TOP 10 E-commerce Success Stories 1.0 - Cityhom Service (Online E-commerce Seller /Online Printing)

Cityhom Service has been operating for many years. I had started working in this company after I graduate until now. My position is to deal with admin affairs and online marketing. I'm come from Penang.

As you are inheriting your father's business, so how do you convince your family to switch Physical store to online marketing?
My dad used to be a printing apprentice in a factory. At that time, it was not extensive because there was not too much publicity and no current online activities.
He has operated from a very small scale to a certain scale now. In the traditional business philosophy, be satisfied if company can make money , but today's social, the online business is a big marketplace. It is great progress has been made when moving the company to online business. Since doing Ecommerce, more people know our company.

Are you still operating a physical store?
Yes. Because it is a printing industry, so factories and equipment must be used. But now we have cooperated with all parts of Malaysia, even abroad (Japan, Australia). They all know us and contact online.

How do you manage online business and physical stores at the same time?
Online business does not need to follow ordinary business time. For example, normally you need to work in 8am until 6pm, but for online business, although it is open 24 hours, it does not need to be managed all the time. Maybe handling shipments when receive an email notice there are having an order. It saves lots of labor costs. We started online business before MCO, so now our customers still can contact us online, also guaranteed the business of our company. So I suggest that no matter what industry you run, make it online will be the most convenient.

Beside your own website, do you ever try to promote your products through other platform (Facebook, Shopee, Lazada)?
Actually we started our online business in Facebook. Few years ago, my father had try to do in Facebook, but it's without a good management. We also had create a Lazada account but not really used because we think that our own E-commerce website
is enough to us. And also too much platforms may disperse our customers. We hope that customers can contact us in our own website, so that we can easily to keep customers information in our database.

Do you manage the online business by yourself?
Our own website is created by me and my sister, because this website was suggest by my sister. About 2 years before, I was not suggest to do because we are using Facebook and I think that it is enough to us. Then my sister try to create and I saw that our products is really tidy like a shop in the website. So when customers went to our website they can easily to understand our products.

Do you faced any challenges when you take over the online business?
Yes, firstly because I don't have any IT knowledge or online business before, so it will be a bit hard to know how to use the operating. So I gain experience from my friends whom have online business experience.

How do you arrange your orders?
So far we still can handle those orders. We will arrange our orders and info to customers that the products is still available or not. Mostly if products is not available, customers will wait until we restore. About shipping/ delivery, we consulted a lot of companies before deciding on a courier company suitable for our company.

How do you let people know about your website?
We have advertised in Facebook, because most of our customers are over 30 years old, and they are using Facebook. Since our business is more traditional, so we mostly advertised in Facebook.

Could you share us some tips on your business success?
I think that online business is more important now. No matter what industry you run, must put it online will be better. You cannot ignore the power of the network. You must manage with care to your online business.

What are your plans in the near future?
Because the MCO has affected our business, our sales are reduced around 50%. Our ways to cross over this period is not give up and adhere to our aim. You are not alone in this period, so let's work hard together.

Do you have any plan about increase your online business?
Yes, we had think before. We have some advantages on our business, our business is special, so we are having a specific customer groups. The reasons that we not yet enter those specific customer groups is maybe they not really know about us or our products. I would suggest that use online platform to let more people know our products.

Do you want to promote any products to us?
Cityhom service is Printing Industry, but we also making Buddhist supplies. Because requirements on the market, so we enter to publish products. Our products and services include paper printing, banner printing and other. So may contact with us if needed.

Connect with Cityhom Service
Website: https://www.cityhom.com.my/