Interview With Divisoria.com Founder Monching Romano

[bizsum]

Finally,  I was able to interview www.Divisoria.com founder Monching Romano.  And he also registered sa PMT as monchingr.

His company is now a 5-star top service shopping site of Yahoo! Shopping.  And not many Pinoys, nor anybody for that matter, can get that high a rating everyday.

And if you want to know how a successful Pinoy e-commerce store operates, he is the Man.  Monching is one of the very few Pinoys whom I consider a guru in e-commerce business.  You will surely learn  lot from him.  I have known Monching since Peyups days.  He has a legendary sense of humor - ka-level ni Conan O'Brian.  Wait, baka more of Rex Navarette, he he he.

Below are the list of initial questions that I emailed and he replied back.  You can ask more questions!

Hope this help everyone.


1. Monching, to start with, would you mind giving our readers some background on what your site is all about?
As a positioning statement - Divisoria.com will be the Amazon.com for the overseas Pinoy - where they can shop for all the Philippine products that they may need - in the easiest and fastest way possible.

2. Can you tell us about how Divisoria.com first got started on the Internet? What made you guys decide to start Divisoria.com? 
Revenge is the mother of Divisoria.com. I previously launched a similar concept together with some college buddies.  I got f*cked. So the best way to get back is to fight them in the marketplace.

3. Who made your web site and shopping cart?  Was it internally developed or did you use 3rd-party software?  How much automation have you done?
Since i don't know a single HTML or programming code, everything about the website is outsourced. The shopping cart is a third party service.

4. How long did it take before you made your first sale?
Within an hour - because i had advertising support when I went live.

5. Without exactly revealing to us, can you give us a creative answer on how much your sales are?  What are your best-selling products?  Are your customers mostly Pinoy overseas in the U.S, Middle East and Europe?
It pays for the bills and the green fees.


The biggest market is still the U.S. Europe is catching on with all the new nurses migrating there.


6.  How do you bring in traffic?  From natural search, PPC (please specify), directories, online ads, blogs, etc?  Where is the traffic predominantly coming from?
I've tried most traffic-generating tactics - banner adds, tie-ups, PPC, search engines, email mktg. Which one is the best? Depends on your marketing objectives - customer generation? customer retention? referrals?


7.  Where do you get your suppliers?
Mostly from friends and business contacts - medyo personal, for better service and price


8. How many products do you currently carry?
I've stopped counting.


9.  How do you ship them?  From the Philippines or do you have someone ship from the U.S.?
Its a combination of shipping them here and form the U.S.


10. How many people do you have?
we're very lean - 4


11. How many hours do you spend running the business?
I can't work past 3pm

12. What do you think has helped to make your site so successful?
Focused and disciplined marketing plus an obsession for customer service


13. What is currently your most challenging issue? What is the most difficult part of running your e-commerce store?
Only one - piracy

14. Can you describe to us some of the funniest or most unusual customer interactions you had?
We got special orders for so-en panties and pang-kudkud ng niyog (mind you, kasama yung kabayo ha)


15. Can you give us some background of yourself? Where did you come from, and what was your experience before you first got started online?
I have a Math degree from UP, then 10 yrs of product marketing management before doing Divisoria.com

16.  Describe the marketplace now as against when you started.
It's easier now for newcomers - market is used to doing online transactions


17. What major mistakes do you see other e-commerce entrepreneurs are making?
By trying to be everything to everybody


18.  How do you see your e-store 5 years from now?
We foresee more products and services - but still focused on the overseas pinoy.


19.  What other websites do you have?  And what do they do?
They are all business sites:

www.redribbonbakeshop.com - take orders for US deliveries
www.airoma.ph - brochure site for my air freshener business

20. What is your advice for would-be internet entrepreneurs?
Running an internet business is still running a business, only faster.

Maraming salamat Monching and welcome to PMT!

[nailbiter]

Welcome to PMT, Monching!

Publish natin yung interview sa PMT Blog!

[FutureGizmo]

^ My thoughts exactly. I've also stickied this thread. I think having lots of threads like these will inspire PMT members to find their profitable niche on the net.

Let's invite more successful Pinoy online (and offline) entrepreneurs in the forum so we can learn from them!

PS. bizsum, can we republish this interview in the PMT Blog? Baka copyrighted e

[bizsum]

FG, sure you can republish.  This interview was exclusively for PMT.

[bakasan]

wow, ang galing!tumatanggap ba si sir monching ng supplier?

[jeb]

another inspirational and motivational post.  

[Emo]

@fgiz, ayan nasimulan na pala ni bizsum yung mga pinagbubulungan natin. great sharing bizsum! keep it up.

[bizsum]

Thanks Emo.  I am still trying to get more interviews on other sites in the next few weeks.  Naiipit lang ako sa mga campaigns namin ngayon.  But I hope to have more free time in the next few weeks.

[rhodz]

wow! sana ganun din site ko in the future lolz..

[saiquim]

galing naman  

[epriss]

I really look up to people who can come up with such a biz idea as Divisoria.com! Sana dumami pa ang lahi nyo!  Congrats Monching!

[bizsum]

There is another site KabayanCentral.com that is also doing good.  I have been trying to get the founder to answer the questions I asked.  Kaya lang super busy siya.

Increasingly I am seeing a good number of people making money on the net by just building plain plain e-commerce sites.  Nothing fancy like adsense, blogs, HYIP, etc.  But just standard web sites selling tangible products.

[rhodz]

thats good... right now it's mark that 22yr old founder of facebook whom i'm trying to beat.. ambisosyo ko naman hihih lolz..

[designer]

Nice thread. Thanks for sharing, this could inspire many... Most of the tips should be taken into heart... if you're doing e-commerce sites...

[workingpinoy]

nice thread ...    

why not feature other pinoys who are really successful online para mas ma-inspire tayo. i've come across the name of joel christopher and ian del carmen (si ian yata part ng PMT) na nakikipagsabayan sa mga foreigners in creating a name in this industry. i also want to know the identity of the 13year old pinoy (not sure about his age now and other details, nalimutan ko na)who created a program that helped a lot of online gurus in increasing their income.