09.20.07

Malaysia e-commerce dotcoms’ journeys

Posted in E-commerce, Entrepreneurship, Online Marketing at 11:11 pm by adrianoh

update: finally thestar had the e-commerce article uploaded online.

A very good article by Thestar’s Intech today on the local e-commerce scene. (At the time of this posting, this article is yet to be uploaded on thestar.com.my, talking about internet speed…) They interviewed the early Malaysia dotcomers on what it takes to run a successful e-commece store, these are all real tips – no hype, no BS, and definitely no MLM.

Below are some highlights from the REAL Internet Entrepreneurs – Be inspired!

Martin Cheah – Founder, Blooming.com.my

- MEPS & Internet Banking help create a more fertile ground for local e-commerce companies to grow.
- The e-commerce business model was extremely competitive, since anyone can do it, so we had to bring something unique to the picture. In this almost zero-entry barrier business, the real fight occurs in the mind of consumers – who the consumers think about when they want something.
- We invested a lot in creating awareness, especially in areas of brand association and “Top of the Mind” recall.
- Blooming.com.my currently receives hundreds of orders a day through its website, can go up to many thousands during peak festive seasons such as Valentine’s Day.

Unique problem - Faces biggest challenges when it comes to packaging and transporting its products as its main product, flowers, need to be kept refrigerated to maintain freshness.

Donald Kee – GM, Corporate Affair, MPHonline.com

- Local budget airline AirAsia also contributed to the increase in e-commerce when it began offering cheap flight tickets online.
- We don’t want to be just another e-commerce site in Malaysia, there’s not enough sales to sustain here, so we are planning to go global.
- Rather than compete with Amazon.com to sell Western publications, we want to position MPHonline.com as the place to go to for Asian titles.
- MPHonline.com currently has a million page views and around 200,000 unique visitors a month.

Unique problem - Faces a challenge in getting Malaysians excited enough about buying books, as Malaysia book industry grows slowly due to the lack of a strong reading culture.

Rodney Koh, Creative Director, xl-shop.com

- Started in the year 2000, dreaming of selling action figures to people in remote areas.
- The very first order comes from British.
- The presentation (web design) of a website is very important as it is the first and perhaps only impression a customer has of an e-commerce company.
- Sometimes customers will test you by sending e-mails to see how fast you respond.
- We never expected our website to generate tens of thousands in online sales, which is similar to one of our smaller physical retail shops, and the operating fee of the website for the entire year costs less than on month’s rent for the shop.

Unique problem - Unlike hong kong and singapore, toys imports are taxed in Malaysia thus disadvantageous in terms of price.

Summary

Notice one similarity? All of them are (except Lelong, started up as an online marketplace) actually brick & mortar stores with an online e-commerce as extra channel for growth. Selling online is all about TRUST! A real-world physical store normally can easier earn trust from the online buyers instead of a pure-play online (consider all else equal).

Bottomline is, it takes great effort to make a business successful, regardless of it being offline or online. The basic principles to run a successful business has not changed and will not change in thousand year to come.

Here’s a recap of the 6 emerging trends that we think that will shape the e-commerce future in Malaysia, and why every business should have an e-commerce strategy in place to stay competitive, and relevant in the near future marketplace.

1) Consumers are much more comfortable purchasing online, starting with the most common items like flight tickets (thanks to cheap airflights available from AirAsia.com).

2) People already buying things like clothes, toys, gadgets (on top of books) online, probably not from you nor your next door competitors, but from retailers thousand of miles away that’s selling on ebay or their online stores.

3) Young professionals with high spending power growing up with Internet (Think Blogging, Think Online Gaming, Think Social Networking) has entered the workforce market.

4) More people adopting e-banking, with Maybank itself already cloaking more than 2 Million registered users.

5) TMNET, with 650,000 Streamyx broadband account and adding up fast that will breach 1 Million latest by 2007.

6) Hardware, Software and Payment Technology that merchant needs to sell online, is far more affordable with significant improvement in quality and usability.

To sum it all up, as the number of broadband users grow, and people getting more and more Internet dependent (can imagine living a day without it?) – The future of e-commerce in bright. It will be an important channel where people play, work and of course, SHOP. So what are you waiting for?

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