An Urban Convenience But A Rural Luxury: Empowering Underserved Communities Digitally

Urban businesses are no strangers to digitalisation. In addition to being tech-savvy, city entrepreneurs are privileged in infrastructures such as delivery platforms and high-speed internet. 

But while many urban businesses get to eye the latest business trends like buy-now-pay-later or digital wallet, business owners in underdeveloped areas are still struggling with basic infrastructures such as digital penetration and seamless logistics. 

Moreover, with nearly 17% of the country’s 33.45 million population residing in highly undeveloped areas, the government has recently acknowledged the importance of closing the urban-rural digital gap by improving facilities in internet centres and helping rural businesses to tap into the online market. 

To this end, Quinton Group was established in 2018 to bring a value-added digital ecosystem to underserved communities in Malaysia.

The platform consists of three core elements – Quin Pavilion (one-stop e-commerce marketplace), QuickSent (a growing food delivery service provider in Malaysia) and Quin Reward (consumer incentive reward system). Together, they bring Quinton’s goal of building a fully-connected digital economy ecosystem to life, ultimately providing a seamless experience for its users and empowering more business owners to digitise their businesses.

Through these initiatives, Quinton Group is confident in its role to empower over 22,000 rural businesses, and counting, to overcome their challenges and tap into the burgeoning digital economy. For instance, F&B businesses in less-developed states can utilise the QuickSent food delivery service at an affordable 10% commission rate as opposed to more mainstream food delivery platforms that average at 30% — a steal for entrepreneurs who are struggling to scale during the pandemic. 

Since joining Quinton Group’s platforms as merchants, many rural businesses in areas such as Sungai Petani, Kedah, and Taiping, Perak, have reported a 30% to 50% an uptick in sales.

To date, Quinton Group has helped its merchants to achieve more than RM100 million in total Gross Merchandise Value, onboarded 22,000 merchants and amassed a pool of 500,000 active users across all of its platforms. On track to becoming one of Malaysia’s leading digital service providers, Quinton Group will continue to improve and expand its services to multiple cities and towns across the country. 

In light of the above, we would like to take this opportunity to check on your interest to speak with Dato’ Alvin Ooi, CEO of Quinton Group, who’d be thrilled to delve into the following topics:

• How is Quinton Group assisting the digital transformation for rural Malaysian retail and eCommerce business owners? 
• Previously an untapped market, what would Quinton Group’s endeavor mean for both businesses and consumers in rural territories? 
• What differentiates Quinton Group from other e-commerce platforms or business ecosystems that are available in the market?  
• What has contributed to Quinton Group’s success in a short period of time in Malaysia?
• What is the full range of products and services that are provided to merchants and consumers on Quinton Group’s platforms?
• How consumer habits have been affected by COVID-19 and how working with Quinton Group has benefited smaller businesses?
• Quinton Group’s short-term and long-term goals to empower rural SMEs as an expert in Malaysia’s digital business ecosystem.