Despite its colloquial-sounding name, a local online store is attracting male shoppers looking for non-mainstream bag brands, writes Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan
THE country’s biggest men’s online bag store started with the sale of plush toys. When Jeff Tan Chun Yih, 32, was a teenager, he saw boxes of unsold Snoopy toys at a fast food outlet in Malacca.
Even at that age, he knew he could buy them cheap and sell at higher prices. So he borrowed RM300 from his father and bought those toys at 50 sen each.
He packed them into sets and put them up for bidding on e-Bay. Someone paid USD200 for one set of the Snoopy collectibles, which was enough to repay his loan.
Tan went on to become an engineer and worked in a steel mill. But he could not shake off his entrepreneurial spirit.
So, with a few friends, he began making trips to Thailand and Vietnam, sourcing clothes and shoes for sale here.
There were hits and misses in that business venture. Sizes were a problem. Some patterns sold easier than others so he had stock that didn’t move. And the pace of fashion was too fast for his liking.
So five years ago, he founded Oribags Sdn Bhd (oribags.com) because one, there is no problem about size and two, the pace of bags isn’t as frenetic as clothes.
I asked him about the name Oribags and the cheerful Tan let out a hearty laugh.
“I have been asked the question “Ini ori ke?” (“Is this original?”) so many times that I think it warrants a website name. The market is flooded with fake bags — be they a Deuter hiking carrier or a Samsonite backpack — so when people want to buy bags online, they can’t help but be sceptical.”
Oribags.com started with five brands and now it offers more than 50, segmented into outdoors (Thule and Deuter), notebook backpack (Case Logic), photography (LowePro and Think Tank Photos) and wallets (Bellroy and TruVirtu).
Tan manages his business with his wife, Tjin Ng, 32, who resigned from the beauty industry to focus on her husband’s venture.
SERVING MALE SHOPPERS
Eighty per cent of Oribags.com’s customers are male and Tan says they are not looking for discounted items.
“On the contrary, most of them like expensive bags and they look for long warranties. Consumers are smart. They no longer look for the cheapest option. Some of our best-selling lines are those with no discounts,” he says.
Tan says his focus are non-mainstream brands because “there are a group of people who like brands not commonly found in department stores and shopping malls”.
For instance, Bellroy, the brand which produces small, minimalist wallets for men, sells very fast. The same goes for TruVirtu, with their metal card cases.
“I have seen men’s wallet shifts from just an item to a product category by itself. More men now prefer slim wallets which look just like an extended version of a cardholder.”
Oribags’ prices are determined by either the brands’ principal owners or their official local distributors. However, because Oribags is an online store (that means lower overhead costs, including storage and display), the prices can be slightly lower and the choices are more than in physical stores.
Tan says Oribags sets itself apart with strong customer service, attending promptly to enquiries via WhatsApp and phone calls.
“This is to cultivate a good relationship with our customers. In fact, we’ll even help them with warranty claims, if need be. We’re not the brand owners, so we cannot just exchange a product with a new one, but we will go the extra mile.”
GROWING TREND
Tan looks up at Ebags.com for inspiration and hopes Oribags can go along the same direction, by being a one-stop bag centre.
“Five years ago, we had to knock on doors to ask for meetings and a chance for us to sell their bags. Now, the situation has reversed and people find us instead.”
He hopes to source good local brands that produce high-quality carriers so he can support local labels.
There are good bag makers out there but they could be independent makers who handcraft everything so they either don’t have the volume or the customer awareness to be online.
“It’s not easy to become a bag maker. Firstly, you need the passion and interest for bags and also great designs. It’s challenging to make the bags yourself because it requires different sets of skills.
“To be able to manufacture, you will need volume and probably find a factory outside the country,” he adds.
ORIBAGS.COM
WHERE
38-4 , Setia Avenue, Jalan Setia Prima S U13/S, Setia Alam, 40170 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
OPERATING HOURS
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
CONTACT
03-3362 3211
Oribags.com