Astro Go Shop pushes out Ramadan e-bazaar amidst MCO

Astro's eCommerce arm Go Shop has rolled out its Ramadan e-bazaar in support of local F&B businesses as well as a special channel for consumers. To date, Go Shop said about 100 F&B businesses such as Brownies Bar by The Accidental Bakers, LaksaNA, Pihapi and BurgerBros have registered for the e-bazaar. It worked with Imaginato for the e-bazaar launch.

Go Shop joins foodpanda and Grab in pushing out Ramadan e-bazaars as the government banned them a few weeks ago to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coalition of Malay Small Traders Association and Kiplepay also partnered to launch the Warong Digital e-Bazaar Ramadan, aimed at helping small businesses and hawkers operate throughout Ramadan, the New Straits Times said.

Meanwhile, its new channel Go Shop Ramadan and Raya Edisi Khas features Diari Rumah, Stail TV, Go Shop Express and Dapur Selebriti which focuses on home improvement tips, muslimah fashion and cooking ideas from celebrity chefs such as Chef Wan, Chef Florence Tan and Chef Kamarulin. CEO of Astro Go Shop, Grace Lee, said Ramadan and Raya are traditionally important to SMEs and it is cognisant that some businesses in Malaysia may be impacted by the pandemic and are committed to support local businesses specifically those in the SME and micro-SME space.

"It is timely that we launched the Go Shop Ramadan Bazaar for small F&B businesses to list their products on our marketplace for free, thus gaining a wider exposure among 2.2 million Go Shop customers. We hope customers will continue to support local SMEs through this initiative and to spread the word to other SMEs to sign up to be part of our Ramadan bazaar," Lee added.

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Separately on the broadband front, Astro recently tied up with Allo Technology to offer its bundled broadband and content offering to new and existing residential areas connected by Allo. The strategic partnership will offer residents with high speed broadband connections as well as Astro's content, as part of the media company's support of the government's National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP). Under the partnership, Astro is able to resell all of Allo's broadband products.

As part of this partnerships, Astro will be able to resell all of Allo’s broadband products, including broadband speeds up to 1 Gbps. At launch, Astro will offer cost efficient high-speed broadband services of 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps, at a special price of RM 99, and RM 129 respectively. This fee will include Astro’s Family Pack content which has more than 60 channels, including Astro Ria, Astro Prima, Astro Arena, Astro Awani, Astro AEC, Astro Xiao Tai Yang, NatGeo WILD, and FOXlife and HD content among others.

Astro's group CEO Henry Tan said despite observing the MCO, business continues for the company. "Allo has an aggressive roll out plan nationwide and we believe it will open up significant new headroom for growth for us in line with our broadband strategy," he said.

Tan added that the Allo partnership will expand the current broadband home passes from TM, Maxis and TIME by over 150,000 new households and businesses over the next 18 months. "This will help us expand Astro Broadband’s reach beyond urban areas into areas not fully covered by our existing partnerships including Alor Gajah, Cyberjaya, Bangsar South and many more suburban areas," he explained.

Meanwhile, CEO of Allo, Rodzi Ahmad, said the company will continue to expand its fibre footprint nationwide under the NFCP initiative, starting with Melaka, Perak, Johor, Kedah, Selangor and Pulau Pinang. 

"Allo is focusing on bringing fibre connection to unpenetrated areas that are commercially viable. This partnership allows us to extend the high-speed broadband and content services into these areas so that currently underserved consumers can enjoy the services," he added.