Business hasn't disappeared. Demand has moved
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
After Hari Raya, it was very clear that Malaysia's retail market had suddenly gone into winter.
A friend who runs a garment factory suddenly had no orders. Almost none at all. He couldn't hold on, so he closed down and let his workers go. Some wholesalers I hadn't heard from in years suddenly got in touch, sitting on piles of clothing stock, willing to sell at very low wholesale prices, even 70 to 80 percent off, just hoping I could help them clear it.
Over this period I have also been getting a steady stream of enquiries from Chinese factories, Malaysian supply chains, wholesalers and brands. When we meet, the first thing almost everyone says is the same:
"How's business lately?"
Hearing all this weighs on me a little.
Because this isn't one company suddenly doing badly, or one owner not working hard enough. Many people are already working very hard. The wind in the market has simply changed.
Our own business actually hasn't been hit too hard.
I'm not saying we are brilliant. Honestly, I don't think we are especially brilliant. But after talking with a lot of people in the industry, I can see clothing consumption going through a very clear paradigm shift.
By a paradigm shift I don't just mean the market getting worse, or people buying less. It is a deeper change in buying habits, in the path people take to buy, and in the structure of the business itself.
Customers have taken a different road
In the past, when people wanted to buy clothes, most went to a shopping mall, into a physical store, looked at styles, tried things on, and bought. A shop might be one or two thousand square feet. In a good location like KLCC, Mid Valley or Pavilion, foot traffic was fairly steady, and so was business. As long as Malaysia's GDP grew 3 to 5 percent a year, you could follow the market and maybe grow 5 to 10 percent a year. With good marketing, perhaps 20 or 30 percent.
But that growth was still growth along the same old curve.
The real threat isn't the market slowly getting worse. It's customers suddenly taking a different road.
To buy clothes, a customer used to have to go out, find parking, walk into a mall and go from shop to shop. Now she might just be lying in bed at night scrolling TikTok, see a live stream or a short video, think the piece looks nice and the price is fair, and order it on the spot.
She may not have meant to buy anything at first.
But the content triggered the need.
That is the biggest difference.
Retail used to be location-driven, relying on location, foot traffic and malls. Then marketplaces came and it became search-driven, with customers searching for what they wanted on Shopee or Lazada. Now social commerce has made it discovery-driven. Customers aren't actively searching. They discover things inside content, get drawn in and get triggered.
This change is a lot like Netflix replacing DVDs and VCDs.
To watch a film, we used to buy a VCD or DVD, or rent one. When Netflix arrived, people didn't just buy slightly fewer DVDs. The whole way we watch shifted. People accepted subscriptions, streaming and watching on demand anywhere. The demand for films didn't disappear. The way people consumed them changed.
Grab is the same.
We used to wait by the road for a taxi, haggle, and hope the driver was willing to go where we wanted. When Grab came, it wasn't just one more app. It changed how we get a ride altogether. Once customer habits change, the whole structure of the market changes.
Clothing today is the same.
It's not that people have stopped buying clothes. It's that the way people buy clothes is changing.
As logistics infrastructure matures, payment gets easier, platform services become more complete and returns become normal, people slowly come to trust buying online. Many used to feel clothes had to be tried on before buying. Now more and more people are happy to buy online, because there are more styles, clearer prices, more choice and more convenience.
What I see isn't that ZUCCA is better than everyone else.
What I see is that we happened to be standing right where this shift in buying behaviour is happening.
We have long focused on online, especially TikTok and social commerce. We also didn't want too much money tied up in inventory, so alongside our in-house brand division, last year we started a commerce division that helps other brands run their online business and provides online solutions.
While a lot of traditional wholesale and retail is getting hit, we have been able to stay relatively steady. Not because we have no problems, but because we moved closer to the new buying path earlier.
Online and offline are both just channels
That doesn't mean online is always right and offline is always wrong.
I don't see it that way.
To me, online and offline are both just channels in the end. TikTok, Shopee, Lazada, your own website and physical stores are simply different touchpoints. What really matters isn't which platform you sell on, but whether you can get the right product to the right customer in the right way.
In the end, building a business comes back to a very plain question:
What problem are you actually solving?
For me, the problem ZUCCA wants to solve is simple. We want to make a good piece of clothing, so customers can buy something that is fairly priced, looks good, feels comfortable and is worth it.
It doesn't sound complicated, but it isn't easy to do.
You have to know what customers like.
You have to control costs.
You have to manage inventory.
You have to shoot content.
You have to go live.
You have to handle customer service.
You have to ship on time.
You have to make customers feel, when the parcel arrives, that the order was worth it.
The future of retail isn't a fight between online and offline. It's about who is closer to demand, who sees demand sooner, and who adjusts supply to meet it faster.
If customers are in shopping malls, we go to shopping malls.
If customers are on TikTok, we go to TikTok.
If customers are on Shopee, we go to Shopee.
If customers buy through AI agents in future, we have to learn how to appear on the paths those agents recommend.
Channels will change, platforms will change, technology will change. But the customer's wish to buy a good piece of clothing won't.
Where are customers now?
Often we think what we are facing is a bad economy, weaker spending and fewer orders. But one layer deeper, maybe the real problem is that the old business model no longer fits the new way people buy.
If we keep using old methods, waiting for the old foot traffic, selling old stock and hoping the market goes back to how it was, things may only get harder.
But once we accept that this paradigm shift has already happened, we start asking different questions:
Where are customers now?
How are they being triggered?
Why do they buy?
Why don't they buy?
How can we bring good products in front of them in new ways?
I think that is the most important thinking for what comes next.
A market winter is cruel, of course.
But every winter also forces us to see one thing clearly:
Business hasn't all disappeared. Demand has just moved.
Customers have just changed paths.
Growth has just moved to a different curve.
What a founder needs to do isn't complain that the old road is getting harder. It's to find the new road, and bring the team, the products, the supply chain and themselves along with them.