Sustainability is one of Unilever’s core missions, with four focus areas to deliver on: climate, nature, plastics, and livelihoods. When it comes to livelihoods, Unilever has a goal of helping 2.5 million SMEs in their global retail value chain grow their own businesses by 2026.
Unilever’s Kabisig Summit is key to scaling the impact of this livelihood goal. The multi-leg program equips one of the Philippines’ major demographics – sari-sari store owners – with modern business know-how. Here, these microenterprises learn about efficient business operations, future-ready digitization, and resilience training for emergencies, among other things.
Not only does this empower Unilever’s customers, but it also tackles sustainability from an economic perspective. Sari-sari stores are a major economic force, making approximately P8 billion in sales in 2023.
It also has cultural significance because of its ubiquity in most Filipino neighborhoods, and its ability to help Filipino families fulfill duties at home while making a living.
With 1.3 million sari-sari stores spread across the country as a source of livelihood and a touchpoint for social connection within their communities, it’s a worthy mission to help them thrive with the times.
Bringing the summit to the streets
In order to mount an impactful and malasakit-driven program, Unilever listened to sari-sari store owners and adjusted to their needs. For example, a day’s income is crucial to these store owners, and taking a day off to attend the summit elsewhere would not be ideal.
To minimize time away from their businesses, the Kabisig Summit brought the workshops straight to their streets with “kalye-serye” training sessions at partner store venues. It then evolved to have both online and onground sessions to reach more business owners.
The summit is also designed to champion peer-to-peer learning, because who else would better understand their challenges and needs than a fellow SME owner?
Building future-ready businesses
The Kabisig Summit is also about helping sari-sari store owners build a better future for their businesses. In the spirit of sustainability, the company empowers participants to become “future-ready Kabisigs” with tech.
Unilever provides participants with access to their owned apps and point-of-sale (POS) platforms for more efficient order fulfillment and business management processes. It also equips them with expanded payment modes for efficiency.
To stock up their stores, Unilever gives them an app that lets them be the first to know about the best promotions while also ordering and tracking items conveniently from one platform.
According to a commissioned study on Kabisig Summit in 2021, 76% said their earnings and savings increased while 79% reported business growth. It is also reported that 91% of the participants are women. Numbers like these speak to the viability and resilience of sari-sari stores as a source of livelihood, especially with the right support.
“At Unilever, we believe that empowering MSMEs is an equally important segment in our sustainability agenda,” said Fredy Ong, Unilever Philippines’ chairman and CEO. “The Kabisig Summit is important and personal to me not only because I concurrently head our sales function, but because I am [a] testament to how a small business can change people’s lives for the better.”
Ong, whose family supported itself with a humble retail business at their local market in his childhood, is a testament to the positive impact MSMEs can have on lives. “The success of sari-sari stores is also the Filipino people’s success,” said Ong.
Want to learn more about the Kabisig Summit? Read more at the Unilever Philippines website. – Rappler.com