As one of the country’s pioneering tech stores celebrates its 15th year, Kimstore founder Kim Lato now aims to give back and pay forward to the community that helped Kimstore become the brand that it is today.
Driven by her passion for providing the Filipino access to affordable tablets, smartphones, and other electronic devices, she now wants to help aspiring start-up businesses and support other small business retailers through several efforts.
Moving towards the future, she is also looking forward to expand her own logistics platform, build partnerships with learning organizations for masterclasses for e-commerce, and explore with Filipino tech experts in creating and developing Pinoy-branded gadgets that can compete on the global stage.
During Kimstore’s 15th anniversary celebration hosted virtually, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) secretary Ramon Lopez, alongside other Kimstore partners, spoke of how the brand has grown throughout the years.
“Kimstore consistently demonstrates itself as the country’s go-to, pinupuntahan talaga pag dating sa online store for quality electronics,” Lopez said.
Lato started Kimstore while she was still a sophomore student at the De La Salle University. A lover of tech devices who regularly did online searches, she realized that a lot of these electronic gadgets were mostly sold by foreigners at a price that many Filipinos could not afford.
At a time when the now-defunct Multiply lorded it over the then-fledgling social media, Lato decided to give her countrymen a better option: a Filipino online shop that provided them premium gadgets at reasonable costs.
“I think what really pushed us to strive harder is our vision of providing Filipinos access to these gadgets,” said Lato.
At first, she found it tough to convince customers to buy their gadgets from her online store. However, she ultimately broke through the fears and insecurities of the buying public through persistence, dedication, and providing a very personalized experience for her clients.
As more and more customers bought high-quality, affordable gadgets from Kimstore, other businesses soon followed, inspired by her example.
From its humble office in Tondo to its present-day Quezon City office and Valenzuela warehouse, Kimstore, after 15 years, remains as one of the most reliable and trusted online gadget stores in the country.
Lato summarized their 15-year journey experience into one statement: “Despite the challenges we faced in the past, we continue to serve our customers by delivering top-notch customer service. From our humble beginnings at that McDonald’s beside the university, to our journeys through social media like Multiply and Facebook, and culminating in our very own Kimstore.com, we have grown as the country’s first and largest e-Commerce shopping store for tech and electronics.”
