KUALA LUMPUR, 26th SEPTEMBER 2022: Maybank Islamic Bhd today entered into a strategic partnership with ELOKAL Sdn Bhd, an eCommerce specialist that provides end-to-end solutions for the SMEs to market their products and services locally in both physical stores and e-commerce sites.

This initiative is a continuation of the Bank’s flagship Halal Route to Market Programme (Halmap), launched in 2021 which saw the products of 10 Malaysian SMEs on the shelves of a supermarket in Singapore.

With Halmap 2.0 and the collaboration with ELOKAL, 20 SMEs customers of Maybank Islamic will have their products marketed at not just physical and online stores of Petronas, Petron and desaMall but also at popular e-commerce platforms including Shopee, Lazada and Wow Shop, to maximise the products’ brand exposure and customer reach.

Under Maybank Islamic’s halal business operations for SMEs, customers do not just obtain financing but the bank will also assist them in conducting business matching, provide product development advisory, halal certification assistance and consultancy and also the offering of halal export programmes, like Halmap.

In this programme with Maybank Islamic, ELOKAL as the distributor will be responsible for, among others, delivery of the products to retail stores, all marketing and promotional activities and also product pitching to retailers.

Encik Nor Shahrizan Sulaiman, Deputy CEO, Maybank Islamic said:

“As the leading digital transformation player in banking, the Maybank Group is always on the lookout for strategic partnerships and ways to market new products whilst enhancing offerings to our customers. In addition, we at Maybank Islamic believe that digitalisation is critical for the long-term viability of SMEs in the new economy, increases its long-term productivity and sustainability and Halmap 2.0 serves this needs.”

Encik Nor Shahrizan added that digitalising businesses improves efficiency, competitiveness and enhances revenue growth.

“It reduces cost by providing better and quicker access to information between businesses and networks. In addition, it facilitates better connection with customers in a more engaging way which could translate into higher customer satisfaction,” he said.

For more details on the programme, please email halal@maybank.com and myelokalz@gmail.com