M’sian housewife starts unique online business
Image adapted from: Adilah Ibrahim & Bisnes Santai Masa Free
We all know and love Super Ring – but if you don’t, it’s a beloved cheesy childhood snack that has somehow remained affordable at RM1.90/pack. And those who were born in the 90s, you’ll even remember it being at a fraction of this price when you bought it from your trusty roti man.
Which is why we were all #shooketh to find out that Adilah Ibrahim, a full-time housewife and mother of 3 from Malaysia, is selling Super Ring for RM60/3 packs on eBay to people in America and Finland. It turns out Westerners can’t seem to get enough of these cheesy rings.
Stay-at-home mom starts her own business
Image credit: Adilah Ibrahim
According to her personal website, Adilah is a self-proclaimed “Work From Home Mom” since starting an online business that sells local products domestically in 2004. She decided to move her business to eBay in 2011, but there wasn’t much response. It wasn’t until 2019 when she enrolled in an eBay workshop that she learned the tools of the trade and started to tap into an untapped market abroad.
So while many Malaysians have side hustles selling new and secondhand items on sites like Lazada and Shopee, Adilah currently rakes in a steady 4 figures a month by selling local products to shoppers overseas.
Malaysian products make a profit abroad
Image credit: Bisnes Santai Masa Free
Starting off with books, her inventory for international market on eBay now includes packs of Super Ring, mosquito repellent, pandan leaves, Sensodyne toothpaste, ikan bilis, ajinomoto, and even petai. She has credited affordable local stores such as MyDin, 99 Speedmart, and Shopee as her main suppliers, which has helped her get serious profit for these everyday household items.
And we’re not the only ones shocked at the apparent market abroad for these items – she was also surprised to learn that people in America and Finland have great interest in them.
Adilah posing with Vape mosquito repellers, which she says are popular items abroad
Image credit: Bisnes Santai Masa Free
She has proudly shown on her Facebook page – which has since garnered over 9,000 followers – a listing of hers on eBay to prove that good marketing really does the trick.
With adjectives such as “Cheese”, “Famous”, “Malaysia” and “Asia” in its name listing, 3 packs of 60g Super Ring packs are being sold for USD13.99 (~RM59.23) – of which 7 have already been sold to people who must really be craving this snack.
A listing of Adliah’s on eBay that shows how much Malaysian snacks can rack in online
Image credit: Bisnes Santai Masa Free
Her own business model
Image credit: Bisnes Santai Masa Free
Collecting all her street smarts, Adilah now has her own online business called Bisnes Santai Masa Free – which directly translates from Malay to English as “Freetime Relax Business”, where she imparts what she learns to anyone who’s interested in making a profit off eBay.
She also has a Telegram group with over 12,000 members, where she shares more tools of the trade with anyone who is willing to take a chance on her unique business model. She also shares tales of her followers who have similar success stories as hers.
Image credit: Bisnes Santai Masa Free
Malaysian housewife starts unique business online
Image credit: Bisnes Santai Masa Free
We’ve seen our share of independent women and breadwinning housewives in Malaysia who have us pumping our fists and chanting Beyonce’s Run The World (Girls) whenever we can.
While Adilah’s business model has us turning our heads and others tsk-ing at the outrageous prices for cheap products we see everyday, she’s proved to us all that thinking outside the box does work.
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