There has been quite a number of articles like this one in the national newspapers recently, and the theme is clear- online boutiques are becoming a factor as they continue to make in-roads offline.

So instead of weekend bazaars and the occasional flea markets, they are now given more permanent physical presence.  As it says in the opening line, the critical implication here is that a physical presence is required to overcome the issues of customers not being able to touch and feel items online.

From The Star: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/8/21/central/6067431&sec=central

Online boutiques take on real world

By YIP YOKE TENG
teng@thestar.com.my
Photos by UU BAN

Shopping online for apparel is fast gaining popularity but there are some who remain sceptical since they cannot see or feel the items.
This is one reason why operators of online boutiques would sometimes sell items at weekend bazaars so potential customers can have a look at the merchandise that was posted on the Internet.
OB Couture at Tropicana City Mall brings the idea up a notch by offering a space for online boutique operators to display their goods and for customers to get them off the rack, in the comfort and convenience of a shopping mall.
Another plus point is shoppers do not need to wait for the weekends to nab their purchases.

Offline presence: Matthew Tang believes his store concept will work in Malaysia.

“The concept was started in Taiwan and Singapore, we believe shopping enthusiasts and online boutique operators here will find it useful.
“There are about 1,500 online boutiques in Malaysia, we can offer them our services,” said co-founder Matthew Tang.
The space in OB Couture is divided into 75 slots, each can have 30 hangers to display the apparel as well as a cabinet to store stock. Each slot is leased from RM11 a day.
“We want to reach out to not only the operators of online boutiques, but also fashion designers, fashion graduates and aspiring entrepreneurs,” he added.
Vendors only need to send their merchandise over while the boutique handles the rest — tagging, ironing, selling and replenishing the items among others — and send them a sales report every 10 days.

Embelishments: Accessories are also part of the offerings at OB Couture.

 

The three-month-old boutique is equipped with fitting rooms, a feature much appreciated by online shoppers.
“Prices of the merchandise are all set by vendors so they can have a sense of individuality.
“Some vendors were worried that putting the merchandise together would mean more competition, in fact it would create a synergy that brings the business to a big scale.
“This platform enables them to run their boutiques both online and offline even when they do not have a sizable capital at the moment and we complement their operations with promotions and advertisements,” Tang added.
OB Couture is located at Lot L1-35, First Floor, Tropicana City Mall, Jalan SS20/27, Petaling Jaya. Tang can be reached at 017-202 2710.

Malaysia's 1st Online Entrepreneurs Weekend

This event will be happening at the Mid Valley Convention Center from 13 to 15 August.

http://www.malaysiantoday.com.my/node/1574

I am going to attend it as it will be a chance to begin my initial round of interview as there will be many blogshop owners and other participants there.

Malaysia's 1st Online Entrepreneurs Weekend


They were only biding time. Now they too are at the forefront of fashion: Blogshops. Once restricted to the space within the virtual world, Blogshops are now present in the physical dimension. Making this possible transition possible is Malaysia's Online Fashion Entrepreneurs' Weekend 2010.

While surfing on popular networking site Facebook, you find that someone has tagged you on a picture. Clicking on the notification, curious to see if it was a good shot of you, you see that you have been tagged as a left sleeve.

We are getting more and more of these pictures as more of our friends decide to earn extra income by trying to become entrepreneurs. They set up shop by placing their products for sale on various blog platforms, advertise on Facebook, and update their stores' progress on Twitter.

There are a few site dedicated to highlighting the myriad of stores such as diaryofane-shopaholic.blogspot.com, ashopaholicsden.com, will-shop-till-drop.blogspot.com and many more. These sites suss out the best from the rest and update the shoppers on which of the blogshops have new collections.

An event called Malaysia's Online Fashion Entrepreneurs' Weekend 2010 (MOFEW) organised by A&O Brandbuilding Consultants aim to bring these entrepreneurs out of the four corners of the screen to set up shop on ground at Mid Valley Convention Centre come August 13 to 15.

You can expect some of the crowd favourites to be displaying their wares. The full list of blogshops who will be participating on the three-day event is listed on MOFEW's Facebook fanpage at http://tinyurl.com/MOFEW. 

On the Fan Page as well, you will be able to view the competition between blogshops as they rally for votes online in the first round of 'The Search'. The second round will have the top 25 highest voted blogshops to be judged by the main sponsors such as Elizabeth, Snips Salon and the organisers themselves.

The panel of judges will be giving points based on the blogshops' fashion, creativity and marketing knowledge from their creation of three product shots. The fashion shots will also be judged by public votes on the same Facebook fanpage.

In the final round, the shortlisted top eight will be required to create a total image for an assigned model using their own products with the assistance of the SNIPS team who will provide make-up and hairstyling. A fashion show will follow suit and the whole ensemble will be judged by the same panel of judges before one is eventually crowned Malaysia's Online Fashion Entrepreneur.

For those of you who own an iPhone, there's more for you! MOFEW has a dedicated application which is downloadable free from Apple AppStore. The app will have all the listings of the exhibitors, contacts, their shop's web address, the blogshops' catalog along with vouchers and discounts for shoppers.

There's even a nifty search function to let you browse the specific categories without needing to flip from page to page.

Log on over to mofew.com.my for more information on the first ever Malaysia's Online Fashion Entrepreneurs' Weekend.

Their Facebook page is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Malaysias-Online-Fashion-Entrepreneurs-Weekend/122251237790413?ref=sgm&v=wall#!/pages/Malaysias-Online-Fashion-Entrepreneurs-Weekend/122251237790413?v=info&ref=sgm