A local tech startup named StoreHub has recently released an automation tool called StoreHub Engage to assist retailers and restaurants in engaging with their customers, generating repeat business, and enhancing their Google ratings through automated personalised SMS campaigns.

Over 300 businesses have now adopted StoreHub Engage, and restaurants and stores have reported a median return on investment (ROI) of up to 18 times thanks to an increase in both repeat and new consumers brought in by better Google ratings.

The feature enables companies currently utilising StoreHub’s ecosystem to automate up to four tailored SMS campaigns to existing customers in their database. It is fully integrated into its point of sales (POS) platform. In order to encourage repeat customers from current customers — which could involve sending birthday and cashback reminders.

Digitalisation is no longer a nice-to-have for SMEs, as consumer spending is expected to decrease this year coupled with rising labour and food ingredient costs. Even SAMENTA (SME Association Malaysia) has recently advised local SMEs to fully embrace digitalisation as a means of reducing costs via increased productivity.

Wai Hong Fong, Chieftain and co-Founder of StoreHub, reflects on the state of the SME market: “Traditional brick and mortar businesses typically lack access to specialised knowledge to effectively reach their customers. We built Engage to help automate that.

“Imagine it’s your customer’s birthday – Engage will send them a personalised “Happy birthday” SMS with a unique voucher code. Instead of spending time doing this manually, or paying for expensive tools or specialists to achieve this, business owners can now just turn it on and let it run.”

A range of SMS campaigns, including birthday specials and reengaging consumers who haven’t visited in a while, can be automated by companies with their database of customers. SMEs have taken full use of this feature, as seen by the many merchants who have provided favourable feedback to StoreHub.

“StoreHub Engage has not only helped us get customers to return, but gave us valuable insight into the journey of each returning customer – including how much they spend and how often they return. This helps us plan better on how to grow our business”, said Ajeep Badaru, Operations Manager at local eatery Teh Tarik Place, Kota Warisan branch.

In addition, local cultural clothing brand, Jeel Official’s owner, Yash Rajesh, has experienced a boost in sales, mentioning that “As a business selling cultural wear, this feature has helped me reach out to my customers and boost my sales even during non-festive periods. This has saved me valuable time that can be used to manage other parts of the business better.”

One of the owners of the neighbourhood café, Fin KL, Michelle Liu, added her own perspective, saying that “StoreHub Engage has helped us get more revenue through repeat customers. It’s great that something so reliable and helpful to the business is also easy to use.”

StoreHub Engage was first designed as a cloud-based point of sale system, but it has now expanded to include a complete range of services such as staff management, automated ordering and payment, real-time reporting and analytics, and inventory tracking.

Business owners who are interested to find out more about StoreHub Engage can book a free demo here.

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