By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
RETAILERS are expected to book up to 15% in revenue growth this year to around P5.4 trillion, driven by healthy remittances and a growing population, the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) said.
“We are forecasting a 10-15% increase for 2025 for the retail industry from both in-store and online retail transactions in the Philippines,” PRA President Roberto S. Claudio told reporters last week.
In 2024, the industry is estimated to have generated P4.7 trillion in revenue.
“People are out, shopping malls are full, and the traffic is back, which means people are shopping, so we are looking forward to 2025 to be a banner year,” he said.
“There are so many infrastructure projects that will be completed. Overseas Filipino worker (OFW) remittances continue to go up. Population continues to grow. So there are many factors that will contribute to the growth of retail, especially with the advent of online channels,” he added.
He said that the industry still wants the government to include goods sold online to be subject to value-added tax (VAT).
In October, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed into law Republic Act No. 12023, which amended the National Revenue Code of 1997 and imposed a 12% VAT on foreign digital service providers.
“In the implementing rules and regulations (IRR), there’s a provision that digital goods are not included but only intangible ones like Netflix and Disney (which are) services,” Mr. Claudio said.
“With the advent of e-commerce … you will not be subject to tax if the consignee is an individual and not a store. It is not covered by tax. That is what we are asking for because it is a big thing,” he added.
Sporting goods retailer Quorum International, Inc., which operates the Toby’s Sports chain, said it is budgeting P100 million to open four more stores this year.
“For Toby’s, we continue to grow. We now have 75 stores. We are planning to open three or four more stores before the end of 2025,” according to Mr. Claudio, founder and chairman of Quorum.
“Of the 75 stores, 24 are franchised. The rest are company-owned. So, we will continue with that. And then we’re growing online. Tobys.com is already contributing the equivalent of 10 stores,” he added.
The company has three formats: Toby’s Sports, Runnr, and Urban Athletics. The plan is to open three more Toby’s Sports and one Urban Athletics store.
“We don’t have locations yet… we’re planning to (open a store at) the airport. That will be our first store in an airport,” he said.
He said the plan to open an airport store is driven by the rehabilitation of the Manila International Airport and the recently signed law granting VAT refunds to non-resident tourists.
“We expect the tourist market to be a very big component, so we’re going to position ourselves then to tap the foreign tourists,” he added.
The P100-million budget “includes fit-out, inventory, and staffing. We are now focused on outside Metro Manila,” he added.
He said that the IRR for the VAT refund law is expected to be done by the end of February, with the implementation of the VAT refund scheme expected to be smooth.
“Part of the provision of the bill is to contract an international service provider that is used to giving refunds. So they already have a standard form, a standard system of collecting,” he said.
“Everything will be done electronically… So you get your refund either on a credit card or via an e-wallet. We are proposing not to issue cash refunds, which is hard and can be abused or subject to corruption,” he added.
He said the organization is proposing that services be included in the VAT refund scheme.
“We’re looking at it. We’re trying to recommend that it should be included. Because South Korea and Thailand are giving out VAT refunds for cosmetic procedures,” he added.