By Inside Retail Asia on February 26, 2014

The Philippines’ SM Investments Corporation plans to launch an e-commerce business in two years to target shoppers at home.

“If we can’t bring them into the store, then (we’ll) go to the house and sell them,” said chairwoman Teresita Sy-Coson.

She said e-commerce would be an additional channel and not replace its traditional retail focus.

Its decision to sell online has been also triggered by the intensified competition with Robinsons Retail Holdings which is continuously expanding.

Online commerce in the Philippines is expected to grow 10 per cent annually over the next five years, according to the Philippine group of e-commerce merchants.

SM Investments currently operates more than 230 supermarkets, hypermarkets and department stores and 48 shopping malls across the country.