Zenxin Organic: From Brick and Mortar To Digital Retail

SMU935
ZENXIN ORGANIC: FROM BRICK AND MORTAR TO DIGITAL

RETAIL
In July 2020, Sengyee Tai, Executive Director of ZENXIN Organic (Zenxin), gazed at the dark
clouds racing up the mountain, enveloping its summit in an eerie mist. The steaming cup of kopi-O1
sat patiently on his desk, as he contemplated on the current situation. Uncertain times were looming
over niche enterprises like Zenxin as the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic widened its impact over
millions of lives globally. Economically, brick and mortar retail businesses worldwide were one of
the worst hit. Zenxin was an organic food producer, selling fresh and packaged organic produce in
Southeast Asia. Although the company had an online store, the bulk of its sales came from retail
supermarkets and its brick and mortar stores. Given the predicted long-term effects of the pandemic,
an effective digital strategy was the need of the hour. Sengyee knew that to survive in the existing
market, he had to improve his firm’s digital marketing strategy quickly.
Zenxin was established in 2001 in Johor, Malaysia, as an organic farm, producing items such as
vegetables, fruits, and fertilisers. The company grew its business gradually in Southeast Asia, using
a ‘farm to fork’, supply-based approach building partnerships with supermarkets and establishing its
own brick and mortar retail stores to grow its consumer base. The firm expanded into China in 2010,
where it focussed mainly on organic dry food products that it sourced from a select pool of suppliers.
In 2018, Zenxin also set up its online organic store with attractive bundled product offerings and
convenient home delivery services for end consumers. Over the years, the company tried to create
brand awareness of its products through both brick and mortar retail and online channels. Its net sales
revenue saw consistent growth from 2014 onwards, experiencing a spike of 19.2% in 2017 and 8.7%
in 2018.
Zenxin’s brick and mortar retail model flourished and in 2020 the firm became the leading organic
fresh producer and supplier in Southeast Asia. The company’s operations comprised more than 300
hectares of farmland, a pool of sales distributors (supplying directly from the farms to more than 100
supermarkets), 14 brick and mortar retail stores, and a recreation park in Johor, Malaysia. It supplied
a wide selection of organic produce with over 200 varieties of organic products with affordable price
points.
Nevertheless, driving sales for organic produce continued to be a challenge, and the company
hoped to achieve further growth by integrating its online and offline marketing strategies.
Moreover, the current pandemic, had thrown a spanner in the woods, and Sengyee was unsure
of a specific strategy that was effective enough to deal with all the challenges that the company
1 Kopi-O is a local term in Singapore and Malaysia to refer to black coffee with sugar.
This case was written by Dr Patricia Lui and Lipika Bhattacharya at the Singapore Management University. The case was
prepared solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective
handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect
confidentiality.
Copyright © 2021, Singapore Management University Version: 2021-04-06
This document is authorized for use only in DR. ARFAN SHAHZAD's STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT at Universiti Utara Malaysia from Jul 2021 to Jan 2022.
SMU-20-0047 Zenxin: From Brick and Mortar to Digital Retail
had faced in the past three months. These included temporary disruption of distribution channels,
closure of retail stores during lockdown, lower sales volume, and uncertain demand. Zenxin was
trying hard to improve its current Wordpress based organic store through several innovative
customer-centirc website strategies.2 Fortunately, online sales had gone up significantly after the
Singapore government announced the lock down. However, Sengyee was still not clear on what
digital strategies would work best to drive brand awareness and online sales for his firm.
Market analysts had projected that the e-commerce industry was slated to be the biggest beneficiaries
of the pandemic. Penetration rates were expected to increase to 25% by 2025, up from 15% before
Jan 2020.3 Moreover, by the end of 2021, 73% of e-commerce sales were expected to occur on a
mobile device.4 Given the forecasts, Zenxin could possibly try to expand its online retail presence.
However, market surveys had observed that most consumers still liked to ‘see and feel’ fresh produce
and groceries before purchasing them.5 Sipping his kopi-O, Sengyee pondered: How could Zenxin
replicate the ‘see and feel’ experience for consumers on its website? What e-commerce strategies
could his firm implement to attract more customers and drive online sales?
ZENXIN
Zenxin Organic was set up by Tai Kokkong in Johor, Malaysia in 2001. Initially, the company
ventured into producing organic fertiliser using a Japanese technique of fermentation - using microbe
to turn waste into fertiliser. However, Zenxin found it hard to sell its fertiliser products. Frustrated
by the initial setback, Kokkong ventured into the palm oil industry. He divided his firm into two
subsidiaries catering to organic fertiliser farming and palm oil farming. He then expanded his organic
business and started growing fresh vegetables. Organic farming of fresh produce (vegetables, fruits
and herbs) was a new concept at the time in Malaysia, and Kokkong hoped that it would give his
business an opportunity to capture the nascent market. Zenxin went on to establish farms in Cameron
Highlands, and Gua Musang in Malaysia.
The company also set up two retail stores in Johor (Malaysia) and neighboring Singapore. The
produce from the farms was shipped to these retail stores via road transport, which took anywhere
between seven to eight hours for Johor and around nine hours for Singapore. The long transport time
often caused product rejects and supply issues in the retail outlets. Organic vegetables were
perishable products and were rejected if they lost their freshness during road travel. Besides, organic
food was a new concept in Malaysia and neighbouring Singapore and had yet to gain traction amongst
the local population. Demand for organic vegetables came mainly from the expatriate community,
which was relatively small (about 7.1% of the total population in Singapore and about 4.2% in
Malaysia)6. A lack of demand and inefficient transport meant that accelerating the business was next
to impossible.
2 WordPress is a free open source content management system.

3 Tonya Garcia, “Neiman Marcus is likely just the start: Analysts expect 100,000 stores to close by 2025”, Market Watch, May 4, 2020,
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/neiman-marcus-is-just-the-start-analysts-expect-100000-stores-to-close-by-2025-2020-04-20 ,
accessed July 2020.
4 Maryam Mohsin, “10 Ecommerce Trends That You Need to Know in 2020” [Infographic], Oberlo, Mar 12, 2020,
https://sg.oberlo.com/blog/ecommerce-
trends#:~:text=Since%202016%2C%20sales%20made%20via,for%20businesses%20to%20tap%20into, accessed July 2020.
5 Ai Hisano, How Sight—Not Taste, Smell, or Touch—Became the Sense of the Supermarket, Behavioral Scientist, Oct 19, 2020,
https://behavioralscientist.org/how-sight-not-taste-smell-or-touch-became-the-sense-of-the-supermarket/, accessed Jan 2021.
6 Brenda Yeoh and Weiqiang Lin, “Rapid Growth in Singapore's Immigrant Population Brings Policy Challenges”, Migration Policy
Institute, April 3, 2012, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/rapid-growth-singapores-immigrant-population-brings-policy-challenges ,
accessed July 2020.
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At times, Kokkong felt that his business was doomed for failure. Zenxin lost around US$1.64 million
of its initial investment in its first three years. Supply volatility was huge and became a big threat to
the company’s sustainability. On the demand side, it was hard to sell its organic produce through its
limited retail channels, and the excess organic produce was often discarded. Yet, during the rainy
season, the farm did not have enough supply to support its retail stores.
Unfazed by the initial troubles, Kokkong ventured into acquiring more farmlands to increase supply.
In 2004, Zenxin established two new organic farmlands in Johor. Moving its farms closer to its retail
outlets helped Zenxin reduce the supply volatility. It also allowed the company to produce perishable
products at a faster pace and increase the variety of organic vegetables and fruits it supplied.
Kokkong also focused on expanding distribution by building new supplier relationships. Meanwhile,
the grocery sector in Malaysia had started to evolve, and the concept of supermarket had started to
gain traction in many cities in the country. Kokkong focused on building relationships with large
supermarkets like Aeon and Giant and started distributing Zenxin organic fresh produce to the chains.
Although Zenxin received a strong response from supermarket businesses, profit remained an elusive
dream. Big retail supermarkets demanded high margin, leaving meagre profits for producers like
Zenxin. Moreover, there was still low awareness among consumers about organic vegetables and
fruits which made it difficult for Zenxin to market its organic produce at higher prices.
In 2006, Kokkong’s son, Tai Sengyee, joined the company as its Executive Director. A
Computational Finance graduate, Sengyee had exposure to working with international research
companies, but agriculture had always played a significant part in his life. He recalled, “As a child
growing up in a farm, I spent my school holidays working in the farm collecting eggs and washing
chicken barns”.
After Sengyee joined his father to support the business, the duo decided to open the firm’s largest
organic farm – Zenxin Organic Park, in Kluang, Johor. The farm served as an educational and
recreational park to showcase the methods of organic farming, build awareness about organic
produce amongst the local population, and propagate the firm’s brand. Park admissions were free
and included guided tours, cooking classes and recipe sharing sessions. The cooking classes and
recipe sharing sessions were later incorporated in its brick and mortar stores and online store (refer
to Exhibit 1 for Zenxin’s Branding Approach).
Sengyee also embarked on the certification route by liaising with the Australian company NASAA7
to certify Zenxin’s organic food products. The NASAA certification brought international exposure
to the company and provided marketing advantages, such as targeting high-end consumers who were
particular about certified produce. Besides, it allowed Zenxin to reconsider its pricing as it could
price its products slightly higher, and still attract and retain its consumers. Sengyee added,
We enriched our product range. We had started with the ‘Simply Natural’ brand, but quickly
realised that building many different brands was dependent on suppliers, and not always the best
strategy. We also realised that going for food certification was tough.
In 2008, Zenxin launched the ‘Organic Grower Initiative’, acquiring 155 acres of farmland and
converted them to organic farms. Many of the farms acquired under the initive were contract farms
owned by smaller farmers but managed by Zenxin. The firm also continued to obtain certification
for all its farms - more than 360 acres of farmland (including contract farms) managed by Zenxin
were certified by NASAA. In 2009, Zenxin forayed into agro-tourism business and started selling
7 NASAA - The National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia.
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farm experience packages. These provided visitors with a unique experience of organic farming
practices and its importance in maintaining the diversity of the ecology. Zenxin also tried to rekindle
the Kampong spirit of the region by setting up a non-profit ground up initiative called Kampong
Kampus in Singapore.8 The initiative was a low-carbon community campus on 2.6 hectares of land
where the company would host activities to create awareness of organic produce and sustainable
living amongst the community.
Zenxin continued to broaden its sales network across Malaysia and Singapore using its ‘farm to
market’ approach and also started to supply its products to supermarkets in Hong Kong, Cambodia
and Indonesia. By 2009, the company had become one of the largest suppliers of organic produce in
Singapore and Malaysia, which attracted the attention of many suppliers and buyers around the world,
leading to further partnerships. Soon the firm also started selling a variety of dry food products from
organic sellers under its brand name ‘Simply Natural’, and organic fertilisers under the brand name
‘Midori’. Its perishable food products were sold under the brand name ‘Zenxin Organic’.
Growth Strategy
In 2010, Zenxin espoused a new vision of becoming Asia’s leading organic food producer by 2030.
In line with its vision, the company expanded into China by opening up an office in Nanning, the
capital city of the Guangxi province. The focus was mainly on importing organic dried foods from
all over the world to sell in China’s retail shops. The company also diversified by acquiring more
farms in Malaysia.
The growth strategy incorporated a multi-pronged approach. Firstly, the focus was on enriching
product offerings and adding new product categories like beverages, dairy products and eggs, grains
and legumes and cooking essentials like oils and sauces to the existing product range. Different
product categories were grouped under different brand names - like dry products under ‘Simply
Natural’ and fresh produce under ‘Zenxin Organic’. Secondly, products were made available in as
many supermarkets as possible. In Singapore, products were supplied to large supermarkets like
Giant, Cold Storage and NTUC while in Malaysia they were supplied to supermarkets like Aeon,
Village Grocers Stores and Giant. The idea was to have merchandise, everywhere, every day. Thirdly,
the company tried to build its market outreach by setting up an online platform to sell its products. It
also tried to raise awareness and appreciation of organic food culture through social media
conversations, print media advertisements and events like cooking lessons and guided farm tours.
Fourthly, the firm tried to expand its product offerings in existing product categories like vegetables,
fruits, and herbs and spices. Sengyee explained,
We piggybacked on existing logistics as we expanded. We supplied fresh produce to the

supermarkets. We then focused on supplying dry goods to enhance our offering to the
supermarkets. We then strove for excellence in all product categories to drive out competition.
We had our merchandise everywhere, every day – and that propelled our brand name. We were
ranked among the top three organic food suppliers in Malaysia, among the top two in Singapore,
and in some markets, we were at the top.
In 2016, Zenxin ventured into the organic food-processing business and began packaging products
like organic handmade noodles and organic tea. The processing facilities were setup in Malaysia, and
80 percent of the Simply Natural products received ‘halal’ certification. The company also started
8 Kampong was the term used for traditional villages in the region. The English word ‘compound’ is said to originate from this Malay
word.
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home delivery services of its products in Malaysia and Singapore the same year. In 2018, the
company ventured into selling its products through its own online e-commerce platform. In 2019,
the company was ranked as “The Best Organic Food Company” in Malaysia by market research and
consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
For its China market, however, Zenxin used a very different strategy for growth. Initially, the focus
was to make a getaway into China through a partnership with a local company in the country. In
2019, Zenxin further expanded its base in China, and marketed its products in the premium range.
This was different from its strategy in Southeast Asia where it was selling its products under the
affordable, regular supermarket price range bracket. Referring to the distinctly separate strategy used
in China, Sengyee commented,
In China, consumers identified us as a foreign brand. Equipped with international

standardisation, the Zenxin brand stands out, and hence we can market it as a premium brand.
We sell dry products in China, like our organic noodles. Now, we are also selling China products
in Singapore – like dry mushrooms and goji berries.
We use WeChat apps in China. We also use online channels like Chilli.com and Taobao for
selling our products in the country. Building a partnership with local grocery supermarkets in
China is not easy and entails a very different relationship-building approach. We, therefore,
concentrate more on online channels in the country rather than physical stores.
By 2020, Zenxin had become the leading organic fresh producer in Southeast Asia, with operations
spanning 30 farms, 400 employees and 14 retail shops, supplying directly to more than 100
supermarkets through a distribution channel of over 100 dealers.
Ecommerce Strategy and Improvement Possibilities
Venturing online in 2018, Zenxin had built a small but strong digital presence, with a fully functional
e-commerce website where customers could order fresh produce as well as dry food products. The
firm appointed a new team to manage online sales and provide customers with prompt responses. It
also implemented a few strategies to boost its ecommerce business. For starters, it tried to create a
presence in social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and constantly updated feed on
social media. It also started publishing a bimonthly newsletter, which was emailed to the subscriber
base. The newsletter carried a range of information from events organised in the Organic Park, retail
outlets to product promotions, and new tasty recipes from cooking workshops. Customers could
subscribe to the newsletter for free. Additionally, the firm also built tie-ups with other online
ecommerce websites like Redmart, Amazon, Lazada and Happyfresh to sell its products online.
But managing sales through various online platforms had its own set of challenges, and the company
had experienced slower than expected growth through this channel. Sengyee explained,
Logistics issues of selling online can be difficult. Selling fresh produce online has its own set of
challenges. We need to ensure that our supply is fresh when it reaches the end customer because
we cannot risk hurting our brand name. Moreover, delivery of fresh produce can be expensive,
as consumers mostly order in small batches, and cart size is often small.
To counteract the issue of small batch orders, Zenxin had introduced the concept of Organic boxes
on its e-commerce platform. Organic boxes were boxes of seasonal fruits and vegetables. Packaging
products into gifts or hampers was another strategy Zenxin had focussed on. Users could choose
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bundled produce boxes with a weekly or monthly delivery from the various available packages (refer
to Exhibit 3 for Zenxin’s Product Bundles). The firm’s intention was to tap on this strategy further
and bundle organic produce boxes with complementary products (like tea or cooking oil/sauces) and
sell the as festive gift hampers.
Ecommerce Platform
Zenxin’s online marketplace used a platform called WooCommerce, which integrated directly with
HubSpot – a third party customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provided inbound
marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot had a heat map integration that allowed Zenxin to
view a customer’s online behaviour on the website and online marketplace. All customer records,
regardless of purchase behaviour, were automatically stored in a centralised customer database.
However, the online platform contributed to only a small percentage of the firm’s total revenue.
Sengyee felt that one possible reason for the low online sales could be that the e-commerce platform
was separate and segregated from the company website.
Despite the lukewarm sales, the e-commerce platform provided Sengyee and his team with several
benefits. As it was integrated with HubSpot, the platform provided assorted services in categorising
customer data. It allowed the team to divide customers according to demographics. Customers could
also be filtered out according to the frequency of interaction, the number of newsletters received, etc.
This helped in reaching out to customers with promotions, email advertisements, and newsletters
more effectively. It also allowed the tracking of the success rate of marketing efforts. Besides, rules
could be implemented to automatically segregate customers into different “buckets”, and specific
metrics like “if marketing discount coupon sent within past month, categorize into ‘non-mailing list”
could be applied more effectively to run various programs.
Customer Segments
Sengyee had observed that customer segmentation was key in driving marketing efforts. From a
global survey for organic food consumers, he had learned that people who brought fresh produce
could be profiled depending on purchase behaviour into three personas – Forwards, Followers, and
Neutrals – each with their distinct expectations and buying patterns. Forwards were health obsessed
and consciously elected health over convenience; and were mostly younger consumers who lived
with family and were eager to examine ‘better for me’ alternatives. Although the willingness to pay
for premium priced organic produce with Forwards was high, the ability to pay was lower.
Followers on the other hand were middle aged consumers with a more balanced perception of health
and wellness, and were drawn to healthier and more sustainable options given a choice. Their
willingness and ability to pay were both high and they constituted a large market segment. Neutrals
were elderly consumers and were lesser health conscious, preferring price and convenience over
health. However, they were prepared to experiment with healthier options as long as they did not
have to pay a premium for such items.
From another more concentrated survey specifically for Singapore consumers Sengyee had learned
that, the expatriate population in the country belonging to the middle to high income bracket were
the primary consumers of organic food in Singapore.9 The age category of the bracket was between
26-50 years old. The survey had also noted that millennials in the age bracket of 21-34 amongst the
local population did not mind spending on good quality food products. Moreover, there was a rising
9 Alice Kwek, Market report, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, March 27, 2017,
https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/report/downloadreportbyfilename?filename=Organic%20Foods%20_Singapore_Singapore_3-
27-2017.pdf , accessed July 2020.
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awareness about the health benefits of organic produce, which was surely a positive indication for
organic producers. The overall population in Singapore was very health conscious; however, the
general understanding was that only health and fitness enthusiasts were likely to be willing to pay a
premium for organic products.
Sengyee felt that the key to building an air-tight digital marketing strategy was to further scrutinise
the consumer segments the company was trying to target. Although, the customer segment which
was more prone to make organic product purchases, was still largely the expatriate population in
Singapore and Malaysia, this was slowly starting to change. The local population in Singapore,
preferred to eat out. On the other hand, the millennial population in the two countries were cautious
of what they consumed, and preferred eating at places which used organic products. Besides, Zenxin
had created a strong base of over 20,000 loyal customers over the years, primarily through its store
visits, farm visits and corporate website visits. Sengyee felt that this data could also prove helpful in
improving his firm’s customer segmentation strategies further. He explained,
Online and offline are quite different segments. Those who buy in supermarkets, go to websites
like Amazon if they do not have the time in a particular week to go to the brick and mortar store.
But those who order on Redmart are regulars (order online every week), unlike those who visit
Amazon. So there are two categories of online consumers – one who mainly buy offline and switch
to online for specific products only, and second are those who buy mainly online for all their
grocery needs. We want to target the latter.
Sengyee and his team had made other auxiliary observations as well. Customers typically did not
make a purchase on their first visit to the website. They often required proper engagement to motivate
them to finally click the ‘buy’ button. This is where remarketing strategies provided potential benefits.
Through a study, Sengyee had found that remarketing strategies could influence the customer to
know more about the Zenxin brand during their online purchase journey, and drive action by
encouraging customers to return to the website. Remarketing could also help increase brand
awareness by improvising better customer engagement experiences.
A marketing survey had found that over 98% of website visitors left without being converted.10 In
any website, customer conversion typically happened only after performed several steps. A study
conducted by Google on the conversion funnel approach had demonstrated that it was not out of
place for visitors to take up to 30 steps before converting.11 An effective solution for this issue was
retargeting, a technique that was applied to consumers who made repeated visits to a website.
Retargeting campaigns had been found to increase search frequency by up to 1046% and site visits
by 726% after customers were exposed to retargeted ads for four weeks. Retargeting could not only
help maximise ROI but also had the potential to increase brand awareness.12
Evolving Technologies
Sengyee had also noted that many online players had started to use evolving technologies like
Artificial Intelligence (AI) for their online marketplace. There were several success stories of e-
commerce using AI, with companies like Amazon and Netflix leading the bandwagon. AI
technologies could not only help improve consumer experience by showing relevant products in a
customer’s purchase journey, but could also help organisations build strategies to focus on varied
10 Reshu Rathi, 5 Mistakes Most E-Commerce Marketers Make, Feb 17, 2016, Inc. https://www.inc.com/reshu-rathi/5-mistakes-most-e-
commerce-marketers-make-but-you-dont-have-
to.html#:~:text=Data%20suggests%2C%2098%25%20of%20your,15%20seconds%20of%20their%20visit. , accessed July 2020.
11 UX Playbook for Retail, Google, https://services.google.com/fh/files/events/pdf_retail_ux_playbook.pdf, accessed July 2020.
12 Shayla Price, How to Execute an Effective Ad Retargeting Campaign That Works, Shopify, Sep 9, 2015,
https://www.shopify.com.sg/enterprise/62605443-how-to-execute-an-effective-ad-retargeting-campaign-that-works , accessed July 2020.
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customer segments differently, and create a personalised shopping experience for the consumer.
Organic product suppliers like ‘Farm to Market’ had implemented AI applications like ‘live chat
box’ and features like ‘WhatsApp business account’ to enable real time interactions between the
consumer and the platform. 13 Some e-commerce players in the grocery sector were also using
chatbots and NLP based virtual agents to help customers in their shopping journey.14
Strategy for China
For China, Sengyee had concluded that he needed a completely different set of strategies for digital
marketing. A primary reason for this consideration was the fact that China was a much bigger market,
had a very different demographic setup, and a completely different cultural setup than Southeast Asia.
However, one common factor between the two markets was the consumer bracket of millennials.
In a research published by the Fung Business Intelligence in 2017, it was noted that the proportion
of Chinese millennials was set to increase from 40% to 46% by 2021. 15 Trends in the Chinese
consumer market were driven primarily by millennials with projected consumption share to reach
69% by 2021. It was observed that unlike their parents, millennials in China were born in an era
when the country experienced strong economic growth. This demographic had grown up in moderate
financial conditions, and with the ‘one child policy’, had experienced the advantage of being
showered with more opulent lifestyles than their predecessors. They were therefore more willing to
spend on everyday items, and were also more brand conscious, and preferred a healthy lifestyle.
Personal well-being was a key motivation.
The Chinese millennials were also very digitally savvy, and preferred to spend their time in
experience generating pursuits. Grocery shopping in supermarkets, was not considered time well
spent. They are willing to pay a premium for delivery services and save time for other activities.
Additionally, Chinese millennials spent a significant amount of their time engaging in social media,
and mobile phones were a preferred mode of transaction. In a research conducted by Hylink Group
(2016), it had been noted that the top three mobile activities that millennials engaged in were surfing
social media and communications, mobile shopping and watching mobile videos. Moreover, the
segment weighted assortment and convenience as key buying factors when purchasing online.16
Enablers and Impediments
Sengyee had scoured through reports on digital marketing enablers for organic produce and had noted
that most researches talked about customer pain points in traditional grocery shopping as key enablers.
Consumers disliked grocery shopping because of the time it consumed and the waiting time it
entailed at checkout lines. Additionally, inconvenience, crowded stores, and travel time to the store
were also noted as drawback factors. Dealing with parking, and finding out that the store was out of
stock for the desired product were also identified as pain points. With evolving technology, improved
digital commerce enablers and diminishing impediments to online shopping many consumers had
switched to online channels for making grocery purchases.17
13 Farm To Market, “About us”, https://www.farmtomarket.com.sg/, accessed July 2020.

14 Ibid.
15 Understanding China’s new consuming class – the millennials, Fung Business Intelligence, Chinese Consumers Series - Issue 1, June
2017, https://www.fbicgroup.com/sites/default/files/CCS_series01.pdf , accessed July 2020.
16 Madelyn Fitzpatrick, The Chinese 90's Millennial Report, Hylink, July 20, 2016, https://hylinkgroup.com/blog/2016/the-chinese-90s-
millennial-report , accessed July 2020.
17 Pat Conroy, Rich Nanda, Anupam Narula , Digital commerce in the supermarket aisle: Strategies for CPG brands,
Deloitte University Press, 2013, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/supermarket-digital-
commerce-cpg-strategies/DUP548_Supermarket_Ecommerce_Final.pdf , accessed July 2020.
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Seeing new items online (through advertisements or social media sites) often motivated consumers
to make their purchases straight away from the comfort of their home. Buying products online also
had the added advantage of additional information on the website which was typically not available
in a brick & mortar store. Comparison of prices and online reviews acted as further enablers to more
informed online purchases. The online consumer could also lock down recurring purchases in a list,
adding further convenience to the purchase process. Moreover, choosing delivery slots allowed
consumers the flexibility to have the order at the doorstep at a preferred time and schedule.
Impediments to e-commerce adoption in the groceries segment was often the flip side of enablers.
Consumers were often unwilling to pay delivery charges and believed that the minimum order
amount for free shipping was too high. Sometimes they also felt that product prices were higher in
the online channel. Moreover, some consumers felt that online shopping experience lacked visibility
to expiration dates, precise product information, and were prone to accidents like leak from
packaging. It had been noted that many ecommerce websites failed to attract consumers because the
product pictures were not accurate or outdated. They also failed to mimic consumer experiences of
in-store shopping like picking the food container at the back of the shelf with the longest expiration
date, or smelling a fruit or vegetable to check its freshness.
Fine-tuning the Ecommerce Strategy
In April 2020, driven by the trigger of the temporary closure of its brick and mortar stores due to the
Covid 19 pandemic, Zenxin embarked on an exercise to improve its online marketing strategy to
attract more customers to its ecommerce store. Sengyee and his team implemented a three-pronged
approach to fine-tune the firm’s digital marketing strategy. Firstly, they implemented changes on the
website to improve engagement of visiting consumers. Secondly, they expanded the firm’s social
media outreach to reach out to consumers more effectively. Thirdly, they tried to improve the firm’s
online presence by affiliating with Google My Business.
Website Strategy
For starters, they focussed on using search engine optimising techniques (SEO) to attract customers
to the website. SEO was the process of growing the quality and quantity of a website’s traffic by
increasing the visibility of the website. A few initial hacks were implemented to make the website
more appealing (refer to Exhibit 2 and Exhibit 3 for Website changes implemented in April 2020
after the Covid-19 Pandemic).
A key existing issue was the display of the company’s corporate website rather than its e-commerce
landing page when consumers entered the keyword Zenxin in the Google search. This issue was
amended to lead users to the Zenxin Organic e-commerce website with multiple landing pages. The
amendment allowed the team to segment and target their audience more efficiently by presenting
leads with targeted offers.
The landing page was also improved with additional attributes to entice visitors. A “Shop Now” and
“Play Video” feature was placed at the centre of the landing page, to offer users ease of usage and
more information about the brand. A personal message from Sengyee was also placed in the landing
page to make it more attractive and personalised for users. Additionally, a few issues identified on
the landing page were fixed. For instance, there were too many different product categories on the
landing page, which made it difficult for users to focus on which category to choose from. The
landing page was edited to reduce the number of product categories into three groups: Organic Box,
Recipe Box, and Hot Deals.
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The website was also upgraded to make it more interactive. Static content presented in the website
earlier was replaced with interactive content and customers could click on the images for further
information. Additional features like information on customised organic box orders, product stories,
customers’ cooking recipes, articles on stay home essentials were also added to the landing page.
Initially, Zenxin’s e-commerce page had a two-step process for shopping and customers were
required to click on “Shop Now” to explore individual products from the specific product category
in the landing page. For example, if the customer wanted to buy noodles, s/he had to go to the
“noodles” section, and then click “Shop Now”. This was changed to allow users to directly go to the
“Shop Now” feature and then select the item they wanted to buy from the drop down product
categories, enabling a quicker shopping journey (refer to Exhibit 4 for Improved Product Drop Down
Categories).
Information provided on the individual products in the listing were also improved. A short product
blurb was added along with a larger product image in the product listing. Additionally, longer product
details were added under the Detail section of the product listings (refer to Exhibit 5 for Product
Description).
Social Media
Another key area of concern for Zenxin was its social media strategy. The firm used four Instagram
handles, seven Facebook pages, and a YouTube channel, for its different markets, which led to
inconsistencies in content delivery across the platforms. Sengyee knew that he needed a more
cohesive strategy for social media.
Social media was known to be a low cost channel to help develop brand equity by active involvement
and ownership of a brand through consumer participation. Social media interactions could potentially
help build a community around a brand. However, building a brand through social media could be
time consuming and required diversified strategies to cater to different communities across various
platforms. A community in Facebook for example could be very different from a community of
organic produce shoppers in Instagram or LinkedIn, and would require different approaches.
Diversity of Zenxin’s market approach across Southeast Asia and China, further added to the
complexity of devising an integrated strategy.
A few simple tweaks were added to the social media strategy as a starting point. Social media
outreach was also expanded as part of the improved strategy. While the website was already
facilitating a live chat feature on Facebook Messenger; this was further augmented with a live chat
feature on WhatsApp - and a link to the app was provided for user convenience enabling improved
user engagement through one-to-one response. The website had existing links to social media
platforms and connected users with the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages. This was further
enhanced to include links to the company’s LinkedIn and YouTube pages. The Zenxin YouTube
channel was fed with new posts and a process was put in place to regularly update the channel with
new videos.
Google My Business
Sengyee and his team also implemented Google My Business strategies to manage Zenxin's online
presence. Google My Business was a free tool for businesses and included specialised ‘Search’ and
‘Map’ features. The tool was used to list Zenxin’s business profile and make the brand easily
traceable. It allowed users to know about the company’s opening hours, its location, directions to its
10/19
stores etc. The tool also allowed the company to post photos of its retail stores and list products to
provide customers further motivations to shop at its outlets (both online and brick & mortar stores).
Google My Business allowed the team to market their offerings in several innovative ways. All
product pictures were accompanied with product information and a call-to-action “Order Online”
feature was added directing the customers to its main website (refer to Exhibit 6 for Google My
Business). The team made it a point to answer all customer questions coming in from the platform to
build customer engagement and drive conversions. Proactive responses to review questions had
enabled the firm to garner an overall rating of 4.1 (out of 5), which was high compared to ratings of
other world-renowned ecommerce platforms like iHerb (which had a rating of 2.7 for its Singapore
website).
The Path Forward
Although Zenxin had invested in a more expansive digital strategy and implemented several new
features on its website, it was nowhere close to the sophisticated digital strategies implemented by
retail giants like Amazon, and even larger local online retail players like RedMart. Sengyee realised
that moving forward, the company would require a more structured approach to optimising its digital
strategy to drive online conversions. He pondered on his options. He knew for certain that solutions
tapping on emerging technologies could improve consumer experiences. The winner in the new era
of digital ecommerce would have obvious advantages in a data driven business world, and organic
products were no exception. But implementing such technologies could be expensive and not
necessarily fruitful.
Sengyee wanted his consumers to receive immediate recommendations to assist them in their
purchase decision; the hope was to convert as many visits into sales as possible, and propel more and
more consumers to visit Zenxin’s online marketplace. At the same time, Sengyee wanted to integrate
the firm’s online business with its offline marketing initiatives. He pondered: How could he enhance
Zenxin’s online marketing strategy? What strategies could he implement to further improve the
company’s website and build its brand identity? What could be the key ingredients of Zenxin’s e-
commerce and digital marketing strategy?
11/19
EXHIBIT 1: ZENXIN’S BRANDING APPROACH (CAMPAIGNS, RECIPE TIPS, FARM TOURS)
Video on Farm tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1fXPdsYQxg&t=615s, (from 8:45 to 21:45)
Source: Company Data
12/19
EXHIBIT 2: ZENXIN WEBSITE CHANGES
Company Website before Covid 19
Ecommerce Website before Covid 19
13/19
Improved Website with multiple landing pages focussed on ecommerce after Covid 19 as at October
2020.
Improved Main Website page with Shop Now feature after Covid 19 as at October 2020.
14/19
EXHIBIT 3: NEW WEBSITE STRATEGIES DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Before the COVID-19 pandemic When the COIVID-19 pandemic started in April
2020
SEO
When consumers entered the keyword “Zenxin”, When consumers entered the keyword “Zenxin”
Google directed customers to the corporate site rather for an organic search, Google showed “Zenxin
than the online delivery, landing page. Customers had Singapore” with options of multiple landing
to access “online delivery” through clicks to be pages.
redirected to the shopping page.
Landing Page
The landing page did not include any call-to-action Zenxin placed a “Shop Now” feature at the center
(CTA). of the landing page, together with “Play Video” to
offer more information about the brand. The
executive director’s personal message was on the
landing page.
Display of Product Category
Multiple product categories displayed on the landing Zenxin reduced the number of product categories
page making it hard to search for items. to represent better what it offers.
Encourage Conversion - Shop now

A two-step process for shopping where customers had Shopping made easy now with a one-step “Shop
to explore individual products from the specific Now” feature.
products’ landing pages. The buying process took
longer time.
Product Information
Product shown on the main page had a small Bigger images with a short blurb to explain the
description. Small product images were used. product. The design was pleasing to the visitors’
eye and enticed them to explore.
Interaction
Static content. Interactive website where customers could click
on the images for further information. The landing
page included features like stay home essentials,
Organic box - customize your own box, latest
product stories, cooking recipes, and what our
customers say etc.
Customer Communication
Limited communication channels - e.g. inactive live The improved website added WhatsApp as a new
chat - limited to Facebook Messenger only. form of communication. The website linked to
WhatsApp for convenience and responsive one-
to-one response.
Customer Engagement
The website connected to its Facebook and Instagram The improved website extended to LinkedIn and
pages. YouTube. Zenxin kept its YouTube channel active
with regular new videos uploaded.
Source: Author’s own - based on Copmany data and website image captured on 28th October 2020 (after Covid 19)
via https://web.archive.org/web/20201028024842/https://zenxin.com.sg/
15/19
EXHIBIT 4: IMPROVED DROPDOWN PRODUCT CATEORIES
Previous website had item-wise product categories listed at the top.
New website had clearly identified product categories under a user-friendly drop down tab.
16/19
EXHIBIT 5: IMPROVED PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
17/19
EXHIBIT 6: GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE
Zenxin listed its products under the “Products” section in Google My Business. All photos came with product information
and a call-to-action “Order online” directing the customers to its website. Additionally, Zenxin answered each customer’s
question directly to build customer engagement and drive conversion.
18/19
Zenxin responded to most of the customers’ reviews and questions. The CEO of Zenxin managed the reviews and replied
personally to the customers’ questions regularly. The overall rating was 4.2, which indicated that the customers were
satisfied with the brand.
19/19

Zenxin Organic: From Brick and Mortar To Digital Retail

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ZENXIN ORGANIC: FROM BRICK AND MORTAR TO DIGITAL

Copyright © 2021, Singapore Management University Version: 2021-04-06

2 WordPress is a free open source content management system.

7 NASAA - The National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia.

We piggybacked on existing logistics as we expanded. We supplied fresh produce to the

In China, consumers identified us as a foreign brand. Equipped with international

Ecommerce Strategy and Improvement Possibilities

Strategy for China

Enablers and Impediments

13 Farm To Market, “About us”, https://www.farmtomarket.com.sg/, accessed July 2020.

Fine-tuning the Ecommerce Strategy

The Path Forward

EXHIBIT 1: ZENXIN’S BRANDING APPROACH (CAMPAIGNS, RECIPE TIPS, FARM TOURS)

Video on Farm tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1fXPdsYQxg&t=615s, (from 8:45 to 21:45)

Source: Company Data

EXHIBIT 2: ZENXIN WEBSITE CHANGES

Company Website before Covid 19

Ecommerce Website before Covid 19

EXHIBIT 3: NEW WEBSITE STRATEGIES DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Encourage Conversion - Shop now

EXHIBIT 4: IMPROVED DROPDOWN PRODUCT CATEORIES

Previous website had item-wise product categories listed at the top.

EXHIBIT 5: IMPROVED PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Source: Company Data

EXHIBIT 6: GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE

Source: Company Data

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