In fact, the app further diversified to include shops for all home needs from appliances, hardware, and pet stores to medicine, gadgets and more. “Today, we already have about 1,200 brands in Pick.A.Roo,” Tan comments proudly. During a time when online shopping has become our norm, this one-stop-shop solution has been essential for many of us, especially when navigating the online shopping world can get quite irritating and cumbersome.

Thus, one of his priorities was to make the user experience seamless and as hassle-free as possible. To Tan, with his projects in retail and real estate, connecting to customers and understanding their experience is key to success. Thus, the development team strived to perfect the bulk order and customisable delivery-time option within Pick.A.Roo, plus their easy check-out process. In the app, a shopper can add items from different stores from different categories to their cart, pick the desired delivery time, and check out with around four steps.

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“We want our app to be known for being the easiest to use and the easiest to navigate. It’s so hard when you look at all these different apps right now with millions of products. It’s so difficult to navigate and very hard to find what you are looking for,” Tan related. “There are still lots of first-time users out there. We want to convert them and make it very easy for people to find their different needs and essentials in one go.”

With customer acquisition and retention being essential to growing and thriving businesses, the development of this app had us users in mind from start to finish. We wanted to go back to the beginning and find out why they chose name Pick.A.Roo in the first place. To that, Tan said that he wanted to have a character that can represent your buddy, butler, friend, or partner. “We decided on a unicorn [for our logo] because it’s whimsical, it’s imaginary, and in a sense, it can be anything you want it to be.” Tan shared that Pick.A.Roo actually means “pick while you rest,” with “roo” being an old English term for rest.

In addition to that, he mentioned that roo also refers to kangaroos. “Our riders symbolise kangaroos as they bring items to customers via a huge pouch. So, a lot of symbolism comes from it as well,” he explained. The brand’s ethos has clearly been imbued into every nook and cranny– something other entrepreneurs should mimic to ensure that every employee and partner understands, believes, and feels what the brand is all about. That, and to throw in some fun when creating your business too, of course.

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Besides championing the e-commerce space and pivoting to remain relevant and successful during a tumultuous business year, Tan’s mission was and still is to support brick-and-mortar establishments. “More than anything, our goal is to really enable as many physical stores and branches as possible. Given the fact that customers now cannot move as freely, we wanted [to find a compromise] to be able to make a difference and contribute positively to our merchants’ sales. By listing their stores into our app and allowing us to pick up their products and bring them to people’s homes [we are able to bridge the gap]. That’s also the reason why we invested in a vast logistics network,” Tan elaborates.

To further address this point and aid shops that may be experiencing low foot traffic, the team also enabled long-distance delivery– up to 10km away to be exact. “With this, we are able to connect customers to a store that you normally would not have access to,” he adds.

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When these bright almost turquoise riders ring your doorbell, you can rest assured that you are in good hands. With fewer contact points and safety being a massive part of the rise of online shopping in the Philippines during the last 2 years, Pick.A.Roo is proud to reveal that 95 per cent of their 2,000 plus riders have now been vaccinated.

After breaching safety milestones and the 1000 store mark, Tan does not plan to slow down. “We are definitely going to expand further. I don’t think 1,000 is enough.” In fact, he shares that he hopes to add 2000 more brands and increase their SKUs in the coming months. Today, Pick.A.Roo is focused on Metro Manila, but the sky’s the limit and the rest of the country won’t have to wait long until they too have access to the app. “By next year, we will be going to Iloilo, and we are also looking at Bacolod, Cebu, and other key areas in the Visayas,” Tan shares enthusiastically.

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