No stopping the party with home-based celebrations supplier C’est Ca

The pandemic has given people few reasons to celebrate, and this is bad news for 34-year old gift shop C’est ça. Like countless other businesses not considered essential, the store struggled with staying viable during the strict lockdown period last year.

“We lost two months of business. Of course, our people are very important to us so there were no problems in terms of like salary for them okay. But that was big for us because it was such a big blow on our sales,” said Toons Canoy, entrepreneur, who added corporate events were among his biggest sales draw.

Like similarly-sized businesses in its niche sector, C’est Ca took a ‘zombie’ approach to digitalization pre-pandemic, that is, automating some part of the business process but maintaining an analog approach too.

In 2015, as competition in the online marketplace heated up, Toons brought C’est Ca online, making a virtual store

“It’s fight or flight you can either be eaten up by the moment or tell yourself that no we have to move forward and we have to really make these decisions because that’s really all you can do at that point,” Toons shared

But again, riding the wave, C’est Ca had to fully embrace digitization quickly after the pandemic. “When the pandemic hit, [my brother and I] doubled down with our web developer, with our Instagram and social media ads, to really make the customer journey as convenient,” he shared. From choosing and customizing the creative gift package to delivery, C’est Ca took everything online and chose broadband connection to do so.

“It’s been great for us, it’s been supporting our business, we’ve been thriving with it so we thank Converge for being able to support us and really connect us with more people,” Toons said. Once it did, a world of possibilities, including a new market base and enhanced online presence opened up for the shop.

“It was a completely different market with completely different purchasing behaviours. We were fortunate enough that when we made ourselves more visible online, gusto pala kami ng tao, When you gain new clients online, you could be referred to via online also, by them promoting it on social media,” he added.

Converge offers small and medium enterprises affordable broadband plans through FlexiBiz Daytime which gives an option to double the speeds at either during peak hours of the business’ operations.. These plans offer speeds up to 300 Mbps

“We recognize the struggle of SMEs to stay afloat during the pandemic. As they comprise 99% of all Philippine businesses, we believe it’s our duty to lend them a helping hand at this time, through economical and cost-effective broadband solutions, for them to still be able to reach their customers,” said Chief Operations Officer Jesus C. Romero.

Toons Canoy, entrepreneur and owner of C’est ça explains that their 34-year old gift shop
had to embrace digitization quickly in order to survive the pandemic.

By partnering with Converge, C’est ça was able to expand its market base and became a provider
of choice for celebrations to more customers online.

From choosing and customizing the creative gift package to delivery, C’est Ca took everything
online partnered with Converge fiber broadband connection to do so.