Normally, our crafts are sold when people come to buy for the village. Occasionally, some organizations would sponsor us to take us to craft conventions and centres to sell our crafts.

Now that we have an online shop, we hope to share our crafts and culture with the international community.

Challenges of selling online

As we live in a village, most members of Tompoq Topoh do not know how to use the computer except for some of the younger members who are away studying or working in town most of the time.

Besides that, most of us are not fluent in English.

Marketplace agent

Because of those challenges, we are working with a marketplace agent, Su Li – who helps manage the shop and enquiries. When there is an order for a product, she will inform us and we will post it out from the post office in town.

Over a period of time, together with Elevyn, we hope to learn to be able to manage our online shop on our own.

Social enterprise

1. Tompoq Topoh buys the product from the artisan at the local market price.

2. The price is then marked up by 15%:
5% goes to our Cause to buy Food for Elderly & Single Moms,
5% to Elevyn,
and the rest for bank charges.

3. From the profit made from the online sale:
40% goes back to the artisan
40% goes to Tompoq Topoh’s fund
20% to our Marketplace Agent

Information and photos

The information on our shop is from our book, Chita Hae’ available for sale here.

Photos are courtesy of Colin Nicholas / Center for Orang Asli Concerns, Su Li and Sze Ning / Elevyn