The Quick Read
- A new online storefront platform built for Filipino SMEs has emerged, and right now sign-ups are still free, a window that closes when Mag!c by Mise moves to paid subscriptions on September 1.
- Sellers get their own branded online store, not a listing on someone else’s app, so the customer relationship stays theirs.
- There are no commissions on sales, just a flat monthly subscription once pricing begins, a different math than most platforms sellers are used to.
- The platform has sharpened its focus over time, built specifically around the ordering page, the part sellers actually use most.
- Behind it is a one person team, founder Ci Chua, who has shaped the platform mostly by staying close to the merchants already on it.
Mag!c by Mise Built the Shop Filipino Sellers Never Had
A new ecommerce startup built specifically for Filipino small and medium sellers has quietly emerged, and it’s still free to join. Mag!c by Mise gives home based and independent sellers a branded online store of their own, not a stall inside someone else’s app. Signing up costs nothing right now. On September 1, that changes, and the platform moves to a ₱249 monthly subscription. It’s the kind of detail that’s easy to miss unless someone is already looking, which is exactly why it’s worth pointing out now rather than after the deadline passes.
Mag!c by Mise exists because most home based sellers in the Philippines already have an audience, just not a proper place to take orders from it. The typical setup is Messenger and Instagram DMs, a customer messages, the seller checks a notebook or a spreadsheet, and somewhere in between an order gets confirmed or lost. Mag!c gives that seller a branded ordering page instead, one they own outright, plus the tools that DMs were never built to handle.
What Sellers Actually Get
The free window matters more than it might look at first glance, because the platform itself has sharpened its focus recently. Instead of trying to be an all in one tool for every part of running a small business, Mag!c has zeroed in on the one piece that mattered most to the merchants using it, the branded page where a seller’s customers actually place their orders.
What that means for a seller, in practical terms, is this. They stop losing track of who ordered what, because repeat customers get tracked automatically through a loyalty wallet instead of living in someone’s memory or an old chat thread. Customers stop DM’ing to ask where their order is, because there’s a real time tracking page for that. Sellers stop having to dig through a dashboard to know how the week went, because a standing email delivers their own numbers straight to them. And they stop guessing at delivery costs, because the fee calculation for couriers like Lalamove is handled automatically, while the actual booking stays a manual step so sellers can still choose their own courier or deliver the order themselves.
Who the platform serves is shifting too, and the free access period lands right in the middle of that shift. Mag!c by Mise currently works with home based and artisan food sellers who’ve built a following through weekend markets and pop-ups rather than a storefront. From here, the plan is to widen toward independent retail sellers more broadly, including artists and commission based creators who need scheduled, pre order by date selling rather than instant checkout. Anyone in that broader group signing up now gets in ahead of the price change, on a product that’s actively expanding to fit them.
One Founder, a Modest and Deliberate Growth Plan
None of this makes Mag!c by Mise a marketplace app, and that’s a deliberate choice, not an accident. Sellers who join keep their own customer list, their own branding, their own relationship with the buyer, rather than competing for visibility inside somebody else’s app. There are no commissions taken on sales either, just the flat monthly subscription once pricing begins, a different arrangement than most sellers are used to, where a cut of every sale usually goes somewhere else first. That distinction lines up with how home based selling already works in the Philippines, where the overwhelming majority of social media users are active on Facebook and a large share are on TikTok, which has reportedly become a serious search tool for recipes in its own right. Sellers already have the audience. What most of them have been missing is a proper place to take an order from it, one that’s actually theirs, and for now, that place is free to set up.
Behind the product is a team of one. Founder Ci Chua has run Mag!c by Mise solo, shaping most of its direction by staying close to the merchants already using it rather than guessing at what they might want. “Starting a business is very hard, and harder when you have to do it alone,” Chua said. “But when you have someone to support your business, it feels like Magic. Suddenly, you are braver and your heart stronger. And so I wanna share that Magic to every aspiring business owner there is. No SME owner will have to be alone, because there will always be Magic.”
The near term goal is modest by design, growing the current merchant base toward 500 paying merchants by the end of the year, with a longer target of 10,000 over the next one to three years. None of that growth has leaned on paid advertising so far. It’s come from direct DM outreach, educational content on a growing Substack, and a YouTube channel in the works that will spotlight other Filipino small businesses along the way.
September 1 is the date Mag!c by Mise starts charging for what it built. Until then, the door is open, and for a home based seller still running a business out of a DM inbox, that’s the more useful fact to know.
HemosPH readers: Mag!c by Mise is offering 100 vouchers for 50 percent off the first billing cycle, exclusive to this feature. Fill out [FORM LINK] to claim yours, the voucher will be sent to your email.
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