Papaya Tree Farms was established by a team of entrepreneurs who had a vision of creating a better Filipino farm, a philosophy that is rooted in sustainability, innovation, and responsibility towards the environment, the food system, and quality. Papaya Tree Farms now grows on a half hectare of land in Rosario, about an hour from Metro Manila, producing 6 to 8 tons of high quality vegetables close to year round.
We spoke to the company’s General Manager, Bianca Therese Arco, to better understand Papaya Tree Farms business and the advantage of our partnership.
“We are building a model to showcase that a circular & regenerative food system is the key to addressing problems in climate change, equitable access to nutritious food, food security, and innovation in agriculture.”
Following the Covid-19 outbreak in the Philippines, consumer demand for online shopping skyrocketed. Filipino have outpaced its Southeast Asian neighbors with 57% growth during the pandemic. The shift in customer behavior prompted Papaya Tree Farms to re-examine its business model and venture into the digital landscape.
In need to set up its online presence, Papaya Tree Farms turned to Wix to create their website where they would host information and collect orders. Wix drag and drop website builders helped the Papaya Tree Farms team to build a website with minimum technical requirements.
It was then when they found Xendit, a payment gateway that seamlessly integrates with Wix’s platform. The team in Papaya Tree Farms quickly integrates with Xendit, and starts offering online payment options for their customers.
“Using Xendit made it easy for us to go to market at lightning speed – quick turnaround and easy implementation helped us to launch our subscription model in a little under 2 months!”
Direct Debit payments maximize retention in subscription plan
After testing the market’s appetite, Papaya Tree Farms decided to offer a subscription model where customers can choose from a variety of options and get them delivered regularly. In addition, this model is favorable for farmers, giving a peace of mind that their crop will already have a dedicated buyer for the season.
When offering subscriptions, businesses often find retention to be quite challenging. There are various factors that contribute to churn rates, and one of them is payments. Papaya Tree Farms team understood the necessity of accepting locally preferred payment methods and turned to Xendit for that matter.
“We decided to use Xendit versus other payment gateways because of its integration with our website provider, competitive rates, and its “made-for-Asia” features like direct online bank deposits because credit/debit card usage for online shopping is still quite low in the Philippines”
In addition to being a local preference, Xendit direct debit channels (BPI and UBP) are ideal for recurring payments as it enables customers to link their account once, and make payments with one click for subsequent transactions.
Launching its subscription offers online has helped Papaya Tree Farms grow their average monthly sales by 105% Year on Year. The brand is keen to build upon its relationship with Xendit to further support its growth and expansion plan to reach out to more customers in the coming years.
“We are also looking to reach customers in new markets particularly in Southern Luzon. We look forward to enabling even more payment channels with Xendit.”
