The first SITEC E-Commerce Class of 2018 kicked off on 16th January to a great start. Organised by Selangor Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (SITEC), it drew 100 participants to the Selangor Digital Creative Centre (SDCC) in i-City, Shah Alam.
Similar to 2017’s system, the class was led by a coach, before guest speakers shared about their experiences. Entrepreneur and EC Insider co-founder Adrian Oh resumed his post as a coach for this session, The E-Tail Process.
Oh started the class with the usual introductions and delved a little deeper into the history and current state of the e-Commerce ecosystem. He introduced the types of e-commerce businesses, such as B2C (Business to Consumer), C2C (Consumer to Consumer), B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer), O2O (Online to Offline), and Mobile Commerce.
He then briefly spoke about ‘New Retail’, a concept encapsulating the state of having both an online and offline storefront and logistics, to bring a richer retail experience for consumers. He gave the example of ‘Wal-Mart Stores Inc’ changing their name to ‘Walmart Inc’, to signify their transition towards being able to serve consumers not just offline, but online as well.
Oh then advised participants on business models by sharing a chart that measured one’s knowledge of marketing against knowledge of product. By placing oneself along this chart, aspiring merchants are able to find a suitable business model for their needs, whether it is opening their own branded store, being on a marketplace, or asking themselves if they really should start an e-commerce business to begin with!
Before the coach ended his session, he shared about the “Universal Formula for e-Commerce”, where online sales is equal to number of unique visitors multiplied by conversion rates multiplied by average order volume. Improving any one of those three factors would improve things, but by improving all three aspects, it is possible to actually triple sales.
The Youbeli Marketplace
Lim Jit Tim, a consultant with online marketplace Youbeli, the first online marketplace in Malaysia, and also the only online marketplace that caters to merchants through three languages: English, Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia, while also providing free professional photography services for its partners.
Pos Malaysia’s EziEMall
Balamurugan Nallapan, Assistant Vice President – eCommerce at Pos Malaysia, introduced Pos Malaysia’s ‘SME enabler’, the EziEMall programme, an end-to-end solution for SMEs. It offers an integrated service that provides an e-store, payment gateway, warehousing and fulfillment, as well as last-mile delivery via PosLaju.
He also shared that SMEs could expect assistance with marketing through their programme, as PosLaju has the best financial interests of their merchants in mind, and seeks to empower their merchants to be successful with sales through putting customer service first.
Market Sharing
For startups, Azuar Zainuddin, executive director at Satu Creative, shared about the SAY ASPIRE programme, an accelerator aimed at Selangor startups.
The accelerator, backed by the Selangor Youth Community (SAY Community), is now already midway through its current batch, and is looking to open applications again either later in 2018, or in early 2019.
