Advisers

Cyra Dizon

Discipline

Marketing

Abstract

San Nicolas, Divisoria is one of Manila’s most iconic commercial districts, historically known for its vibrant retail scene, affordable prices, and wide variety of products catering to both individual shoppers and bulk buyers. For decades, traditional retail stores in the area thrived through strong customer foot traffic and face-to-face transactions. This study employs a descriptive-correlational research design to assess the perception of online selling among traditional retail stores in San Nicolas, Divisoria, as a basis for proposing adaptive online selling strategies. This design is appropriate for the study as it involves collecting data from store owners to describe their demographic and business profiles and to determine how they perceive online selling in terms of digital marketing strategy, investment in digital tools, customer engagement, and digital transformation. The figure present the proposed Adaptive Online Selling Plan presents a structured and practical approach to addressing the key challenges faced by traditional retail stores in San Nicolas, Divisoria in adapting to online selling. Anchored on the major variables of Digital Marketing, Investment in Digital, Customer Engagement, and Digital Transformation, the plan systematically identifies existing challenges and aligns them with clear objectives, appropriate strategies, specific strategic actions, responsible persons, time frames, and sustainability measures. The recommended actions such as conducting social media training, developing targeted online advertisements, allocating resources for digital tools and internet access, improving online customer communication, and gradually adopting digital systems for transactions, inventory, and monitoring reflect a realistic and phased approach that is suitable for small and traditional retail businesses. Discussion. The study on traditional retail stores in San Nicolas, Divisoria reveals that the perception and adoption of online selling are significantly influenced by factors such as digital marketing strategy, investment in digital tools, customer engagement, and digital transformation. Findings show that most respondents operate small-scale businesses, with the majority earning PHP 10,001–PHP 30,000 per month and employing only 1–2 workers, indicating that most stores are micro-enterprises with limited operational capacity.

Keywords

Online Selling, Strategies