From online to brick-and-mortar

ENGKU Isa Al-Husam has finally decided that he can’t go without a physical store. After running his online retail business, Foodmarket, for two years, he recently launched the first Foodmarket store in Bandar Sri Permaisuri, Cheras.

“People still want to shop in a physical store as they want to see, touch and try out whatever we have to offer. So now I use the Foodmarket portal to drive more people to the shop,” says 35-year-old Husam, as he is fondly known.

“The online retail business has become a bit crowded of late. Our main focus is on the Klang Valley customers. I also realised the online business trend is not so attractive anymore. As far as Foodmarket is concerned, selling from the shop is the real deal now,” adds Husam.

Foodmarket, owned by Husam Waksa Sdn Bhd, is a supermarket of sorts specialising in local food offerings and ready-to-eat stuff. It first came online in April 2015.

Foodmarket sells a variety of sambals, cooking pastes, exotic local food, frozen food, snacks and traditional delicacies from petai, pekasam, belacan, cincalok and salted fish.

Over the past two years, Husam notes that 70% of its total sales comes from offline transactions such as pop-up stores and special projects like hampers. Additionally, most of their customers prefer to go to their office to make purchases.

This, he says, certainly warrants a physical store.

“We used to have more than 1,000 SKUs (stock keeping unit) online, but after two years, we realised that only 5% of the items really sell online. On the other hand, the food products, which did not sell well online, are popular during our popup store rounds in various shopping malls. This is because the visuals we see online can be different when we see or touch it in reality,” Husam explains.

In fact, says Husam, sales from the shop now contribute a lot higher to its revenue than the online store. Foodmarket also gets less orders from the Klang Valley because customers prefer to visit the shop.

“Our online orders come mainly from Brunei,” he says.

Husam has invested some RM300,000 to set up the Foodmarket store.

Having a physical store is also a solution for its limitation on storing frozen products.

“We can’t do it for our products

starsmebiz@thestar.com.my Touch and feel: Husam says customers still prefer to make in-store purchases.

On the shelf: These are just some of the local offerings available at the Foodmarket store.

Doing well: Sales at Foodmarket’s outlet in Cheras has surpassed those of its online store.