Success Stories - APC E-Store
Ah Pau Chop started in the year 1950’s, from a push cart to a booming wholesaler, that serves the community with a ground motto of “Preserving the Chinese Heritage dish by dish”. The name “Ah Pau Chop”, was derived from his Grandfather’s Nick Name “Ah Pau” and a lucky number “Chop”. To-date, joining forces with his dad, the business is managed by the 3rd Generation owner Zhen Chun, who specialised in International Business. Zhen Chun is very persistent to maintain the 2 important traits of APC E-Store which is “Honesty and Reliability”.
The shop carries all forms of Dried food from Ginseng, Dried Scallop, Dried Shrimps, Fish Maw, etc for all occasions targeting mainly Chinese ethnic group. For Seasonal period, they would also bring in abalones, scallops, mushrooms both fresh and dry to offer to their customers. Being a wholesaler, they normally distribute their dried food products to mainly restaurants and neighbourhood provision shops and markets. As they have moved their physical shop located at Bugis, which is accessible to tourist and locals to a light industrial area, they have then started an online shop to target the end consumers.
Started about a year or 2 ago before COVID, Zhen Chun with his digital knowledge and experienced, had embarked on online platforms like Shopee, Q0010 and Lazada. In order to be consistent in his branding and maintain the concept behind each photo, he ensured his photos posted are with the same look and feel. The challenge he faces, is that since the products are not tangible online, he will have to ensure the photos are well taken, and let the customer feel of the quality, reliability and safety of the food sold by them online, by just viewing the photo.
The building up stage is slow and tedious. There was only like 10 orders per month, which dampened the spirit, but he and his team did not give up. Based on the good reviews, customer service, quality of product as well as personal delivery by their own team, the business shot up to 150 – 200 orders per day. During COVID period, the business has further shot up by 400-500 orders per week.
Due to the overwhelming respond, the lean team is unable to cope with consolidating the orders, churn out the invoices, assigning the orders to the delivery team to do the delivery. Zhen Chun together with his dad worked with a vendor to develop a e-inventory system to collate the orders, generate the invoice, assign the orders to the delivery team as well as plan the route. They even further develop an app for the delivery team to check the exact location with map via GPS, delivery address and time. With all these on hand, they have coped with the delivery slots well and so far, have not missed any orders to date.
Moving forward, Zhen Chun and team will further develop and educate the younger generation on the use and benefit of their products by directing them to their own You tube channel where educational and instructional videos will be consolidated and allow the public to access anytime they need information on how to use or cook their products. Zhen Chun foresee, that more younger peeps will be keen on their products but lack the knowledge to use them. So, with this video channel available, it would encourage the younger generation to pick up the skills, understand the uses of the products and will purchase more online, thus further growing the business. Zhen Chun is grateful, for his father’s support and trust to allow him to transform the business and move into the new norm together hand-in-hand, combining experience and new technology as a father and son tag team.
APC E-Store
101 Kallang Ave, #01-03/04 Victoria Wholesale Center, Singapore 339508