From wet market to thriving e-shop: ‘We were happy selling 200kg of fish a day, but now we can do even more’ 

What began as a two-month favour to help dad became a complete reinvention of the family’s fish business.

When Sin Chwee Mini Market’s sales started sliding in 2018, Mr Goh Thiam Chwee knew his wet market fish stall needed to change after nearly three decades in business. But the 35-year veteran was not tech-savvy enough to lead that transformation himself.

His son Jimmy’s background in game design and food blogging seemed worlds apart from the traditional fish trade. “My dad didn’t even know how to order food online,” says Jimmy, 35. “I had studied game design at Nanyang Polytechnic, so I came in to help him, thinking that it would be temporary, only taking two months of my time.”

Those two months have turned into seven years as Jimmy drew on his game design background and understanding of the family business to build Tankfully Fresh, the now-thriving e-commerce arm of Sin Chwee.

The shift from wet market to digital marketplace was anything but easy. Finding the right partners was just as tough, until a breakthrough came when Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) stepped in to help the family navigate the digital transformation and build a new brand.

This support included crucial grants that enabled them to launch their online store, develop an omnichannel inventory management system, market their brand and create new revenue streams.

Today, Tankfully Fresh sells fresh and frozen fish in a wide range of cuts, along with raw fishballs, otah, yong tau foo and meat from seven other wet market stalls. Half of the business’ revenue now comes from online sales.

Building an online presence

The urgency for change became clear in 2018. Mr Goh watched in dismay as business at Sin Chwee declined about 20 per cent over the previous three years. The older generation of wet market customers was shrinking, and younger customers were flocking to online supermarkets.

“Our fresh fish business had not changed for decades and we needed to do something,” says Mr Goh. “If you want the new generation to come in to buy seafood, but you don’t change the business, it will not happen.”

He turned to EnterpriseSG – having learnt about the agency through the The Federation of Merchants’ Associations, Singapore – which connected him with the SME Digital Tech Hub.

Through the hub, the family was introduced to a digital solutions provider, which helped design and launch the Tankfully Fresh e-commerce platform.

Jimmy and his wife, Ms Madeline Choo, 32, proceeded cautiously. “We discussed with consultants for a year before we got a clear idea of what we wanted,” he says. “I applied what I had learnt in school about game design theory and marketing to assess if their ideas were viable.”

While Jimmy focuses on the daily operations – updating the website with new products and planning how to grow the business – Madeline compiles orders and manages the administrative side of business.

Rather than overhaul the family’s traditional operations, Jimmy chose to gradually train the team on e-commerce while educating consumers on the benefits of buying fresh fish online. They did this by regularly updating their website with tips and recipes, creating social media content, and eventually learning to livestream cooking demonstrations on TikTok and Shopee.

Tankfully Fresh’s 2019 launch attracted little fanfare, but when the pandemic locked down Singapore in 2020, the fledgling platform became a crucial bridge between homebound customers and fresh seafood.

As pandemic restrictions eased in 2022, online sales dipped, and the couple looked to EnterpriseSG for guidance again to kick-start the next phase of innovation for the business.

Creative solutions for growth

This meant expanding beyond their own website. To capture the online supermarket crowd, Jimmy and Madeline set up virtual shopfronts on Lazada and Shopee. But order and inventory management quickly became a bottleneck, taking up to an hour each day.

With EnterpriseSG’s advice, the couple took up an Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) in 2022 to develop Sell N Chill, an omnichannel inventory management system to compile delivery orders across three touchpoints.

“Now, it takes only 15 minutes to compile the day’s orders,” says Jimmy. “We no longer have to check our orders repeatedly, and the system has reduced our risks with inventory errors and cancelled orders.”

Expanding their digital touchpoints also meant levelling up their marketing. They cut their teeth on digital marketing by tapping on another EDG, and they decided to attend SkillsFuture courses to learn livestreaming on TikTok and Shopee.

The livestreaming sessions they started hosting helped showcase their fresh fish and cooking tips, boosting both their online store traffic and footfall to their Bukit Batok stall.

The following year brought another opportunity – EnterpriseSG introduced the Gohs to the Food Innovation and Resource Centre at Singapore Polytechnic, a Centre of Innovation set up with EnterpriseSG’s support, to help commercialise a family recipe (see “The taste of legacy”, below).

The taste of legacy 

Made from a recipe by Mr Jimmy Goh’s mum, Madam Chua Bee Hong, Tankfully Fresh’s Crispy Salted Fish Flakes have been a hit with friends and family.

With a longer shelf life than fresh fish, the product holds potential as a new revenue stream for the business.

To develop the idea, the couple tapped an Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) and collaborated with the Food Innovation and Resource Centre at the Singapore Polytechnic. The centre provided expert guidance on manufacturing processes, moisture control and securing the necessary certifications for mass production.

“I’m very excited about our salted fish product,” says Madeline. “It’s a very traditional product as our grandparents’ generation ate it with their food. Eating it connects us to our heritage.”

The couple hopes to launch the product within five years, but they’re focusing on strengthening their brand first before committing the necessary capital. They also plan to conduct thorough market research to identify target consumers.

Currently, each batch takes about a month to produce, with sun-drying the fish requiring two to three weeks – the most time-consuming part of the process.

Growing beyond the family business

Having figured out how to build a successful online business, Tankfully Fresh now helps fellow wet market stalls in Bukit Batok Central and other districts by listing their produce on the website and helping them get online.

Watch how Enterprise Singapore helps Tankfully Fresh digitalise and grow in this video.

“We let them piggyback on our website, selling things like fishballs, yong tau foo and mutton,” Jimmy says.

This year, Tankfully Fresh has also expanded into business-to-business sales by selling their fresh fish to hawker stalls. The couple is also exploring another revenue stream – helping other fish suppliers with fish preparation and advanced freezing methods to preserve freshness.

For Jimmy, these are stepping stones to something larger. “I want to grow Tankfully Fresh beyond a local brand,” he says. “If we can work out how to commercialise the fish flakes, and help other fresh fish suppliers pack their fish, we can bring our brand overseas.”

Mr Goh continues to encourage the second generation to push their limits.

“In the past, we were happy to just get by with selling 200 to 300kg of fish a day,” he says. But now we realise we can do so much more. Whether this will work or not, I don’t know. But it’s important to have a dream.”

This story is part of a series exploring how EnterpriseSG partners businesses for wherever they are growing - whether they’re scaling operations, pursuing innovation, expanding globally or building new capabilities.

Find out more here.

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