ACCESSIBLE with just a click, Multiply is now offering digital shoppers and entrepreneurs a unique shopping and selling experience. The social-networking site recently opened the country’s biggest digital mall.

What started out as a social-networking site evolved into a digital-shopping portal, thanks to entrepreneurial Filipinos who utilized the site’s popular Photo Album feature to showcase products and wares that briskly sold to netizens.

Taking its cue from this growing trend, Multiply harnessed the opportunity to rework the site with a fully-functioning e-commerce platform to ensure a safe and hassle-free digital shopping experience for its users. Now with 88,000 categories (and counting), Multiply houses the widest variety of stores in the Philippine online world.

“Multiply’s growth as a fully functioning e-commerce site is a collaboration between its users and the company. We listened to the needs and monitored the habits of the market and discovered the brand’s unique selling proposition along the way,” said Multiply Philippines general manager Jack Madrid. “Now operating with an e-commerce platform, Multiply not only offers the widest range of products and services for the virtual shopper, it also encourages entrepreneurship among Filipinos.”

Unlike malls that operate within set hours, Multiply is open 24/7 for shoppers to browse its 88,000 stores in the comforts of their own homes. But more than convenience and variety, Multiply also offers a secure, easy-to-follow payment scheme through its partnerships with Banco de Oro Virtual Card, Bank of the Philippine Islands, PayPal and Globe GCash. To lessen purchasing disputes, Multiply also has a buyer protection program for merchants that protects their customers’ purchases.

Multiply offers a listing of 17 categories in total: beauty and fragrances, baby and toddler, clothing, shoes and accessories, collectibles, computers, electronics, food, flowers and gifts, health and personal care, home and garden, jewelry and watches, movies, music and books, professional services, sports and outdoors, toys and hobbies, video games and everything else.

With zero to low capital needed, Multiply offers the best venue for budding Filipino entrepreneurs to start their businesses. Successful Multiply merchants include Alwin Aguirre, Jonie Cheng and Suyen Rivera-Lopez.

“When I began, I was hesitant on making a big investment because I wasn’t that familiar yet with the mommy and baby market. Starting with little inventory, I now release two collections a year,” said Jonie Cheng who has been running her digital shop, mamaway.multiply.com for two years now. “Our debts from when we started the business have been cleared and we are on track on getting a bigger return on our investments.”

Alwin Aguirre whose site toughbratbags.multiply.com focuses on customized men’s bags agrees that Multiply has been very profitable source of income. He shared, “Since setting up my business in 2008, I was able to get a regular stream of orders and  build a substantial customer base. Because of this, I decided to quit my day job and become a full-time Multiply merchant.”

Suyen Rivera-Lopez of houseofflair.multiply.com allows people to pre-order the latest products from popular apparel and cosmetics stores in the US without shipping and handling fees since 2009.

“I was able to build my brand through Multiply and I feel that my business wouldn’t have done as well if I set up shop elsewhere. My digital store grew mostly through viral networking and word-of-mouth,” she said.