How to Open a Convenience Store in Malaysia: A Step-by-Step Guide

Opening a convenience store in Malaysia starts with choosing the right location and business concept, registering the business, obtaining the necessary local licences, securing suppliers and having enough capital to survive the first few months.

The shelves may contain very ordinary things: Milo, bread, mineral water, instant noodles, detergent and that emergency packet of batteries somebody suddenly needs at 10.45pm.

The economics behind those shelves are much more interesting.

Malaysia has already produced one striking example. 99 Speedmart traces its roots to a traditional sundry store opened by founder Lee Thiam Wah in Klang in 1987, and by the end of 2025 the group operated 3,037 outlets.

In FY2025, the group reported approximately RM11.43 billion in revenue and RM607.3 million in profit after tax.

Now, that does not mean every kedai runcit is sitting on a gold mine.

It does show that selling everyday household goods can become a very serious business when location, stock movement, purchasing and operating costs are managed properly.

Here is how to start.

Step 1: Decide What Kind of Convenience Store to Open

Start by deciding who should walk into the store and what they should regularly buy there.

“Convenience store” can mean several different businesses.

You could operate a neighbourhood mini mart serving nearby homes, a compact urban store serving office workers, or a longer-hours shop selling snacks, drinks and quick meals.

A residential store might focus on:

• Bread, eggs and milk
• Instant food
• Cooking essentials
• Drinks and snacks
• Personal-care products

A store near offices or student accommodation may need a different mix, with more ready-to-eat food, coffee, cold drinks and quick purchases.

Before signing anything, spend time around the proposed area.

Look at pedestrian traffic in the morning, lunchtime, evening and weekends. You want to check parking and availability.

Read more: Why Good Food Packaging Materials Matter for F&B Businesses

Step 2: Register Your Business and Get the Required Licences

You generally need SSM registration plus the licences required by the local authority responsible for your shop location.

For a small business, common entity options include:

• Sole proprietorship
• Partnership
• Sdn Bhd
• LLP

For a simple owner-operated mini mart, a sole proprietorship may be enough. A larger operation with investors or expansion plans may prefer a Sdn Bhd.

SSM’s EzBiz platform can be used for online registration of sole proprietorships and partnerships.

Then comes local licensing. There is no single nationwide convenience store licence covering every shop in Malaysia.

The relevant local authority, or PBT, may require:

• Business premise licence
• Signboard or advertisement licence
• Premises approval
• Renovation approval for certain works
• Additional approval for regulated activities

Requirements can differ between councils such as DBKL, MBPJ, MBSA and other municipal or city councils.

Extra requirements may also apply if you plan to sell or handle:

• Alcohol
• Cigarettes or smoking products
• Controlled goods
• LPG
• Prepared food

KPDN regulates Scheduled Controlled Goods, while food preparation and handling can trigger Ministry of Health requirements under Malaysia’s food hygiene rules.

Alcohol and smoking products also sit under separate regulatory frameworks, so they should be checked before they become part of your product mix.

Step 3: Find the Right Location and Negotiate the Rental

A good convenience store location combines repeat demand, visibility and manageable occupancy costs.

Commercial rental varies widely by city, neighbourhood, frontage and foot traffic.

A ground-floor shoplot in Ipoh will not behave like a retail unit near central Kuala Lumpur.

Look at:

• Number of nearby households
• Pedestrian traffic
• Parking
• Nearby offices
• Schools or colleges
• Apartments and condominiums
• Competitors

Then calculate your likely sales.

Consider two hypothetical shops.

Shop A: RM3,000 monthly rent with poor traffic.

Shop B: RM6,000 monthly rent with strong residential density and regular foot traffic.

Shop A is cheaper on paper.

But if Shop B produces another RM40,000 in monthly sales, the more expensive unit may actually have much better economics.

Also remember that moving in often requires more than the first month’s rent.

Commercial tenancy arrangements may include:

• Advance rental
• Security deposit
• Utility deposit
• Renovation deposit
• Building management deposit

Do not spend all your effort negotiating RM300 off the rent while ignoring the question of how many customers actually live nearby.

Step 4: Calculate Your Startup Capital

Depending on the premises, renovation, equipment, opening inventory and working-capital requirements, the budget for an independent convenience store can run into six figures.

There is no single official government figure for the cost of opening a convenience store, so the numbers below should be treated purely as an illustrative planning budget, not standard Malaysian market rates.

Disclaimer: These figures are illustrative planning estimates, not statutory fees or official industry averages. Obtain current quotations for your location before committing capital.

One of the easiest mistakes is spending almost everything before opening.

A RM150,000 budget should not become RM149,500 worth of renovation, shelves and stock with RM500 left for the first month’s electricity bill.

A simpler store with enough cash available to keep restocking can be healthier than a beautiful store with no working-capital buffer, just look at 99Mart!

Step 5: Find Suppliers and Choose What to Sell

Use multiple supplier channels and build the product range around turnover, not the number of different SKUs you can squeeze onto a shelf.

A convenience store might source products through:

• FMCG distributors
• Beverage distributors
• Frozen-food suppliers
• Direct manufacturers
• Cash-and-carry wholesalers
• Importers
• Local food producers

When comparing suppliers, ask about more than the carton price.

Check:

• Minimum order quantity
• Delivery frequency
• Credit terms
• Promotional discounts
• Expiry policies
• Returns
• Damaged-stock procedures
• Free displays or chillers
• Minimum spend for delivery

Then watch what sells.

Let’s say customers repeatedly buy bottled water, eggs and instant noodles while a premium imported snack barely moves.

The premium snack may provide a bigger margin per packet, but the humble eggs could be producing more gross profit over the month simply because they keep leaving the store.

That is why inventory turnover matters because that’s cash flow.

Step 6: Set Up Staffing, POS and Daily Operations

The store needs enough people to operate reliably and enough data to tell you where the money is going.

Malaysia’s minimum wage is currently RM1,700 per month (though that may be changing soon).

The actual cost of employing someone is higher once applicable employer obligations are included.

Depending on the employee and contribution category, employers also need to account for:

• EPF
• SOCSO
• EIS
• Overtime
• Leave
• Shift scheduling

Long opening hours can change the business model considerably.

Opening 24 hours sounds attractive until you calculate how many shifts are required to keep the cashier counter occupied every night of the year.

Your POS and ERP system should also ideally handle:

• Barcode scanning
• Inventory counts
• Product-level sales
• Gross margin
• Purchase orders
• Supplier records
• Accounting integration
• E-Invoice requirements

New retailers should choose systems with Malaysian accounting and invoicing requirements in mind rather than trying to retrofit everything later.

Step 7: Track Your Numbers and Make the Store Profitable

Convenience-store economics depend on selling a large volume of everyday products efficiently while controlling purchasing, inventory, labour, rental and logistics costs.

This is where 99 Speedmart becomes interesting.

Its FY2025 revenue reached approximately RM11.43 billion, while profit after tax reached roughly RM607.3 million.

That represents a profit-after-tax margin of about 5.3%.

Roughly five ringgit of profit after tax from every RM100 of revenue may not sound spectacular. Then remember that the first number was RM11.43 billion.

99 Speedmart shows that a neighbourhood mini-market model can become a large and profitable business when efficient retail operations are repeated at scale.

Its model benefits from several things:

Purchasing scale: High purchasing volumes and direct sourcing can improve procurement economics and supplier relationships.

Distribution efficiency: Centralised distribution centres can replenish large numbers of stores efficiently.

Repeat demand: Everyday FMCG products can encourage frequent customer visits.

Inventory management: Moving stock efficiently converts inventory back into cash and reduces the amount tied up in slow-moving products.

Standardisation: Similar store layouts and operating processes make expansion easier to repeat.

Network scale: Logistics, administration and other shared resources can be spread across a large outlet network.

For an independent retailer, you do not need to think about opening 3,000 stores or scaling.

Low margin can still produce a strong business when products sell quickly, purchasing is disciplined and operating costs stay under control.

If a product only makes RM0.30 gross profit each time it sells, that sounds unimpressive.

But if it sells hundreds of times every month, while your supplier price is competitive and the shelf space is productive, that small margin starts to matter.

Honestly, the simple way to summarize this strategy is:

1. Start with one outlet.
2. Work out which products drive most of the store’s sales.
3. Remove dead stock. 
4. Negotiate better supplier terms as volumes grow.
5. Keep rental proportionate to revenue.
6. Then, if the first shop genuinely works, think about shop number two.

Is Opening a Convenience Store in Malaysia Worth It?

A convenience store can be profitable in Malaysia, but profitability depends far more on execution than simply entering a popular retail category.

The seven steps are straightforward:

1. Choose the store concept and customer.
2. Register the business and obtain the relevant licences.
3. Find a location with repeat demand.
4. Budget properly and retain working capital.
5. Build reliable supplier and inventory systems.
6. Control staffing and store operations.
7. Track turnover, margins and cash before expanding.

99 Speedmart has shown how large a Malaysian mini-market business can become but they aren’t the only example, Familymart, 7-eleven, KK mart and Mydin are successful too.

Their success came from repeating relatively simple retail economics across thousands of locations, supported by purchasing power, logistics and disciplined execution.

For a new operator, there is no need to think that far ahead.

First make one neighbourhood depend on your store, then worry about the next neighbourhood.

For more coverage of how Malaysian companies, industries and entrepreneurs actually operate, TopBusiness covers the business stories behind the numbers! 

Our business news portal periodically releases guides, know-hows and interesting biz questions that you never thought of.

Sources

• Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), business registration and EzBiz guidance.
• MalaysiaBiz, business licensing and permit guidance.
• Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN), Scheduled Controlled Goods licensing.
• Ministry of Health Malaysia, food hygiene and smoking-product regulation.
• Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, business premise and activity-specific licensing guidance.
• Jabatan Tenaga Kerja Semenanjung Malaysia, minimum wage guidance.
• Employees Provident Fund and PERKESO, employer contribution guidance.
• HASiL, e-Invoice implementation guidance.
• 99 Speed Mart Retail Holdings Berhad, financial reports and corporate information.