WHILE some may use e-commerce as an avenue for a side income, others have bigger plans to turn their products into full-time ventures to conquer not just the local market, but also internationally.
Two sellers on Shopee are already looking at how to take advantage of the e-commerce platform and slowly expand their businesses nationwide and overseas – either by selling books for children, or sending out coffee beans to cafes and homes.
For Penangite Cheryl Ho, 35, starting up a business was something she had tried a few times but was not successful due to the same business plan.
While still working as a marketing and public relations manager for a hospital during the day, Ho decided to try yet another business – creating and selling handmade, customisable learning books for children aged between two and eight years old through her online CeeTee store on Shopee.
“I heard a lot about e-commerce, but never actually started it until August 2020 on Shopee. At that time, I didn’t even know how to do proper listings in my store. I only learned how to do that in June this year,” Ho says.
Since then, Ho’s CeeTee online store has observed three times the increase in sales compared to when they first started.
“I began attending Shopee courses and sales started increasing daily,” Ho says. She added that the knowledge gained made her revamp her store’s layout and description.
Ho’s best selling products on CeeTee are called Montessori Kids Learning Busy Books, which are customisable interactive books for kids. The product allows parents to pick the contents from 25 activities for their children to work on.
When the revenue of her online store reached almost RM6,000 a month, Ho saw the potential of devoting her working hours to the CeeTee online store. However, Ho admits that it isn’t just for the sales – she shares that there are occasions where she gives more to her customers than just the purchases.
“For the customisable books, since I need information about the child and therefore know when their birthdays are, I will send them a birthday gift together with the purchase if their special day is close to the month.
"At the same time, if I see orders from some OKU homes, I will contact them and offer more than what they bought – maybe even a full set for them to use,” she says.
To further promote her products, Ho took to social media, especially Instagram.
“I have promoted my products on my account before. Now with the Shopee Affiliate Programme which allows us to earn cash incentives for every completed order made via the seller affiliate link, I’m very active on Instagram. I’ve also started using Shopee Feed, and I also do YouTube videos where I will mention my Shopee store,” she adds.
Ho also said that she has bigger plans with her Busy Books, including keeping her products handmade to gain the “Made in Malaysia” status from the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade), which will then provide support in exporting her books overseas.
“Because of the #ShopeeSapotLokal campaign, I even blasted all my contacts and ex-colleagues to suggest that they put my Busy Books on sale, so we’re now working to supply retail pharmacies,” she said.
At the same time, she has also managed to employ two employees to assist.
“They are both my family members. One of my aunts lost her job due to the pandemic while the other is disabled. So I started teaching them how to make these books. They don’t earn a lot as we are still growing as a business. But I am looking at it as empowering local housewives by providing the materials and teaching them how to make books,” she says.
Ho adds that she has been participating in the double-digit shopping festivals on the platform, and the upcoming 12.12 Birthday Sale is no exception.
“I’m giving more discounts during the shopping festival, and there will be a surprise for my customers as well,” she said.
So, what is the former manager turned handmade children’s learning bookmaker looking forward to in 2022?
“First, I want to triple my monthly revenue! At the same time, I am also trying out packaging from Barber Miller with hopes to go towards zero per cent plastic on the packaging. And finally, I hope that one day I can become a ShopeeXpert, a Shopee-certified seller who teaches others how best to sell on Shopee,” Ho says.
Separately, Gan Jun Qi, 36, says that Drum Coffee Roasters started in 2018 and was in the early stages of becoming a retail joint with wholesaling coffee as a venture when the pandemic hit.
“When 2020 came, the pandemic happened and we could not allow dine-ins. Our coffee sales became slow and this impacted our business because the coffee beans were not circulating fast enough. This was when people started asking us to send our coffee beans to them.”
Gan further lamented that while they decided to start taking orders manually in July the same year, it was a struggle to reach customers organically.
“We would have to take photos of the products for each customer, and then ask them if they wanted full beans or have it grounded down. We usually ask them if they would like the grind to be fine, medium or coarse, and then inform them about the cost. After that, we would wait for them to get back with a receipt and forward them a tracking number – it was a hassle,” Gan said.
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All these were made simple by Shopee, according to the coffee business owner. Therefore, it allows them to focus on production instead.
“Our Shopee store has become our storefront for us. We have our website to showcase our establishment and products we have on offer, but sales mostly take place through our Shopee store,” she said.
She added that the company has started adding a QR code on their offline items to drive more customers to their Shopee store.
For this move into e-commerce, Gan thanks Khaled Hamwi, 21, who convinced her to start on the platform.
“I didn’t even think of putting our coffee beans online, until Khaled joined our team. He convinced me to put our products on Shopee so we could reach more people. I told him if he was confident, we should go ahead with it,” she said.
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Starting from scratch, Khaled learned how to onboard Shopee by reading up articles and exploring how to work the platform on his own. While initially experiencing some challenges, he says it has been overall a smooth experience and enjoys the simple interface.
“We have always joined the pre-hype period and during peak days during Shopee campaigns. It has been going very well. Imagine waking up at 7am and suddenly seeing a lot of orders to service.” He added that the company is using their Affiliate Link provided by Shopee on their Instagram to drum up customer loyalty.
At the same time, Khaled also recalls the joy when the company got an order from Singapore, via the Shopee International Platform (SIP).
“It was a very smooth experience to ship our product to Singapore. When it comes to shipping overseas, a lot of businesses worry about logistics and transit issues. All we had to do was print and attach the Airway Bill and pass it to the courier. Shopee does the rest of the shipping to the customer. As a way of expanding our market, it is a good idea.” he said.
For Gan, starting on Shopee has been an eye-opening experience, leading to the coffee roaster achieving five-figure sales in November – their highest so far.
“We sold about RM3,000 in January this year, but it has been gradually increasing every month since we started listing our wholesale products. Our customers now come from businesses including small cafes in Kemaman and Dungun – from our neighbouring state Terengganu. We have also started getting orders from Sabah and Sarawak,” she adds.
At the same time, the roastery is focused on being part of more offline events to promote their Shopee store, such as the Pesta Kopi in Central Market which took place on December 4 and 5.
“Customers who leave us good reviews on Shopee are really sweet. They are repeat customers and when we see their orders, we always forward them some new coffee blend to try out. People think that online stores are impersonal and the relationship ends when we ship the products to the customer, but it does not. We see these new virtual relationships coming alive, and look forward to meeting them in person when we attend events, hoping to meet some regular customers who turn up,” she said.
For the 12.12 Birthday Sale on Shopee, Gan says Drum Coffee Roasters will be joining the Digital Malaysia Coffee Week which is ongoing till December 11. The company is offering vouchers of RM5 off with a minimum spend of RM20, as well as giving 15% off for Limited Time deals for six products on Shopee. – The Vibes, December 9, 2021
To help more sellers make their mark online, Shopee celebrates local by introducing more campaigns regionally and locally to give them the spotlight. Under the #ShopeeSapotLokal initiative in Malaysia, Shopee is hosting the ‘Seller of the Month’ contest where sellers are to share their journey as a Shopee seller on social media. The winning seller, chosen by an internal jury and votes from Shopee users, will receive a Shopee Live stream feature, store vouchers, Shopee ads credits and exclusive merchandise.
Additionally, Shopee’s double-digit campaigns such as the ongoing 12.12 Birthday Sale serve to celebrate the achievements of sellers whilst gathering the support of Malaysians towards their stores through attractive offerings.
For more information on Shopee’s 12.12 Birthday Sale, visit https://shopee.com.my/m/12-12
*This article is written in collaboration with Shopee
