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In February-April, we held a dialogue session known as the “Jom Bersama-sama CORO” with our CORO Dealers.

This round, we made the dialogue sessions in a smaller group set up, with 2 to 5 Dealers in a session. In total, we managed to host 7 sessions to get in touch with our CORO Dealers.

In the Jom Bersama-sama session, which was held virtually, our Deputy Group General Manager, Saw Mei Yee laid down Pen Petroleum’s expectations and directions in 2022. She also shared the insights on the business, urging our Dealers to raise the performance standard to stay competitive in this challenging environment. For Pen Petroleum, every CORO sites must achieve profitable growth, as we have invested heftily in acquiring, managing and maintaining the stations. It is crucial for our Dealers to drive the sales whole heartedly to achieve a win-win situation.

Jom Bersama-sama also serves as a platform for our Dealers to provide feedback on Chevron and Pen Petroleum’s programs. We gathered that majority of our CORO Dealers liked the ShopeePay promotion the most, followed by Batmobile promotion.

We truly appreciate the Dealers who made the effort to attend this meaningful session with us. Your commitment is what we look forward and look up to.

Cigarette is one of the most fast selling items in our Xpress Point Stores. Xpress Point collaborated with Commercial Marketers and Distributors Sdn Bhd (“BAT”) to launch a ‘Sell-In Program’ exclusively for our Xpress Point Retail Partners. The objective of the program is to boost the store sales during the recovery period of the pandemic.

Top 50 performing stores with the highest absolute total BAT volume growth and the highest % total BAT volume growth (vs target) will be rewarded with RM200 per store.

Congratulations to the winners! RM200 is yours!

I remember vividly, that was the time when Chevron first collaborated with Shopee to launch the RM4 Cashback promotion. As usual, that was a compulsory marketing program for all Caltex retailers to join. Stations were required to first sign up the eWallet program before they are able to execute any eWallet promotion, such as the Caltex-Shopee Cashback program.

The first thought that came to my mind was this: “How to make the rural areas sites participate in this together? Can they accept that eWallet is now the trend, and will become popular even outside the urban? Are they willing to learn and pick up this new trend?” I know that was going to be my real challenge.

I visited a few rural sites. As predicted, they were reluctant to embrace digitalization. They said, ‘kami stesen kampung saja, jarang-jarang orang pakai eWallet’ (We are in a rural area, no one is keen to use the eWallet). These stations did not realize the importance of eWallet towards all business these day, especially the fact that during the pandemic, customers prefer cashless transactions to avoid direct contact.

I urged them to comply, no excuse. I started with getting them to unbox, charge and turn on the payment terminal (yes, they even left the paid payment terminal in the store untouched!). I tried a few low amount transactions to test if the terminal was working with no error. Then I demonstrated how to perform a ShopeePay transaction. I made them look, follow, repeat & repeat. After a few rounds of on-site sessions with them, they started using eWallet in a proactive manner. By learning the benefits of eWallet transactions, they started to develop the motivation to drive the ShopeePay campaign. They also enjoyed educating their customer from the rural trading areas. Customers learned this new trend from them and returned to their station to refuel.

Later, to my surprise, these Retailers become even more aggressive than the city area sites Retailers in the eWallet transactions! Now, they would come asking me, “Hey, Ong, when will be the next eWallet campaign?”

A Malay proverb goes, ‘Tak Kenal, Maka Tak Cinta’. It means literally as ‘not knowing, hence not loving’. I think this applies to what I’ve witnessed. Once the Retailers learned about it, they will embrace it. Thus, we as the RBC play a vital role to guide the Retailers, to arouse their interest and to celebrate the success and fun together. Turning around rural station Retailer’s mindset towards the modernization is never easy, but it is not impossible. I was very pleased to see the Retailers’ progress.

— This is a best practice article shared by our internal Retail Team member, Ong Pheh Ling (“Ong”). Ong is the Retail Business Consultant covering the Perak and Penang areas.