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Third-generation greengrocer Al Hafiz Abdul Rashid was struggling to keep his business afloat after Malaysia entered a period of partial coronavirus lockdown in March.
With shops shut and residents staying at home, sales had slowed significantly – giving him the idea of bringing his business online.
“At first, I thought why not? You don’t hear of market vendors using an app to sell their fresh produce,” said Al Hafiz, whose family has sold vegetables, traditional spices and other goods at the popular Taman Tun wet market in Kuala Lumpur for some 20 years.
After signing up to an initiative from ride-hailing app Grab designed to help market vendors in Malaysia and Indonesia sell goods online, Al Hafiz said he has received 10 times the number of orders he did before the pandemic – with as many as 40 orders placed in one particularly busy 15-minute period.
Businesses across Southeast Asia have been forced to rethink their operations and find new ways to reach out to customers as antivirus restrictions are slowly eased across the region and residents adapt to what governments are calling the “new normal”.
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