er the leadership of Malik Bin Murad Ali, Mydin’s director of IT, HR, digital and loss prevention and security, the retailer recently integrated a new warehouse mobility solution (WMS), catapulting the company’s daily order fulfilment from a modest 1500 to an impressive 10,000 orders.  According to Murad Ali, the company started off its e-commerce operations during the movement control period (MCO), which was a series of national quarantine measures implemented by the federal government of Malaysia in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. He said that at the time, the company was very ‘manual’ in its operations. Every order received was printed out on paper, and someone would run around the store to pick up orders. Even inventory was not updated in real-time. “During the MCO the huge volume of orders provided the impetus for us to digitise the whole operation. With our new fulfilment centre and WMS, we can easily process anything from 10,000 orders to 20,000 orders a day,” he told Inside Retail. The new technology and fulfilment centre means that Mydin can now support more channels apart from its own e-commerce operations, like Shopee, Lazada and TikTok. “A lot of players are coming into the market, and as far as our business is concerned, we have the inventory, and we need to find the customers to sell our products. It’s a very simple operation or modus operandi,” he added. Details matter When the company opened up its new fulfilment centre in Seremban two years ago, it had to overcome a few challenges.  Its team was using older devices, which were clunky and ran Windows Mobile operating systems. It wanted to move to an Android-based one. Mydin adopted new handheld devices that had a good scan engine, suitable ergonomics and superior battery life.  Murad Ali said that these days, Mydin can fulfil at least 80 per cent of its orders in a day, even during peak periods. “Selling is one aspect, but more importantly, is how you fulfil these orders. Making sure that we can fulfil our customer’s expectations is paramount. Our core philosophy at Mydin is –  the customer comes first,” he said. The future Murad Ali wants Mydin to become a leader in the digital space, as it already has made its mark in the physical retail side of things in Malaysia. “It’s our aspiration to become a leader in the digital space, but for global marketplaces, one would need venture capital to make that a reality. For now, we are focused on organic growth and hopefully, our customer service, reliability and brand power will propel us forward,” he opined. As consumers increasingly demand omnichannel experiences, Murad Ali is clear-eyed about the challenges ahead. “We definitely want to provide a seamless omnichannel experience for customers to buy offline and online. But to get there requires a lot of technological investment. We’re building our fulfilment centres, e-commerce teams and getting the right software. We’ll get there, slowly but surely,” he stressed. Ultimately, he believes that Mydin has what it takes to make its presence felt in the e-commerce side of things in Malaysia, as the company is committed to its digital transformation journey. “There are a lot of things that go into making sure the final experience for the customer is achieved, and it’s not as easy as most people think. But it’s also possible, it requires a lot of focus, and we’re working really hard at it,” he concluded.