AEON expands its retail business in Malaysia

Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur is a leading business and tourism hub in South East Asia. That is why many international retail companies and brands are eager to expand their presence in this country.

Aeon is a prominent Japanese retail group that is already operating 34 stores and five supermarkets in Malaysia.

Recently, the company added a new supermarket to its crown of stores under the name "MaxValu Prime".

"We have operated supermarkets under the name "MaxValu". Last year, we made a new brand called "MaxValu Prime". The difference is that in the Prime service, we not only sell groceries, beverages and assorted delights, but offer customers the option to eat in. Also, we have here for the first time a special corner for non-halal items. In Malaysia, shops usually are not allowed to sell non-halal items, but we managed to get a license to sell these," said Hiroyuki Kotera, an official from AEON.

This store is located in a business area where around 15,000 employees work. It is already attracting around 3,000 customers a day.

"We have the "cook for you" service, so customers can buy all items from our store like meat, fish and other dishes. After they pay at the counter over there, our staff will cook those dishes for the customers within fifteen minutes and serve it to them," said C. Y. Chen, another AEON official.

This new service, among others, is making daily life more convenient for working parents in Malaysia.

"I think we live at a time where both parents are working parents and getting to do your shopping is not so simple and easy. Therefore, it's great to have a delivery service for your groceries to your house," a customer said.

AEON Malaysia has signed a business tie-up with "Honest Bee, Malaysia", which operates shopping agency services. Customers order AEON products from the website and staff who reside at the store receive the online orders. After checking them out, they pick up the products and handle them. The products are then taken for delivery by motorcycle to the customer's location within the next one hour.

MaxValu Prime reflects on AEON's concepts of providing 'maximum value' to all customers in terms of quality of goods, "value-for-money" prices, product freshness, assortment, and customer service. MaxValu prime is another example of how Japanese companies strive to continually make customer's shopping needs their top priority.