Looking after new market opportunities

At the end of last year, the two-year-old company opened a 1000 sqf (93 m2) store in OneCity Shopping Centre, a new mall in the Salambigar industrial area on the outskirts of the capital Bandar Seri Begawan. The store is the company's first mall-based outlet. Nimanja now has two stand-alone outlets in addition to its virtual store nimanja.com. The first branch is in the Gadong commercial district in Brunei's capital. The second, which is located in Brunei's westernmost district of Kuala Belait, serves expatriates and locals who work in the sultanate's petroleum sector.
Anderson Lim, Nimanja managing director and founder, is very impressed by the new location. The strong tenants of the mall - which include Hua Ho, the country's biggest department store chain, fast food outlets and cinemas - make the space appealing, according to Lim. "In that area, there are not many shops that have strong tenants. Once the mall came up, and we heard there are a lot of very strong tenants which are going to rent that place, it made sense for us to be at the same place as them," he says.
Nimanja, whose name derives from the Chinese word ni (you) and the Malay word manja (pampered), started in 2016 as the marketing arm of the Petlink Group, Brunei's biggest and oldest pet supplies chain. Founded in 1985 by Lim's parents, it covers 50 per cent of the country's pet market. Nimanja later ventured into online retailing, opening a virtual store that comprises pet food, care products, accessories and toys sourced from the US, China, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia as well as through trade fairs and recommendations. It touts convenience as its selling point.
The online store provides same-day delivery for buyers who live in the capital and on its outskirts, and weekly to twice-weekly deliveries to those who live elsewhere. Payment options include cash or card on delivery and online payment.

Nimanja went into traditional retailing in 2017. The Gadong store raised the pet shop's visibility and resulted in a rise in overall sales. The opening of the Kuala Belait branch, however, had the opposite effect on Nimanja's online turnover, as clients who used to buy online opted to make the trip to the new store. 
Today, online sales make up just eight per cent of Nimanja's revenues, but Lim is not worried. "Our online store was catering to areas where there were no pet shops. It was in line with our original goal…