Malaysian Local Sellers Capitalise on Unique Niche Online

PHINIX STORE is the local homegrown seller responsible for making Dubai Chocolates go viral on Shopee Live. Deploying a creative and systematic approach to live selling, founders Husman Setta and Khaled Hassan, also known as Abang Ah Ah switched from a social commerce site to Shopee Live in July 2023 and saw Malaysian candy lovers place more than 1,000 orders per day with them, far outstripping their initial targets of 50 orders a day.

They attribute their rapid growth, of up to 90% uplift in sales, to the fact that Shopee Live has the right audience familiar with the platform and is primed to shop on livestream events, compared to other apps in their experience where audiences were seeking entertainment but not shopping.

Dubai Chocolates by PHINIX STORE Go Viral on Shopee Live

“At the time, these chocolates were not that well known on social media or other platforms…Now I can say that 90% of our daily sales come from Shopee Live, especially from returning customers. We get to build customer relationships and have good interactions with our customers. Sometimes, our customers have become like friends to us, they join the live stream to ‘hang out’. Even offline, sometimes the customers recognise us and say hi to us, and we talk as well,” Husman said.

For PHINIX STORE in particular, the freedom to communicate with the audience intimately on their new branded content channel, to provide live education about how to store and serve their chocolates, and to conduct two-way conversations in real time allowed them to build brand trust quickly.

Taking advantage of Shopee’s integrated solutions for e-commerce sellers, PHINIX STORE first attracts new audience traffic by offering Shopee Coins, then polls customers on Shopee Live to conduct user research on what products will sell out, uses their sales reports to figure out the best window to livestream, and influences conversion and loyalty by rewarding customers with gifts.

Khaled, who hosts all Livestream events, explains how he drives urgency and spontaneity during the short windows of purchase: “We have a timer countdown for promotion times for the users to come in and rush for the products on special price during game sessions. We also reward loyalty: if they buy a certain quantity of products, for example, we give them free gifts. With every purchase of more than 1kg of chocolate, we give them 100g free.”

Kenneth Soh, Head of Marketing at Shopee Malaysia, said, “We are so happy that PHINIX STORE has found the secret sauce for local sellers to succeed online. Shopee Live has been accelerating as a new and effective way to create two-way, personalised engagements between sellers and buyers to drive on-the-spot sales. We intend to empower even more local businesses to scale online in this way.”

Commenting on plans for the future and aspirations for other Malaysian sellers like themselves, Khaled and Husman agree, “Our plan is to expand our business outside of Malaysia via Shopee International Platform, with our perfume product, Hush, and food products. We call on all sellers to have an online shop with Shopee to expand their market reach. Shopee provides the best platform to sell and promote products. Shopee also can teach us how to sell products for those without any knowledge of live streaming.”

To date, PHINIX STORE has accumulated 74,000 followers on Shopee. These followers have bought 85,714 kilograms of Dubai Chocolate and 163,000 pieces of Milo Energy Cubes. The store also offers luxury perfumes and sambal, catering to local tastes.

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