The rise of E-commerce transforms traditional businesses and acquires a wider audience

The trend of E-commerce in Malaysia is gradually increasing, and the more famous platforms are Shopee, Lazada and Facebook, etc.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Covid-19 pandemic has made many traditional businesses unable to operate, so traditional businesses have transformed to E-commerce in order to continue to operate.

With the increase of E-commerce platforms, online sellers need to have at least 1 platform which is suitable for the products they sell.

Health products online wholesaler Emily Foo,24, usually sells her products through Facebook and Instagram.

“Depending on the budget set each day, usually a month will pay Facebook RM5000 to RM6000 advertising fee,” said Emily, when asked about the advertising fees charged by the platform.

Emily thinks that the advertising fee is reasonable, because she can change the budget for advertising each day at any time.

Another interviewee, real estate salesperson Yee Zi Hung, 25, said that Facebook's trading volume exceeds Instagram's in comparison to both the Facebook and Instagram channels.

"Because Facebook users are more extensive, the audience is more accurate," Yee said.

Since the products sold by Yee are seasonal, the advertising fee is not fixed, but the recent business trend is gradually increasing.

Yee also thinks the advertising fee charged by Facebook is reasonable, because it has a large database that combined with Instagram, which other platforms cannot provide, it can precisely sell the products to be sold to the crowd.

Direct selling company employees Lee Jia Ying, 21, only sell products via Facebook.

“The advertising fee is paid by upline, so there will be a RM10 commission for each product,” Lee said.

Since the company will pay a basic salary every month, and employees do not need to pay advertising fees, she can get the commission when she successfully sells the product.

The current business trend is ups and downs, but the monthly sales differ by less than 50 units.

Part-time seller Wong Kuan Hui, 21, runs 2 businesses on Instagram, Wong did not use the platform to advertise, so he does not need to pay any commission to the platform.

“The trend of my current business is definitely down monthly, due to the pandemic and also one of my businesses is still a new start-up,” Wong said.

Wong will try to advertise her businesses again, to gain more audience and hopefully it can boost her customer flow of both of her businesses.

Toner Cartridge Supplier Lim Rong Sem, 21, runs his business via Shopee and Lazada.

Shopee and Lazada will charge 4% of commission through every transaction, this is not suitable since Shopee just charged 2% before but now it is double.

Although Lim had reported this issue to the platform, the platform still went its own way.

“Yes, I am still with the platform because of my fixed customer base,” fortunately Lim's business trend is rising every month.

More and more sellers are shifting their positions online, but online scams are emerging one after another. In order to reduce the fraud rate, online sellers need to registerSSMaccount to ensure transaction activities.

By: Foo Yi Wen