Business was booming for Dinamarriana Nordin, who operates a popular lemang stall in Taboh Naning in Melaka, before the pandemic. Known affectionately as Dino, she took over the family business and recipe from her late father, and has been running the stall for the past 11 years with the help of her mother and siblings.

But Dino’s business was heavily reliant on local tourist footfall, particularly from Kuala Lumpur and Johor. When the Movement Control Order (MCO) was first implemented, interstate travel restrictions wiped out a large chunk of her business, and she had no choice but to temporarily shut down.

She used to sell around 20 bamboo sticks’ worth of lemang every week. However, she recalls throwing all her unsold goods away because no one came to the stall during the MCO. She was unable to service her car loan, and the vehicle was subsequently repossessed.

But it did not stop there. With no money coming in, she was unable to pay her other bills as well and, soon, her electricity was cut.

"Ever since I was listed on SSL, I have been receiving orders every day, especially during the Ramadan period. This is truly encouraging because I could barely get any sales before." - Dino

“At the start of the MCO, there was barely any customer passing by my stall. At one point, I sold only RM15 of lemang in a day. It was truly a dark time,” Dino tells Digital Edge.

However, staff members from the Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) Alor Gajah branch came a-calling and introduced her to the Sama-Sama Lokal (SSL) initiative — a zero-commission e-commerce platform aimed at helping small local businesses survive and recover from the pandemic.

With their help, Dino managed to list her products on the platform and set up her business for online orders. In just a week, she recovered much of her sales.

“Ever since I was listed on SSL, I have been receiving orders every day, especially during the Ramadan period. This is truly encouraging because I could barely get any sales before,” she says.

Dino is one of the roughly 9,000 local entrepreneurs who have benefited from the SSL initiative since its implementation in April last year. SSL provides merchants with third-party delivery assistance, and a platform to set up their stores online for free.

In an effort to regain sales during the pandemic, these merchants inadvertently learnt the value of bringing their businesses online.

UM Stores — one of the neighbourhood supermarkets located in Little India, Brickfields — is another SSL success story. When the MCO was first announced, the store’s customer volume was halved.

“Being the largest Indian supermarket in the neighbourhood, we usually stock up heavily on goods, including perishables. So, we were in a pickle, trying to think of ways to clear our [remaining] stock,” says Raj.

“Luckily, we had the opportunity to be part of the SSL initiative, and our home delivery orders increased about 10% overall after being listed. Our sales surged whenever there were promotions offered by Maybank, which happen quite frequently.”

As a traditional bricks-and-mortar business, however, Raj highlights that there is a steep curve in learning how to list the store’s products online. Staff members needed to familiarise themselves with the new online order management process.

“Business owners must be ready to deal with the challenges of managing online orders and handling the different delivery options. The entire marketing model will need to be changed as well as we need to suit our messaging [system] to the online-savvy audience and mobile users,” he says.

"We have managed to develop the entire system in-house. For the end-to-end process — from identifying the merchants, [determining] how to reach them and implementing the SSL platform — we had to set up everything in a very short period of time." - Chong

Race against time

Maybank group CEO of community financial services Datuk John Chong Eng Chuan points out that the initial challenge was rolling out the SSL initiative under MCO conditions.

“We knew that we couldn’t take too long [to implement SSL] because these businesses really needed help immediately. The first phase of the initiative was rolled out in two weeks, and we [have been] slowly upgrading the platform since then,” says Chong.

“We have managed to develop the entire system in-house. For the end-to-end process — from identifying the merchants, [determining] how to reach them and implementing the SSL platform — we had to set up everything in a very short period of time.”

The SSL initiative not only involved developing a secure online platform and partnering with local logistics players, but also required the commitment of numerous employees at Maybank branches across the nation.

Yet, Chong says mobilising the 16,000 employees was the least challenging aspect of the SSL initiative. He stresses that everyone he knew in the company was passionate and willing to assist these businesses, on top of dealing with their own challenges during the pandemic, such as coordinating loan moratoriums and transitioning to a work-from-home arrangement.

“The key is having a strong common purpose. To us, this is not a simple corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign, but us fulfilling Maybank’s core identity — which is, humanising financial services,” Chong adds.

“This means being there for any local business that is struggling, regardless of whether they are Maybank or non-Maybank customers. This is why we will continue building on top of this platform and continue offering the SSL initiative to businesses as long as they need the assistance. “

Maybank head of virtual banking Kalyani Nair also highlights that having a common purpose is not just a rallying cry for Maybank employees, but a key determining factor in shaping the SSL initiative over time.

"If we do not help these businesses digitalise, they will struggle and perhaps die a natural death. With the severity of the situation in mind, we curated the entire initiative, from how to speak to merchants to the onboarding process." - Kalyani

“In our case, our purpose is obvious. If we do not help these businesses digitalise, they will struggle and perhaps die a natural death. With the severity of the situation in mind, we curated the entire initiative, from how to speak to merchants to the onboarding process,” she says.

“For example, early on, we helped a fishmonger who was operating from a wet market in Kelana Jaya. He was struggling to teach his customers how to order his products using the app. Then we realised that having the video guide only in English is not helpful at all.

“So, internally, we got someone to translate the entire video guide, and passed the translated copy to the fishmonger, which he forwarded to his customers via WhatsApp. This is just one out of the many examples of understanding and adapting to the merchants’ needs.”

Kalyani also points out that the SSL initiative is not a simple commercial matter of onboarding as many merchants as possible onto the app. She says these merchants are going through a digital transformation journey just like any other, which requires fundamental changes to their business operations.

While signing these businesses onto the platform is the first step, helping them plan and implement the changes in terms of the back-end is an arduous, ongoing process, which involves frequent guidance and assistance from Maybank staff members.

“Take, for example, Cameron Highlands farmers. When they were first onboarded, our branch managers had to reach out to them daily to brainstorm and guide them through the back-end business processes of running an online business,” she says.

“Because when you start selling a slew of products online, there will be new operational issues — such as being comfortable accepting enquiries, making sure the order is delivered and so on. These merchants need to get used to the rhythm of accepting orders online and fulfilling them. This is why our branch managers are there to provide assistance and support.”