Filipinos, who take the metro for their daily commute to and from work, may now send Jollibee and Goldilocks as well as other gifts to their loved ones back home through the Zoom convenience stores at the rail system’s stations.
This, following a recent agreement signed between a group of enterprising Pinoys, who have come up with a centralized purchase and payment platform called 247 RegaloPlus; the Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), which operates Zoom; and Al Bader Exchange that paved the way for Filipinos to as well send toys, fresh flowers, appliances, furniture, medicine and grocery goods within 24 hours to the Philippines.
Eduardo Burgos, Jr., CEO of Mohur, Inc., the company behind 247 RegaloPlus, said all that an OFW needs to do is go to a Zoom convenience store, including those outside of the metro stations, place their orders and pay the amount in dirhams plus a Dh20 service fee.
“The speed is milliseconds. Merchants like Jollibee will see the order form within milliseconds and fulfill it,” he told The Filipino Times.
Also in the pipeline, he said, are Red Ribbon, Mercury Drugstore, McDonald’s, Shakey’s, Savers Applicances, Super 8 Grocery Warehouse, Toys R Us, Robinsons Supermarket, Puregold, Waltermart, Max’s, Chowking, Greenwich and Pizza Hut among others.
The platform was conceptualized by Burgos and Nigel Canonizado, Mohur vice president for research and systems development, after visiting the United Arab Emirates last year. This is the first time ENOC will be using a platform software developed by Filipinos back home, Burgos said.
Meantime, the contract signing was attended by Taleb Al Saleh, ENOC marketing and retail operations director; Saleh Hage, Zoom marketing manager; Hitendra Bisht, Zoom convenience store manager; Ayman Awad, Zoom category manager; and Mohur’s Middle East agent, Ramuel Garcia, GM of Powermax Technology Services.
There are 41 Zoom Stores at the Dubai Metro stations and majority of them are open 24 hours, seven days a week. There are also Zoom Stores at gas stations.
Al Bader Exchange is a money exchange and remittance service provider licensed by the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, while Mohur is a remittance platform provider registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The 247 RegaloPlus will be in more than 200 Zoom Stores and 17 Al Bader Exchange branches across the UAE, which is host to almost one million Filipino migrant workers. (Jojo Dass)
