Honoring tenant partners in the first SM Partners Summit

MANILA, Philippines – SM partners and tenants gathered together to celebrate SM Supermalls’ thirtieth year leading the retail industry through the first ever SM Partners Summit. They were treated to a forward-looking conference for retail industry players and business owners that aims to provide practical and inspiring knowledge through discussions of new and innovative ways to elevate the customer experience into a memorable one. The two-day summit comprised of a Retail Summit forum and SM Partners Awards Night, and was held at the SMX Convention Center of the Mall of Asia Complex.

With the market’s adaptation to digital shopping, traditional retail businesses find it important to keep with the consumer’s growing needs and demands for shopping experience beyond the brick-and-mortar concept. To create a venue for deep discussion among retailers and business partners, SM leveraged on this big idea for the forum “Bricks Click: Creating the New Marketplace”.

Invited retailers and tenants had the opportunity to gain insights from esteemed guest speakers including entrepreneur and inspirational speaker Francis Kong, Disney Institute Regional Business Development Manager Wing-Hoe Tan, and Samsung Electronics Vice-President for Online David Kang. Panel discussions further elaborated the topics, with executives and veterans of known companies such as Samsung, Max’s, McDonald’s and Google contributing their insights and business experiences.

Kong explained that a business should learn to utilize social media and technology not to compete with the traditional way of retail, but to enhance and further develop its reach. Technology, according to Kong, is not the competitor of traditional retail, but its complement.

Tan stressed in his speech that positive results and customer delight root from company culture, from how they treat their customers to how they treat their own employees.

“An organization must cultivate the same internal customer service within their employees, gauged with the same intentionality as how they do with their external ones. It is not written on any handbook; rather, it is already imbibed in the employees’ hearts and minds to provide exceptional service,” Tan said.

Kang ended the session with his emphasis on how technology heavily influences consumers’ decisions, but in the end, the brick-and-mortar shops are still their preferred way of shopping for their desired products.

Host RJ Ledesma with panelists (from left to right) Francis Kong, Hiebert Dimagiba, Head of Mobile & IT Business, Samsung Philippines; Aitor Gomez Maguregui, Head of New Business Sales, Google Philippines; Mark Gamboa, Director of Marketing, Max’s Group; and Margot Torres, Executive Vice President, McDonald’s Philippines

There were over 1,000 participants who attended the summit, hailing from businesses in the Philippines and abroad, all pioneers and heads of SM’s valued tenant companies.

On the second day of the summit, key partners and tenants have been recognized by SM for their exemplary performance in the SM Partners Awards Night. There have been 54 brands honored with the Most Innovative Store Design Award, SM Green Retail Award, Most Popular Brand Award, Best in Marketing Award and Top Partners Award.

SMPHI President Hans T. Sy (3rd from right), SM Supermalls President Annie Garcia (right) and SVP for Operations Steven Tan (left) present the SM Top Partners Awards for inline stores to Octagon in the IT category received by Jon-Jon San Agustin, Thess Manganti of Let’s Face It in the Wellness category, Xandra Ramos and Precy Ramos of National Bookstore in the Specialty category, Virgilio Lim of Bench in the Fashion category, and William Tan of Jollibee in the Food category during the first SM Partners Awards Night

SM Green Retail Award Recipients– Starbucks Philippines’ Store Development Manager Quito Lopez, Papemelroti’s Managing Director Patsy Paterno, PLDT and Smart Communications President and CEO Napoleon Nazareno and Smart/PLDT EVP and Head of Enterprise International & Carrier Business Eric Alberto, Fashion: Sanuk’s President and CEO Jimmy Thai; Goldilocks President Richard Yee and Marketing Director Pinky Yee

SM congratulates the award recipients, and invites its retail partners to join them in facing the challenges and opportunities of the evolving retail landscape.

The Partners Summit gives honor to the excellent performance of well-loved brands in the retail industry. SM thanks and recognizes its retail partners and tenants for their continuous support in the years to come, taking the customer experience to greater heights.

For more information, you may visit their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Viber Public Chat. ADVT.