. Businesses need to understand how their marketplaces, warehouses and delivery partners operate, and what issues need attention.

Instead of continuing to add new service providers, staff or software to accommodate growth, Inspire is advocating for businesses to pinpoint the areas of their operations that need more visibility, alignment or execution support.

This thinking informed the development of Fusion, Inspire's e-commerce operations platform, which integrates order and warehouse management and provides visibility into inventory, dispatch, exceptions and marketplace performance.

Fusion is just one piece of Inspire's overall modular e-commerce ecosystem, which includes integrations with its suite of operational services such as importation, warehousing, fulfilment, delivery and returns. Together, the platform and services enable businesses to adopt capabilities incrementally as their operations grow.

With its experience supporting e-commerce operations in the Philippines, Inspire believes that linking visibility to execution can help businesses manage growth more consistently.

Building operational readiness beyond peak season

While sales and shopping campaigns may present additional challenges to fulfilment operations, Inspire believes that operational reliability should be a priority outside of seasonal sales events.

For local businesses, this means questioning whether their current systems are capable of handling increased order volume and sales channels without sacrificing fulfilment reliability. For international businesses looking to enter the Philippines, this means evaluating local fulfilment capabilities, technology and accountability.

"Growth alone doesn't tell the whole story. Businesses also need to know whether their operations can sustain it. Since launching in 2023, Inspire has onboarded about 40 brands and maintained an average 98% on-time dispatch rate across 1 million orders. These are some of the metrics that businesses should be looking at in addition to sales growth," Bustillo added.

As businesses review their performance during large-scale sales and shopping campaigns and prepare for the next stage of growth, Inspire hopes to raise awareness around what happens after checkout and make reliable execution a more visible metric for business growth.

About Inspire ecommerce solutions
Inspire Solutions Asia is the Philippines' modular e-commerce backbone, helping local and international brands launch and manage their operations in the country. Using Fusion, its e-commerce operations platform, and a suite of operational services, from importation and warehousing to fulfilment, delivery, and returns, Inspire bridges the technology backbone with reliable execution.

Its modular approach lets businesses adopt capabilities incrementally as they grow. Learn more at inspiresolutions.asia, explore Fusion, and follow Inspire Solutions Asia on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Filipino resignations peak in July, not after 13th-month pay, study of 275,000 employees finds

  

 Filipino employees are not resigning in droves after receiving their 13th-month pay. In fact, December is the quietest resignation month among larger employers, while July is the busiest, according to a new study from Sprout Solutions covering nearly 275,000 employee records.

The Great Filipino Workplace Mythbuster tested ten widely held beliefs against anonymized attendance, leave, payroll and separation records from more than 700 Philippine companies. The findings challenge assumptions about when employees quit, why they leave and what employers can do to retain them.

"Companies spend millions on recruitment and retention, yet some of the assumptions behind those decisions are wrong," said Patrick Gentry, CEO of Sprout. "Our data challenges where leaders expect resignations, who they think is most likely to leave, and whether salary increases actually deliver retention."

The January resignation wave is a myth

Among companies with more than 250 employees, December recorded just 16 resignations per 1,000 employees, compared with 26 in July. Across four years of data, there was no consistent January resignation surge. Even companies that paid half their 13th-month benefit mid-year showed no corresponding spike in departures.

The findings challenge a familiar assumption behind workforce planning. Employers preparing for a January hiring rush may be overlooking their actual peak resignation periods.

Other calendar-related beliefs fared differently. Employees filed leave on 10% of workdays bridging holidays and weekends, versus 4% of ordinary days. Monday absences were also higher than midweek, but only by about one employee per hundred.

Gen Z isn't the problem, early tenure is

Gen Z employees appear to resign more frequently than older colleagues. But once length of service is accounted for, approximately 90% of the apparent attrition gap between Gen Z and Millennial employees disappears.

The bigger concern is early-tenure attrition across generations.

Of every 100 new hires, 19 leave within three months, 30 within six months, and 38 within their first year. The data also shows a renewed rise in terminations around month six, coinciding with the regularization decision.

For employers, the implication is significant: recruitment and retention efforts should focus less on generational stereotypes and more on the first year of employment.

A raise alone doesn't guarantee retention

Among rank-and-file employees, 22% of those who received a salary increase without a change in role left within twelve months, compared with 12% of those who received no increase.

The study does not suggest that raises cause resignations. Counteroffers, merit-cycle timing and differences between employee groups may explain the pattern. But the findings question whether salary adjustments alone are an effective retention strategy.

Employees who received a raise alongside a promotion showed a different pattern, suggesting that career progression deserves closer attention.

Another surprising finding: higher recorded overtime was associated with lower subsequent resignation, contrary to the belief that employees working longer hours are necessarily more likely to quit. The report cautions that this does not establish overtime as a retention tool.

The strongest warning sign may be a change in behavior

Employees who eventually resigned did not take more planned leave than colleagues who stayed. And while they were generally absent more often, that difference existed long before their departure.

A more revealing pattern emerged in undertime. Employees who later resigned gradually increased their time leaving work early, from an average of 19 to 30 minutes per month over their final year, while those who stayed remained steady at around 17 minutes.

The pattern is modest at an individual level, but it points to a potentially more useful approach to workforce analytics: looking for changes against an employee's own history rather than relying on broad categories or fixed thresholds.

"We've spent years putting employees into categories like Gen Z, high absenteeism and heavy overtime, then treating those categories as predictors," said Renzo Belardo, chief marketing officer of Sprout. "But the more useful question is what has changed in an employee's own behavior. That's where the opportunity for earlier intervention lies."

Free report and workforce planning tools

The Great Filipino Workplace Mythbuster is available for free at https://evergreen.sprout.ph/ebook/the-great-filipino-workplace-mythbuster, alongside a six-question Blind Spot Check, a first-year attrition cost calculator, and practical recommendations for CEOs, CHROs and operations leaders.

The report shows how attendance, payroll and HR records that employers already collect can reveal workforce patterns that conventional reporting may miss.

About the Study

The Great Filipino Workplace Mythbuster analyzed anonymized, aggregated attendance, leave, payroll and separation records for nearly 275,000 employees at more than 700 Philippine companies that use Sprout. The main analysis covers January 2024 to August 2026; monthly resignation trends go back to 2022. No individual employee or company is identified. The findings describe associations, not causes, and reflect companies on the Sprout platform, which may differ from the wider Philippine workforce.

About Sprout Solutions Phil Inc
Sprout Solutions is the People-First AI platform for Payroll, Compliance, and Work, serving businesses across the Philippines and Southeast Asia. Founded in 2015, Sprout brings together AI-powered HR, payroll and timekeeping, recruitment, performance management, employee engagement and embedded finance solutions to help organizations operate more efficiently and support their people.

Trusted by over 2,000 companies and 400,000 users, Sprout complements its technology with Managed Services, world-class implementation, support, and customer success teams focused on long-term client outcomes. Sprout exists to impact the lives of employees by improving businesses in the communities it serves. Learn more at sprout.ph.

Call for Photo Entries for 'TPSW 2026', Celebrating Volunteerism in Asia

  

In celebration of International Volunteer Year 2026, the Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) invites photographers across Asia to submit entries for 'Ten Photos to Shake the World', spotlighting local volunteers driving community change.

In celebration of the International Volunteer Year (IVY) 2026, the Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) is inviting amateur and professional photographers across Asia to submit their work for the Ten Photos to Shake the World (TPSW 2026) for a chance to win cash prizes and showcase their advocacies. 

As a pan-Asian non-profit committed to sustainable development across the region, ASSIST centers TPSW 2026 on the theme “Volunteers in Frame: Capturing the Spirit of Volunteerism and Social Impact.” The competition spotlights the transformative role local volunteers play in driving civic action and social change – an effort ASSIST is proud to align with the spirit of IVY 2026.

The Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV), Toily Kurbanov, says about TPSW 2026: "Too often, volunteers are the people behind the scenes. In the spirit of the International Volunteer Year, this competition puts them in the frame and highlights the role they play in building stronger communities."

First launched in 2011, TPSW was created to elevate diverse themes of social responsibility through photography. Following a brief hiatus after 2022, the competition makes its high-profile return in 2026 with a renewed focus on local volunteerism. The competition is open to amateur and professional photographers across the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, and Thailand, inviting visual storytellers to capture the unsung efforts driving local progress. 

“Volunteerism is love put to action,” says Francis Macatulad, representing ASSIST. Beyond being a noble ideal, volunteerism serves as a crucial driving force behind ASSIST’s social development and community transformation projects across Asia. “Volunteers are the hearts, hands and voices of an organization's social development program---unpaid and often unsung heroes. With TPSW, ASSIST Asia hopes to celebrate their passion and recognize their invaluable contribution to nation-building,” he adds.

ASSIST Rep also encourages photographers to participate and amplify grassroots volunteer efforts through photography and storytelling.

Participants are invited to submit original photographs that illustrate local volunteer efforts, with top entries competing for cash prizes, international recognition, and features across organizational platforms. 

Submit your entries now and have an opportunity to win awards and cash prizes! 

Submission of entries is extended until November 20, 2026.

For mechanics and questions, visit the TPSW official Facebook page.

About Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST)

ASSIST (Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation) is a self-sustaining pan-Asian NGO working at the intersection of social impact and sustainable transformation. True to its role as a Partner for Progress, ASSIST collaborates with corporate and institutional funders to deliver co-created initiatives as well as award-winning flagship programs that convert social investments into lasting local capacity. Explore our work and partner with us: www.assistasia.org

P.A. Properties Showcases Solida House Model Mock-Up at Pag-IBIG Fund’s 2nd National Housing Expo

 

P.A. Alvarez Properties and Development Corporation (P.A. Properties) marked a milestone at the Pag-IBIG Fund’s 2nd National Housing Expo, held on October 19–20, 2026, at the SMX Convention Center, by showcasing an actual mock-up of its Solida house model for the first time.

Moving beyond traditional property displays, P.A. Properties gave prospective homeowners the opportunity to experience the design, layout, and features of the Solida model firsthand, helping them envision their future homes and take a step closer to homeownership.

The initiative reflected the company’s willingness to explore new approaches and push its capabilities to create a more engaging homebuying experience. The results demonstrated the initiative’s effectiveness, with P.A. Properties recorded 32 unit reservations during the two-day event.

P.A. Properties Hankyu Hanshin, the company’s joint venture behind the Idesia brand, also recorded 9 unit reservations during the two-day event, further strengthening the group’s overall sales performance and demonstrating continued market interest in its housing offerings.

Why SOLIDA?

For P.A. Properties, SOLIDA represents more than a house model. It embodies the company’s product philosophy: Matibay, Maganda, Mabilis, at Abot-kaya — durable, beautiful, efficiently delivered, and affordable.

The model reflects the company’s commitment to providing Filipino families with practical, well-designed, and attainable homes that deliver quality, design, and value.

A Milestone for the Team and the Brand

Bringing the Solida mock-up to the expo for the first time challenged P.A. Properties to go beyond its usual practices. The initiative required extensive coordination, adaptability, and teamwork, bringing out the best in the people behind the project.

Architect Marwin Laro, Vice President for Planning, Design and Engineering, highlighted the collaboration behind the achievement.

“This first-time initiative challenged us to go beyond our usual processes and work together to turn the concept into reality. Seeing the mock-up come to life made all the hard work worthwhile,” Laro said.

The successful showcase of the Solida mock-up reflects P.A. Properties’ commitment to continuously improve how it serves aspiring Filipino homeowners. Through innovative housing solutions, thoughtfully designed communities, and customer-focused initiatives, the company remains dedicated to making homeownership more accessible and attainable.

As P.A. Properties continues to grow and innovate, it invites Filipino families to explore its range of housing offerings and discover a home that suits their needs, lifestyle, and budget.

“This milestone reflects our commitment to continuously find better ways to serve Filipino families. We remain focused on providing quality, affordable housing options and making the journey toward homeownership more accessible to the communities we serve,” said Marianne Reyna Lina-Cruz, CEO & President of P.A. Properties.

P.A. Properties’ participation in the 2nd National Housing Expo reinforces its commitment to making homeownership more attainable through thoughtfully designed housing and customer-focused initiatives.

About P.A. Alvarez Properties and Development Corporation

Nestled in San Pedro, Laguna, P.A. Alvarez Properties and Development Corporation (P.A. Properties) is a leading developer of low to medium-cost housing communities in Southern Luzon. Since its establishment in 1994, the company has crafted over 30,000 homes across key Philippine provinces, with plans to build an additional 20 communities in the next 5 years. P.A. Properties, guided by the tagline "Behind Every Home is a Story," not only addresses the nation's housing backlog but also actively contributes to economic growth. Through philanthropic initiatives, such as hospital donations in Cabuyao, providing right of way in Pampanga for civic centers, and establishing SanJo's markets in provinces like Laguna and Bulacan, the company weaves a narrative of community development and nationwide impact.