Channie18
- 2022年3月15日
- 已讀 4 分鐘

E-Commerce difficult as an only business model in Malaysia

已更新：2022年4月20日

1 MARCH 2022

MALAYSIA has created many opportunities for all e-commerce novices and veterans since 2019 due to its dynamic economic development and developed infrastructure.

With the increase in the number of online shoppers and food delivery due to the outbreak of the epidemic, the e-commerce landscape in Malaysia is developing rapidly, and the sales of various products in various industries have surged.

How to use and join the mainstream e-commerce platform in Malaysia to help future operations is a concern of many business owners.

This article will take stock of the challenges and concerns of joining e-commerce and transformation.

Traditional business model more customers and fixed?

Most hawkers and merchants still focus more on traditional business as there are more customers and regular income compared to e-commerce, but some traders have gained.

HOBI Kopitiam owner, Vice said that online transactions are not stable, and most customers still go to the store to buy his online products and eat at his coffee shop.

Vice started to promote and sell nutritious beverages and some products online on Facebook 5 years ago, but the online market is sluggish; long-term operations still have to adopt a blended business model.

KK food court hawker, Chan Hock Xiang said that most of the delivery orders of e-commerce are from office workers and students, and are usually active during lunch hours on working days; delivery orders are almost zero during school holidays and public holidays.

“Number of food court dine-in and takeaway customers is triple the number of delivery orders,” said Chan.

Pan Mee hawker, Mei Mei said that only at the beginning of CMCO and after UTAR students back to campus did the number of e-commerce orders increase.

“There are just nearby students who will order through e-commerce, if not totally zero income, and business is operating at a loss status,” said Mei Mei.

The manager of stationery and bookshop, Siti Nuramira responded that during the epidemic, the online market is better, and customers also support less contact to buy stationery and print documents.

Nearly 6 years of an online agent and e-commerce operator, Carmen Ng said that her business performance was increasing during the epidemic, especially since the outbreak of COVID-19.

“Mine is a health care business, the epidemic has made people realize the importance of health, so everyone starts from prevention, then online transactions were active during the quarantine period at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Carmen.

Views on e-commerce

“Through the assistance of WhatsApp, Facebook, and e-commerce platforms, it is more convenient and improves the visibility of the company and the interaction rate with customers, effectively increasing the turnover,” said Siti.

In Carmen’s view, the advantages of e-commerce in most markets in Malaysia outweigh the disadvantages, and now e-commerce has become common.

“Young people will expand e-commerce, but the food delivered and online shopping lacks the human touch,” said Vice.

Chan explained that although e-commerce and delivery are convenient, the surrounding feeling of food stalls and the taste of dine-in food are irreplaceable.

Respondents all said that Malaysia’s e-commerce platform and technology are not mature. What’s more, there are still technical problems.

They all said that they would not invest too much money and energy in e-commerce to operate only as a platform for publicity and extra order tasking.

Challenges and experiences

In these interviews, it was found that the operation of the application, technical problems, elderly users, network speed, and program loopholes showed that some hawkers and traders in Malaysia did not list e-commerce as a major market and the only business model.

Vice stated that since the outbreak of COVID-19, this has shifted to full online payment, but for older customers, most of them don’t know how to pay online using e-commerce.

“To this end, I often guide customers on how to download and use e-commerce for future use,” said Vice.

Chan has been using e-commerce for 3 years, but after the application upgrade, he and his peers are facing technical problems, such as wrong business hours, unable to update prices, order confusion, runners picking up meal errors, application system crashes, etc.

“It would be better if e-commerce companies could regularly send technicians to help and guide us how to use the latest version application, furthermore develop a system that can integrate different delivery and payment platforms which can help us unify and arrange the order,” said Chan.

Most hawkers said that many middle-aged and elderly people still do not know e-commerce; some of them did not install related applications, and some are not smartphone users.

Mira stated: “Some users who are not familiar with e-commerce ordering applications are prone to misunderstandings then lead to incorrect processing of the order.”

“With the advantages of the network and technology, during the epidemic, e-commerce has become more developed on another level because of the reduction of contact and the convenience of the online trading market,” said Carmen.

Carmen said that because e-commerce is now more stable and guaranteed, many young investors and businessmen that she knows have gradually combined traditional business models with innovative e-commerce, or even completely transformed what’s more users of e-commerce basically rising.

All respondents believe that if e-commerce companies regularly have door-to-door visits or post some tutorial videos to help them better understand applications’ usage, it may increase users and credibility of e-commerce.