Halalsquare.com expands virtual market share of Islamic products

Pernec Corporation Bhd (Pernec) through its IT arm Pernec e-Biz Sdn Bhd is committed towards expanding the market share of Shariah-compliant products via halalsquare.com, its online shopping portal.

Concurrently, it would also serve as a viable platform for local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to venture into online business, according to Pernec’s group managing director, Abdul Karim Abdul Sallam.

“There’s no initial charge for SMEs wishing to register with the portal. If there’s no sales transaction, these merchants wouldn’t need to disburse anything. In this respect, they won’t incur any losses if they’re not making any sale,” he told The Borneo Post when met at Pernec’s booth at Minggu Saham Amanah Malaysia (MSAM) 2010 recently.

“Basically the concept of this portal is comparatively the same as any other online stores. The main difference is that we’re very much focused on Halal products. As long as their offerings are Shariah-compliant, they can put their products for sale online, which would reduce their marketing costs. Upon confirmed sales transactions, we charge them accordingly with competitive rates that wouldn’t hurt their bottom line,” he related.

Currently, halalsquare.com showcases approximately 500 Halal products on its virtual display, offered by about 70 companies already registered with the portal.

“By the end of this year, we hope to contract about 1,000 registered merchants. With more merchants registering with the site, we hope to lower our costs so we can be more competitive,” said Karim.

When asked about prospects of online shopping business in the state, he highlighted that being online meant larger presence for SMEs not only in the domestic market but internationally as well.

“Nonetheless, it’s risky as we do see many online portals had to close down due to idleness. But halalsquare.com incorporates many activities for SMEs and customers alike. We want to promote aggressive marketing. So far, response to our portal has been very encouraging, registering an average of 10,000 hits every month.

“Initially, halalsquare.com was established to target domestic SMEs. But now, even merchants from abroad have perceived the prospect of it. We recently had an Iranian company using our portal as a means to market its products. We also had demands from Paris for our products,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Pernec’s business manager for marketplace services organization, Zoll Keplee Baharom, mentioned that apart from marketing, halalsquare.com also provided delivery services via several agents nationwide and abroad.

“Once a transaction is sealed online, we instruct our delivery partners to courier products to end-customers. As in other businesses, we charge our clients accordingly with very competitive rates. Some more, the advantage of ordering products online is that the price remains the same, regardless from where the customer is from.”

“The portal also provides modules such as h-Discovery that supplies information, issues, awareness and knowledge related to Halal products. In addition, h-Classified module is the classified listing of the community.

“Most notable is h-Shop, an online business platform for buyers, sellers, manufacturers, exporters and consumers to transact as well as h-Tunes, a place for downloading Muslim songs and music (nasyeed),” he added.

Concurring with Zoll, Karim agreed that this proved that halalsquare.com had a bright growth potential as a Halal centre for domestic and international market. In line with increasing awareness among SMEs as well as the public, the company planned to take a more aggressive stance in its marketing efforts, especially during MSAM 2010.

“Throughout MSAM, we managed to get 70,000 hits so far. As such, we’d like to encourage local SMEs from Sarawak to take this opportunity to register with us. This is a good way for them to market their product online, not only here but also throughout peninsular Malaysia and abroad. As business people ourselves, we will assist them with our range of services,” he concluded.

Visitors can stop by at Pernec’s halalsquare.com booth throughout MSAM 2010 at Wisma Bapa Malaysia’s car park in Petra Jaya until April 26.