A must-do every Deepavali is a weekend trip to the bazaars in Little India, whether to soak in the festive atmosphere or to squeeze in a last-minute shopping spree. The two main bazaars that draw crowds every year are located at Campbell Lane, beside the Indian Heritage Centre, and at Birch Road, near Mustafa Centre.
Younger shoppers, however, gravitate towards pop-up bazaars, like the one organised by Indian Inks at the Lyf@FarrerPark hotel, which takes place over the two weekends before Deepavali, Oct 11 to 12 and Oct 18 to 19. Pop-up bazaars are typically temporary markets where small, online-first brands showcase unique products and connect directly with customers.
Ms Shereen Begum, 26, founder of Indian Inks, an online-based henna and temporary tattoo business, observed that younger shoppers, specifically Gen Zs, prefer to shop online first, especially through social media platforms like TikTok Shop.
“My main focus was to be present online because there weren’t many henna artists who would show you their day-to-day work, the types of designs they do, setting up booths for events, which lent a fresh perspective and intrigued people,” she said.
Indian Inks currently has about 4.7k followers on Instagram and started in 2021, when Ms Shereen was still an undergraduate student at Singapore Management University, majoring in communications and social science.
Worried about not finding a job after graduation, she launched her henna venture as a side business, which has since grown from a solo operation to a team of 15, including 14 ad hoc henna artists and a social media manager.
Rather than renting a booth for a month at the traditional Deepavali bazaars on Campbell Lane and Birch Road, Shereen chose to set up her own pop-up at the Lyf@FarrerPark hotel lobby, as it was the more cost-effective option, she explained.
“Realistically, my crowd only comes in for the last three days. Most of them would want to do their shopping and everything first before they even think about henna,” she noted.
This is her second time running a pop-up bazaar at the same location, after piloting the concept last year with 12 vendors, which received a positive response. “The customers liked that it was an air-conditioned space and that their kids or partners had a place to rest while they got their henna done,” Ms Shereen added.
This year, the pop-up bazaar features 33 vendors offering everything from mouth-watering cookies and snacks to eye-catching festive wear and accessories.
Ms Pramila Krishnasamy, 35, and her two business partners, including her sister-in-law Dharshini Krishna, 35, started Vogue Vastra, an online apparel brand offering plus sizes up to 8XL, meeting fashion needs that are often overlooked by mainstream stores.
“I felt like plus size was really something I had to hunt for. Sometimes you won’t even want to walk into the store because I’m sure they won’t have my size, and if they did, they rarely had designs that were both stylish and comfortable,” Ms Pramila said.
Ms Pramila started sourcing breathable, lightweight loungewear from India and Sri Lanka for herself about two years ago. When friends and family asked her to bring in pieces for them too, she turned it into a business a year later, built on the principles of comfort, affordability, and uniqueness.
“We want everyone to feel included,” said Miss Pramila, adding that “If it’s too expensive, tell us your budget, and we’ll find something for you.” Like the Gen Zs, she too shops online because there’s greater trust in sellers these days.
“In the past, my parents would go to the shops to feel and check the quality of the fabric and bargain, but the younger ones are not about that. For them: If I like it, I’ll get it. Doesn’t matter what the price is, if I can afford it, I’ll get it and if I can’t afford it, I’ll get it next time,” Ms Pramila highlighted.
For shoppers seeking something wearable yet artistic, Ms Nivya Mehta, 34, and Ms Stephanie Pinto, 33, craft handmade polymer clay earrings and tote bags that fuse traditional motifs with contemporary design.
Ms Nivya started her brand, Klay by Nivvy, five years ago after repeated unpleasant experiences with earrings she bought from roadside stores. “Me being super young, I didn’t know what materials were used to make those earrings, so whenever I wore them, I would start feeling itchy, then painful, and next thing I know, I’m bleeding,” she said.
Hence, she started making her own earrings from non-toxic, lightweight materials during the pandemic, when she was bored at home, and produces around 100 to 150 earrings each festive season. Each design is one-of-a-kind, similar to Ms Stephanie’s personally-designed tote bags.
The Bengaluru native started her online venture, Tote A Tote, only about four months ago, when she was pregnant and wanted to channel her homeland’s prints, designs, and colours into her artwork.
As a new business owner, the pop-up bazaar also offers her opportunities to network with other vendors. “If I don’t take anything back from this pop-up, at least I made a friend who lives close to me, literally a street away,” Ms Stephanie said, referring to Ms Nivya.
To stand out from the crowd, many online-based food businesses, like Ange by Praj, have come up with uniquely flavoured treats. Founded by Ms Angeline Benjamin, 41, a paralegal, and her niece Kanageswary Thangga Raju, 30, in 2021, the brand has whipped up inventive snacks like beetroot achu murukku and savoury onion ribbon murukku.
The two-woman team makes seasonal cookies for Deepavali and Christmas and caters meals for up to 100 people from their home kitchen in Hougang. “We take turns cooking and cleaning, and we have to make sure we don’t anger the neighbours, though thankfully my house is a corner unit so we have a bit more privacy,” Ms Angeline said.
Preparing food on weekday nights and weekends non-stop for the past few years almost led Ms Angeline to wind it down. “You have to give your 100 per cent for an online business, but my niece carried it on her own and built up our following while I took a break last year,” she said.
“If you stop the momentum, people are going to hop onto somebody else. It’s going to be very hard to bring them back,” Ms Angeline added, observing “that’s the Gen Z track. They can just lose interest in you and move on.”
In a bid to keep customers interested, Ms Angeline turned to her social media feed for inspiration, watching online tutorials to experiment with new snack ideas. “Instagram is my guru,” she quipped. For the festive season, the ladies have produced 500 bottles of cookies, available only while stocks last.
Pop-up bazaars also offer a platform for unconventional businesses, such as Teacher Reini – a brand that creates playful Tamil educational resources. Unable to secure a position as an English preschool teacher, Ms Harreini Jeyaudin, 26, took up an unfilled Tamil teacher role in a preschool to fulfil her post-diploma bond.
“In my first class, I had five kids. One couldn’t speak Tamil, and the other said he did not like Tamil. They found it difficult, so I used Play-Doh to make out Tamil letters so it’s more fun for the students,” she said.
Ms Harreini started posting about her teaching experiences on Instagram, demonstrating the tools she created using the concrete, pictorial and abstract (CPA) approach to help her students develop a keener interest in Tamil language and culture.
Netizens started commenting on her posts about whether they could purchase those resources, and six years later, Teacher Reini is a fully-fledged online business that sells picture cards, storybooks, badges, and more to meet the specific needs of Singaporean Tamil students.
