Risking It All: The Start of Extravaganza Futsal Shop

Two best friends are working hard to maintain their business through these tough times of battling with a pandemic, just after making their 10 years mark in the retail industry. But just like how they started, they are going to take the risks in order to come up strong.

Marketing Perspectives EFS.mp4

Mohd Ikhlas shared that he business partner, Ahmad Zharif start with saving moneys of RM2000 and taking out the loan at Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNS) to expand their futsal business to the next level.
Source: BeritaDimensi/ Najihah Zuraimi & Nazira Nasaruddin

Wednesday, 20 January 20213.00 PM MYTBy Nazira Nasaruddin, Najihah Zuraimi, Zaim Jamal, Aiman Hakeem & Hidayah Ab Ghani

IPOH - Dream to reality. Running a business and turning a small business to a big one is never easy. It really needs a long term commitment to perceive the success and stability in the business world. The same thing goes to Extravaganza Futsal Shop, there have been ups and downs into their business since 2011.

The Extravaganza Futsal Shop or well-known as EFS started the very first ‘step’ in 2011. According to the Manager of EFS, Mohd Ikhlas Mat Ariffin said together with his business partner, Ahmad Zharif Mohd Yusoff, they started the business with their own savings total RM2, 000 at that time.

After two years of running the business together, they have decided to apply for a loan with the Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNS). PNS plays a role in spearheading the growth of the country’s franchise industry in order to fulfil its goal of producing more franchise entrepreneurs in the business world.

“We do understand the risk of taking a loan but we are looking into the bigger picture. We wanted to grow more and our savings was not enough to fulfil it to reality. However, we did finish paying off our loan to PNS. “We need to figure out the direction of business and conscience when making a loan from the government,” said Mohd Ikhlas.

Back then, until 2005, EFS was a one-floor shop and only had a branch which was in Ipoh, Perak. As their business becomes more popular and has their own customers, they manage to open two branches by 2020.

Talking about business growth plans, of course, EFS have their own goal to achieve. Mohd Ikhlas said they are actually planning to open a new branch in Kuala Lumpur. Due to COVID-19, they need to postpone that plan in order to prevent loss in their business.

Instead of opening the new branch plan, they are planning to launch EFS’s products, especially the jersey overseas and this effort is done mainly through websites.

Fresh Idea to Retail Shop

Extravaganza Futsal Shop (EFS) has brought its name across the state in Malaysia. Mohd Ikhlas has given full dedication to make sure their business can compete with the market demands.

“At first, we were selling a variety of branded futsal products, now our innovation and creativity in making our own products has brought EFS to a bigger futsal arena business,” he said.

“Futsal products such as jerseys, shoes, accessories and football are the main products that are provided at the shop. Flexible business hours from 11.00 am to 9.00 pm, Monday to Saturday can ease the customer to shop in their leisure time,” said by one of the staff, Mazuan Madzalan.

“EFS also does customize stuff on the products such as football, shoes and jersey. Customers can customize names on the products so it can turn out elegant and organized. This creativity has caught a lot of customers to do customizing,” he added.

"Rebound" technology helps to give improved effect and spike to every move we make. Energy used would become more effective and not waste like it is. With "rebound" technologies, we only need to use less energy to make the most of the effect.

Financial perspectives EFS.mp4

Extravaganza Futsal Shop used various ways of promoting the brand especially since nowadays a number of peoples prefer online shopping. It also boost their sales and brand are now better-know.
Source: BeritaDimensi/ Najihah Zuraimi & Nazira Nasaruddin

Marketing perspectives EFS (1).mp4

Faiz Farhan shared that he shared a special bond with everyone at the shop. Everyone was being treated the same and experience various events to master up the skills. Example, was being sent to universities events to promote the brand.
Source: BeritaDimensi/ Najihah Zuraimi & Nazira Nasaruddin

Corporation between Universities in Malaysia

Extravaganza Futsal Shop’s team also joined the Corporate Futsal Tournament with the University in Malaysia. By taking this initiative, it can indirectly increase customer relationships and attract new customers.

Based on the EFS’s record, their customers distribution is those who are between 17 to 30 years old. By joining the Corporate Futsal Tournament, it helps to acknowledge their target market to their brand.

Mohd Ikhlas said, by joining the event he became aware that their brand, EFS, was not fully exposed to their target market. Because of that one of the reasons, EFS and the team actively joined this Corporate Futsal Tournament

According to Sales and Crew Operation, Muhammad Faiz Farhan Zu Azne, EFS always send their crew to events to promote the event.

“If the event was held at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Terengganu or any other university, the crew would be sent there to create awareness about the existence of our product.

“At first, not that many people knew about our product, but nowadays it seems many people come to realize that our product does exist. Hence, there are many more people that bought from us, walk-in at the store or online,” he added.

Brand Marketing Through the Coronavirus Crisis

In times of crisis, with social distance holding many individuals at home, we are also seeing significant changes in behavioural patterns. People have then used the internet platform as an important tool to look for the manner of escapism and entertainment

many SMEs owners seem to ‘fit in’ to change in real-time so they don’t leave behind

There are many things that have been infected by the unwelcome virus since the coronavirus targets the whole globe. It is undeniable that coronavirus has adversely affected companies across the globe and there is no exception to EFS.

According to the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission, aged 20 until 24 years old are most likely to use the internet the most in 2020 with 34.1% compared to only 15.6% in 2018. Hence, it is not a secret that many youngsters nowadays are interested in fashion however, sales for online apparels month-over- month has decreased.

Age Distribution for Internet Users
Source: BeritaDimensi/ Najihah Zuraimi

EFS Manager, Mohd Ikhlas Mat Ariffin said they suffered a loss in the pandemic and tried to survive with brand marketing.

“There’s an overall loss of 80% when it comes to our futsal shop sales and we tried everything just to survive in these hard times.

“We even tried to do unimaginable marketing by buying one, free one even though it means that we as a business need to indemnify our own loss,” he added.

However, many platforms allow company owners to achieve digital presence and development immediately. Although 2020 was a difficult year for many companies, businesses have risen to the challenge, with SMEs going digital in a seismic acceleration. In the long run, this change to the merchant landscape would only favour companies.

According to Online Admin and Management, Mazuan Madzalan said they also expected improvements by aiming to continue investing in these digital marketing.

“We tried to use as many platforms to market our product, the shop did the marketing on the Facebook page, Instagram, Shopee, YouTube and their websites.

“There seems to have been a pattern of target audiences where customer age between early 20 to late 30 years old seem to dominate in buying our product.

“More than just a shopping experience, we even go live at Facebook or Shopee to interact with our customer to make our brand more well-known. Customers seem to like it when we interact with them, reposting the tag images from the customer to our official sites make our customer happy and appreciated,” he said.

He added that EFS also provided one day delivery for customers who wanted to receive their item on the same day it might either use Lalamove or Grab delivery. However, it is only limited to those who live in Ipoh and Shah Alam since their shop is available there.

No matter how we try to deny, dramatic or widespread events such as the Coronavirus crisis was always the one that triggered a brand to step back and say- What do I have right now on the market? EFS Manager seems to agree and said that business should evolve and not just be static in one-way. Customer demand in 2011 wasn't the same in 2021. He added that EFS is currently adapting to these situations and making the best out of them.

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