BUSINESSES that have moved their sales online due to the Covid-19 pandemic are now having logistical issues delivering their goods to customers due to the full lockdown.

As the pandemic continues to surge in the country, business owners said customers have turned to buying groceries and daily necessities online to avoid leaving home and putting themselves at risk.

However, these businesses are caught in a bind as the initial two-week total lockdown that started on June 1 has disrupted the delivery of their products, in some cases causing long delays and food items getting spoiled. Now, the lockdown has been extended to June 28.

Ng Wai Sin, the founder of Bijin Soup Empire, a business she started six months ago in Taman Gembira, Kuala Lumpur, told The Malaysian Insight that her company has been facing transport problems in the first week of the lockdown.

The company specialises in selling a variety of frozen healthy soups such as collagen chicken soup.

“Customers have complained that the soup delivered to them tastes weird. This is because the logistics company has been storing it wrongly,” said Ng.

“We had to call our customers individually to inform them not to consume the soup. After that, to compensate the customers, we prepared a new batch and hired our own despatch to deliver them.”

She said this was not the first time she has encountered problems with the logistics companies. Previously, the company had said the delay was due to workers testing positive for Covid-19.

With the start of the lockdown, she has experienced more delays but no reasons were given.

“We can’t accept this,” Ng said.

She said her company had also received orders from other states but when some of the areas were put under an enhanced movement-control order, they were unable to make deliveries to their customers and the packages were returned.

“We had more than 20 out-of-state orders, which the customers have paid for. We didn’t want to disappoint them, so we looked for other ways to make the deliveries. Even if the delivery fee was expensive, we were willing to bear it.”

When the full lockdown was announced, Ng said her company stopped taking orders from outside the state and instead chose to focus on the Klang Valley.

Ng used to operate an online business in Singapore but chose to come back to Malaysia in 2018 for personal reasons.

She said when comparing the two countries, logistics in Malaysia leaves a lot more to be desired.

“In Singapore, it is very efficient. Whether the goods are frozen or not, it will be delivered within a day or two. Here, there is no efficient way to transport goods, especially frozen goods,” she said.

Doing own deliveries

Obird Veggies, a vegetable wholesaler who also moved its business online, said since doing so, business has been booming. The company supplies vegetables to small restaurants and hawkers.

Chan Yi Chyn, who is in charge of Obird, said they have been able to adapt quickly because they were able to learn from their experience during the first lockdown in March last year.

“The first MCO was very strict. When we went out to deliver goods, we were stopped by the police. Now, all we have to do is show our approval letters to pass through the roadblocks,” she said.

Chan said since the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, her company has been receiving more orders as people are afraid to go out.

“We had so many orders last month that we couldn’t arrange for delivery for all of them. I had to deliver the goods in person because the vegetables cannot be kept for long; they will wither. I had complaints from customers, too,” she said.

“Luckily, we have been able to hire fresh graduates who have been unable to find a job to work for us part-time. This has helped solve our delivery problem.”

The company mainly focuses on customers in the Klang Valley. Before accepting any orders, it will check with the customers if they are within its delivery area.

Tan So Tiok, a consultant for Malaysian Vegetable Farmers Association, also started an online platform to sell vegetables last year.

He said selling vegetables online posed quite a big challenge as the produce needs to be kept fresh.

“When we started selling vegetables online last year, it was to get rid of surplus. But now, there is no surplus, so we have decided not to continue selling online,” he said.

He added that the agricultural sector has also been struggling with a shortage of foreign labour, causing vegetable farmers to reduce production. – June 14, 2021.