Business soars after woman adds ‘ghost-like’ emojis to hijab snow caps

 

Che Nurul Hafizah Che Zulkifli (centre), with her husband, showing her popular ‘snow cap berhantu’ at her shop in Kota Bharu. (Bernama pic)

KOTA BHARU: Being jobless for a year after graduating from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) four years ago may have been a blessing in disguise for Che Nurul Hafizah Che Zulkifli.

It was then that she took the bold step of venturing into the hijab business. Her initiative has proven to be worthwhile as she is now reaping the fruits of her success.

And her move to add hijab inners or snow caps with small ghost-like emojis was like the icing on a cake, and demand soared.

The 28-year-old sports science bachelor’s degree holder said she had never once regretted her decision to venture into a totally different field and become an entrepreneur.

After graduating in 2015, Che Nurul said she remained jobless for almost a year, prompting her to start a small business selling women’s clothing at an uptown market in Pasir Tumboh.

“I started off by selling several women’s clothing, including blouses, skirts, hijabs and snow caps or hijab inners, which I obtained from several suppliers.

“However, I decided to focus on the snow cap due overwhelming demand from my customers,” she said when met by Bernama at her By Chefiza boutique in Lembah Sireh here.

After almost a year of doing business in the uptown market, Che Nurul said she decided to produce her own hijab inner brand and sell it online.

“All my hijab inners will come with a small ghost-like emoji as we have many repeat customers who state our inners are ‘berhantu’ and jokingly say they have become obsessed with them. That was when I got the idea to name it ‘snow cap berhantu’.

“I also place great emphasis on the use of soft, sweat-wicking, ironless and high-quality imported material.

“I sewed all the inners on my own and began catering to more consumers by having dropship agents,” she said.

Due to the overwhelming response, Che Nurul said she decided to open a boutique in Lembah Sireh and began producing various other products such as instant shawls.

“Alhamdulillah, all my products are in great demand among my customers who also come from abroad, namely Thailand, Brunei, Singapore and Mecca.

“Almost every month, I am able to produce 200,000 pieces of inners and hijabs that are sold for as low as RM10 or as high as RM49 each.

“In an effort to optimise my production, I opened my own hijab factory late last year in Pengkalan Chepa.

“I now has 60 seamstresses to meet the demand of almost 9,000 agents and six boutique branches nationwide,” said Che Nurul, who is assisted by her husband, Muhammad Fitri Abdul Razak, 28. - FMT