The Philippine retail and fast-moving Food & Beverage (F&B) sectors, each estimated to garner US$71.74 billion and US$146.23 billion in 2025 respectively, are evolving rapidly with urbanisation, and ever-changing consumer demand for frictionless omnichannel experiences. But the sheer complexity of managing multi-location operations is also putting immense pressure on business and operations executives.
In the recently concluded executive roundtable, Modernising Retail and F&B Operations: Advantages of a Digital Command Centre, hosted by FutureCOO and Lark, saw technology, strategy, and operations chiefs from leading Philippine brands share their thoughts on this growing pressure, primarily led by digital fragmentation.
A lack of technology was never the chief roadblock. Rather, it’s the chaotic deployment of disparate, often consumer-grade, communication tools. As these organisations scale, the “patchwork of different tools for similar tasks” inevitably causes “confusion, duplication, and communication gaps,” directly compromising speed, accuracy, and profitability.
Mid-way through the discussion, the executives reached a clear consensus: prevailing, fragmented digital environments simply cannot sustain modern retail and F&B operations. The collective frustration articulated by these leaders also pointed to a singular remedy: an intentional digitalisation strategy centred on unified, enterprise-grade platforms.
It’s the age-old pursuit for establishing a single source of truth — but now modernised to meet today’s data needs, where freshness, speed, availability and regulatory compliance have become non-negotiable.
Communication silos cause an operational stir
Leaders identified the inability to achieve real-time, reliable communication between the front line and the back office as the single biggest operational hurdle. The problem, several of them explained, stems from the pervasive reliance on consumer messaging apps such as Viber, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger for business-critical exchanges.
“One of our biggest challenges has been dispersed communication,” said Luis Villanueva, chief operating officer at The Gourmet Farms. “We used to rely on multiple informal channels — Facebook groups, Messenger, Viber, calls, SMS — so information was scattered and hard to track.
We’ve since moved toward consolidating communication for better audit trails and accountability. Quick exchanges still happen through chats, but formal decisions and documentation are now routed through email to ensure clarity and stability.”
This digital noise directly leads to significant, costly errors. One delegate shared one such example: “There’s a change in the customer order... It was communicated via Viber, email, and the ticketing platform in text... [but] the one in charge of the plan... did not change the package. [It] cost us a lot of money.”
The sheer volume of messages on these informal apps also makes oversight challenging.
One delegate from one of the country’s largest food service group his experience: “My problem from where I sit is that within five minutes, all those messages are overtaken by the newer ones... which [makes them] very prone to [being] overlooked.”
External platforms introduce security and compliance risks. As one delegate to the roundtable warned, “One important thing also to be aware of is using [tools] that are not private or confidential to the company. It can be easily passed on to friends outside of the organisation.”
This lack of control even extends to former employees who can access critical data as part of the social media group.
The current system requires teams to undergo a cumbersome, two-step documentation process.
SaaS vs. custom-built: The truth is out there
The discussion quickly shifted to managing store and supply chain workflows, particularly as businesses prepare for peak seasons like Christmas. Many leaders found themselves stuck between building bespoke, custom solutions and adopting readily available Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.
Alexander Gutierrez, head of people services at Lay Bare, reflected: “We spent millions for the past five years just to end up going on SaaS... we spent so much on that." For Lay Bare, the superior cost efficiency and lower capital expenditure of SaaS ultimately proved the better choice, despite the loss of granular customisation.
Conversely, Wizer Industries' general manager, Natasha Chua, while recognising the expense, still sees value in internal development for highly specialised systems: “We have developed a capability already of developing our in-house requirements specifically for the POS system." However, even they experienced the reality of slow development cycles: “We built [the HRIS system] and it took us like 10 years.”
For many, the only reliable process remains the manual checklist. The operations manager of a leading Filipino lifestyle and retail company stated, “Would you believe that until now we're actually relying on a manual checklist?” This practice serves as a bridge between the frontline and fragmented back-office departments. But this manual vigilance also places a significant strain on staff.
Jose Gabriel Mendoza, ecom operations manager, SEA for Puma Sports Philippines, noted that without it, “how your SLAs are [designed] will eventually fail.”
The inventory problem can be acute. The head of operations strategic and planning head for an online grocery platform described the real-time challenge of connecting physical stores with e-commerce: “The timeliness of the inventory adjustment is the challenge.”
If the physical store checkouts first, or the online sale completes first, they risk selling the same item twice. This inventory lag results in order cancellations, which Puma’s Mendoza wants to "prevent, because we want to protect revenue."
Seeing value in bottom-up insight
A key, non-technical pain point is the persistently low adoption rate of new systems, particularly among high-turnover frontline staff. Frontliners naturally choose the path of least resistance: free, familiar messaging apps.
Gutierrez of Lay Bare observed that they “tried moving to a standardised platform, but the limitation was in the branches, our staff do not have access to Wi-Fi,” and since Facebook Messenger is free, their staff have “limitless chats”.
The issue comes down to basic access and user experience, even for customer-facing applications. The supply chain planning head for a leading building materials company, shared that while they use an ordering app, the “adoption rate is like 70% and the 30% remains manual," defaulting instead to SMS and Viber.
The lack of a unified platform also stifles crucial bottom-up feedback. Olivier Adam, head of commercial for Lark, pointed out: “The ones that are fast growing, those who are really want to adapt and succeed in the market, are the ones that are able to listen to what’s coming up from the ground.”
The strategic investment: Unifying the stack
When asked to identify their top strategic investment for the coming year, the leaders overwhelmingly prioritised solutions that create a single source of truth and empower the frontline workforce.
The desired solution is clearly a Digital Command Centre. One delegate stated that the entire customer journey is fragmented: “If we were all using the same Digital Command Centre… we will meet the objective of [making customers] happy.”
The consensus highlighted these top three investment priorities:
- Digital Command Centre (A unified, secure platform)
- Frontline Staff Mobile Tools (Easy-to-use, accessible apps)
- AI-Driven Demand Forecasting & Inventory Management
The convergence of high-value products, a scattered sales force, and complex supply chains makes optimising the omnichannel experience a critical priority. Kevin Fredric Lao, head of business operations for Aeroworx-Asia (e-commerce for lifestyle brands), expressed a need to “maximise and also leverage the physical stuff that we have in stores... buy online, pick up a store, or the other way around.”
The discussion around the workplace superapp model, such as the platform built by Lark, was cited as a concrete path forward.
Chua of Wizer Industries Inc, already considering adopting such a platform, highlighted its ability to solve her primary pain points: “When it comes to approval, it's… a simple click of a button… I could give an approval very easily.”
The race to a single source of truth: The restart
The current state of digital fragmentation in Philippine retail and F&B is far more than mere inconvenience; leaders acknowledged that it actively impedes revenue growth, compliance adherence, and efficient scaling. Relying on consumer messaging apps for business-critical workflows exposes companies to significant security risks, undermines staff efficiency, and causes crippling delays and errors in inventory and order fulfilment.
For the technology-minded reader, the key takeaway is this: the next wave of digital transformation for multi-location enterprises will not involve adopting one more specialised tool. Rather, it will demand platform consolidation. The marketplace is rapidly shifting towards all-in-one platforms that combine chat, workflow automation, document management, and real-time analytics into a single, mobile-first, secure environment.
Leaders who successfully transition to end fragmented digital operations will become fully prepared for the coming years of intense market acceleration.
