SIBU: Business operators nowadays have no other choice but to embrace the digital economy for their survival.
A local boutique proprietor, Pearly Leong, is one of the business operators who were farsighted and daring enough to venture into the cyber space years ago before the term ‘digital economy’ came into being.
Her success story is an inspiration to youths venturing into the business world.
The enterprising mother of a 11-year-old boy related to New Sarawak Tribune, the many trials and errors which she had to go through to do business online.
As there was no internet classes for her to attend then, Leong had to learn the skills by herself.
Starting up was tough but her perseverance has paid off. Today after more than 10 years, 80 per cent of her business comes from online sales while the rest are from walk-in customers.
The majority of her customers, however, are West Malaysians.
Leong, 41, who is from Petaling Jaya, Selangor, started Allaven Fashion Gallery in a shophouse at Jalan Bindang, off Brooke Drive here, in 2006 before moving to Jalan Chiew Siik Hiong.
“Initially, people came to my shop but after sometime, they became bored and preferred buying things online,” she said.
Seeing a change in customers’ behaviour, the affable Leong tried using the internet to promote her business.
“That time, we only had Friendster, a social networking site for people to connect to each other. I started uploading photos of my products on Friendster. Friends and relatives who saw the photos started to buy from me,” she recalled.
From Friendster, she progressed to Blogspot where she had also set up her own account to market her clothes.
The revolution of the internet later saw the emergence of many social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Wechat and online websites.
“I am now trading my products in Lazada, Akulaku and Shopee. It is a time-consuming job as I have to constantly upload new products. Then I will have to pack and send out the orders. I do all by myself but it is rewarding,” quipped Leong.
Her two online boutique shops, Purple Runway Closet and Six283Closet, are popular among women looking for trendy clothes.
Leong also keeps records of her customers’ purchasing history as it is important for her to know their sizes for their future purchases.
She is unselfish either as she has taught her friends how to do business online.
Her key to success is to persevere when the tough gets going and to keep on doing whatever the end result is.
She advises youths who are doing business online not to easily give up in the ever-challenging business world.
