KUALA LUMPUR, 23 September 2020 – Since the Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented six months ago, e-commerce has revolutionised consumer buying patterns with many households now turning to the convenience of shopping online.
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Commerce.Asia Enterprise, one of Malaysia’s and Southeast Asia’s leading eCommerce managed service providers, said in a statement that its e-commerce transactions posted in August 2020 leapt by some 1380% when compared to August 2019.

Its general manager Aaliyah Soraya believes that the local e-commerce market would continue growing strongly post-MCO and for next few years.

She said that a strong trend that emerged from the MCO is Malaysians’ embracement of e-commerce for their shopping needs due to a sharp increase in social media consumption and participation.

“Our internal studies show that Malaysians spend some 70% more time on social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram these days, compared to pre-MCO,” she said.

Commerce.Asia data also showed that the number of Instagram and Facebook Live views doubled in the first week of MCO (from 18 March 2020).

“This trend of continuous social media participation appears to be progressively increasing, and also accentuated by on-demand content videos coupled with live streaming of events,” she said, adding that the preferred device being mobile phones.

“With the rakyat being encouraged to practice social distancing, there naturally has been a decline in physical shopping resulting in more people turning to e-commerce to purchase items online,” she further said.

Malaysians are also very conscious of health and personal safety, with Commerce.Asia data showing that products from the health and wellness category saw an 800% leap in sales year-on-year (August 2020 compared to August 2019).

“This paradigm shift in consumer behaviour has happened overnight, benefitting early adopters of e-commerce platforms, while those late to the game have suffered and are racing to get online.”

Aaliyah describes Commerce.Asia Enterprise as a “one-stop managed e-commerce service provider for brands and businesses.”

“What we are good at is in multi-channel e-commerce where we simplify processes for businesses,” said Aaliyah, adding that the company’s expertise lie in managing, syncing and integrating clients’ webstores, marketplaces’ and Facebook store’s orders, inventory and listings all under one platform.

“From webstore development, to product listing, customer care, and order fulfilment – we have the solutions for all your needs,” she added.

Meanwhile, SME Association national vice president Chin Chee Seong encouraged businesses to start embracing new digital technologies to help them realise their e-commerce revenue streams.

“Malaysians are now extremely confident with the act of buying online; hence, businesses also need to stop being in denial and to start embarking on smarter e-commerce initiatives,” said Chin.

For businesses unfamiliar with e-commerce, he advised them to seek out an outsource partner like Commerce.Asia Enterprise to help them with their various e-commerce processes.

“These processes include warehousing, payment, delivery, marketing and order management.  When starting out, some businesses may be intimidated by the complexities of processes involved,” said Chin.

“Hence, their best solution would not be to build everything from scratch, but to seek out an e-commerce enabler to remove the stress of working with technology.”

In June 2020, the Commerce.Asia group was recognised by Silicon Valley’s APAC CIO Outlook magazine as the Best E-commerce Consulting/Services Company among the selected Top 10 companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

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