Sari-sari stores are rapidly digitalizing their operations, driven by a significant increase in e-wallet use, according to a new report from Filipino tech startup Packworks.
The report used their internal transaction records as the starting point to conduct a direct survey of more than 2,000 sari-sari store owners within Packworks’ nationwide network of 300,000+ stores from January to August 2025.
According to the data, half of the store owners surveyed reported a 75 percent increase in e-wallet usage in their store operations between January and August. The remaining respondents also saw substantial growth: 20 percent experienced a 100 percent increase in usage, another 20 percent saw a 50 percent increase, and 10 percent reported a 10 percent rise.
Store owners largely attribute this growing adoption to increased consumer demand, as their customers are also turning to e-wallets to buy goods, access funds, and settle bills at their local stores.
Store owners are using e-wallets for a variety of business operations. About 40 percent use the platforms for in-store payments, 30 percent for bill payments, and the remaining 30 percent for cash-in and cash-out transactions.
This digital shift is quickly becoming a critical source of revenue. Around 13 percent of store owners say their e-wallet earnings equal their revenue from physical goods. Among the rest of the respondents, e-wallets still contribute significantly: 66 percent say that about 20 percent of their revenues come from e-wallet use, and the remaining 21 percent say their e-wallet earnings account for 10 percent of their total revenue.
GCash and Maya are the widely used e-wallets, with 85 percent of store owners reporting using GCash for their business transactions and 15 percent using Maya.
To increase their transaction capacity and meet surging customer demand, sari-sari stores are strategically using up to five e-wallet accounts. According to the report, with each account having a monthly limit of PHP 100,000 to PHP500,000, the combined monthly transaction capacity is up to PHP 3.5 million.
This trend supports the 30 percent of store owners’ interest in upgrading their e-wallets to business accounts to maintain a higher monthly limit of PHP 1 million.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas indicated that approximately 50 percent of total retail transactions were cashless in 2024, highlighting the increasing use of digital payments for everyday purchases and financial transactions.
Packworks Chief Platform Officer Hubert Yap highlights that sari-sari stores are rapidly embracing digital tools such as e-wallets to diversify their services and grow their businesses.
“The surge in e-wallet use proves that sari-sari stores are rapidly evolving into vital digital hubs for their communities. Aside from simply selling ‘tingi’ physical items, they are now diversifying their product range, offering high-margin, value-added financial services and integrating digital tools such as our app to fundamentally improve their operations and function as near-frictionless nano-banks for the neighborhoods they serve. These findings show that sari-sari stores have been at the forefront leading this digital transformation at the grassroots level,” cited Yap, “And there’s an urgent need to support these micro-entrepreneurs with the right fintech to ensure they can fully capitalize on this opportunity, as they often say in sari-stores, a peso saved is a peso earned!”
