WHEN the movement control order (MCO) was first implemented in March last year, student Nur Farah Hanim Saimi was among the many who had to embrace the new reality.

       Nur Farah, 24, was then a final year full-time ACCA student. As travel restrictions had resulted in the shuttering of her mother’s Intan Kek Lapis Sarawak store at the Kuching Waterfront, she put her studies on hold and rallied with her family to overcome financial challenges.

       “At first we thought that the lockdown would only last two weeks and we would be able to pull through without opening.

       “Two weeks became months. Then it was a year of travel restrictions. This impacted the business quite badly as it was highly reliant on tourist footfall.

       “As such my family decided to close shop and focus on our food businesses to cater to local demand.

       “Although that part of the business was running, a large portion of our household income was gone. We tried selling kek lapis on an online platform but we did not manage to get any orders,” she said.

       Nur Farah preparing Intan Kek Lapis Sarawak’s popular pandan-flavoured cake sold on Shopee. The ecommerce platform’s ecosystem has helped her get her family business back on track.

       That was when a friend suggested that Nur Farah start an online store on the Shopee ecommerce platform.

       “Given the previous failure on other platforms, I was sceptical at first. But we had nothing to lose so we decided to go ahead.

       “We didn’t need to keep stock. We made the cakes fresh when we received the orders then sent them out,” she added.

       Intan Kek Lapis online store was launched a few weeks before the Raya celebrations this year. To boost brand awareness, Nur Farah also started a Intan Kek Lapis Instagram page.

       And right after the Shopee store was launched, the orders came in.

       “At first I thought it might be just a one-off thing as I still held the belief that Kek Lapis Sarawak was something tourists bought as a local delicacy to bring home.

       “I was wrong. Orders poured in and soon we had a regular flow of orders. We also started to get requests for other flavours.

       “Now, our Shopee store is able to generate a revenue of over RM5,000 a month. I was surprised that our customers are willing to wait for more than a week to receive their cakes, and they leave comments like ‘keep up the good work.’ These comments are what keeps us going,” she said.

       To Nur Farah, getting the family business back on track is not down to pure luck; it was due to her family’s perseverance and the Shopee ecosystem which supports online sellers’ operational needs.

       “What worked was all the double digit sales campaigns. During the 6.6 Awesome Sale, we received 67 orders in a day! It was a very tiring but an exciting day for my mother and me.

       “We actively participate in sales campaigns now especially when the campaign offers free shipping to our customers. Free shipping is important given that we are based in Kuching and our customers are in Peninsular Malaysia. Shipping costs can be expensive,” she said.

       Multi-million business

       Ooi Zhi Wei saw the potential in entrepreneurship so he kickstarted a Shopee store after returning from overseas in 2018.

       Offering products he got from his parents’ medicinal shop, Ooi, 31, now runs a multi-million ringgit nuts and dried fruit empire on Shopee and he is looking to expand regionally.

       “The first thing that I considered when opting for an online platform was the ease of use. Setting up a store on Shopee was pretty easy given the detailed guidelines and supportive customer service available.

       “Secondly, I also considered marketing costs. My products are generic. There is little differentiation between one brand of oil free cashew nuts and another.

       “As such it would take a lot to build my own ecommerce platform and market to generate traffic.

       “Shopee, however, has a ready customer base in the double digit millions range. As a marketplace, it is able to create visibility of my products in front of people who are actually looking for my products,” explained the chartered accountant.

       Ooi handling orders. He runs a multi-million ringgit nuts and dried fruit business on Shopee and is looking to expand regionally.

       In the first month, Ooi’s online store raked in RM12,000 in sales. That is not all after he discovered Shopee Ads while going through the analysis data on the Shopee seller platform.

       “I could place ads on Shopee and Shopee will advertise my products to those who are looking for the products. I placed about RM1,000 worth of ads, and unexpectedly I managed to close the month with RM36,000 worth of sales.

       “I have also explored advertising on other platforms previously but the return of investment (ROI) with Shopee ads is 3-10 times better than other platforms,” he added.

       Another feature that he likes is Shopee Live, which allows sellers to connect with customers while drawing millions of people onto the platform.

       “I have been using Shopee Live since 2019 and I can tell you that it is a very powerful platform. Through Shopee Live, I am able to interact and talk to 10,000 people at one time.

       “I run weekly Shopee Live sessions. On top of educating people about my products, I tell a lot of jokes and keep the audience entertained. I think that contributed greatly to my business as people keep coming back every week to listen to my jokes,” he laughed, adding that he is currently leveraging on Shopee to expand into Indonesia.

       Support for local traders

       As a single centralised platform with features including inventory management, logistics management, payment solutions, customer service and even conducting seller training workshops, Shopee is proving to support many small local traders.

       “Many sellers start off with a small capital and they need to consider their capital and operational expenditure even when it comes to running an ecommerce business,” said Shopee Malaysia business development senior manager Zed Li.

       “Therefore, we have been providing various seller support packages to help new and budding ecommerce entrepreneurs to propel them forward and guide them to be self-sustainable.

       “Additionally, we do not impose commission fees for the first 99 orders to help sellers ease into and familiarise themselves with selling online.”

       Shopee together with the Government is co-funding the Shop Malaysia Online (SMO) Campaign Ringgit-to-Ringgit which will reward buyers with attractive discount vouchers, cashback and free shipping when consumers choose to purchase from local businesses. Look out for the ShopMalaysia tag on the sellers’ store and listings.

       As SMO coincides with the Shopee 7.7 Mid Year Sale, Malaysians are in for an upsized treat.

       Apart from the SMO perks, Malaysians can also enjoy free shipping with no minimum spend required, 120% coins cashback, 7.7 million vouchers and gain savings of up to 77%.

       There will also be games whereby users can earn from a pool of 27 million Shopee coins and win a PlayStation 5 during the 7.7 Mid Year Sale happening from now till July 7.

       Take this opportunity to support our local sellers like Nur Farah, Ooi and others.