Ayala Land goes digital

Ayala Land Inc.'s (ALI), digital sales now account for 22 percent of total residential sales, up from less than 2 percent before the pandemic, according to company president and CEO Bernard Vincent Dy.

Buyers still eventually go to the actual site once they have begun their buying process online. 

With the relaxation of local lockdown protocols, ALI was among the first to resume in-person investor and media briefings when it reported 2021 earnings last week. 

However, its upcoming annual stockholders’ meeting on April 27 will still be conducted virtually. 

And as more residential selling have been conducted online, turnover of completed units has likewise gone mostly virtual (65 percent of turned over units in 2021). 

This digitalization is part of ALI’s business “reinvention,” Dy said. Similarly, ALI’s shopping mall arm AyalaMalls has been doing more curbside pickup, personal shopper and digital sales through the Zing mall app. Construction arm Makati Development Corp. has pivoted to offsite manufacturing of 38 percent of its construction work, including the prefabrication of panel walls and bathrooms. 

Apart from reinventing its processes, Dy highlighted other components of ALI’s five-point thrust during this pandemic. 

These include taking care of customers and communities through 24×7 services to residents and business locators; taking care of employees by providing health facilities for mild COVID patients, vaccination and supplemental insurance for COVID-related expenses, and flexible work arrangements; assisting stakeholders, such as by offering discounted rental rates for mall merchants (normalization isn’t expected until yearend), providing free mall space to social enterprises, ensuring timely payment to suppliers (kindness and fairness especially to small and medium enterprises bring good karma); giving assistance to neighboring communities and hospitals; and ensuring balance sheet strength to weather crisis and position the company for renewed growth postpandemic.