The importance of cross-border trading in growing the SME scene was the main topic of discussion at the first Malay language E-Commerce Class, organised by the Selangor Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (SITEC), held on March 8th, at the Selangor Digital Creative Centre (SDCC).
The speakers that presented to the 80-strong EC Class were Fairuz Fadzillah, Senior Business Development Executive of Lelong.my, Rushdi Siddiqui, Co-founder and CEO of Zilzar, and Mohd Hasnol bin Mohd Yunus, Vice-President of Marketing of MyBazar Malaysia, who each spoke about the importance of exploring cross-border trading to grow the local SME scene.
Fairuz Fadillah first spoke about Lelong, introducing the marketplace, as well as the features it has. She then moved on to explaining how an integrated inventory across an e-merchant’s multiple webstores allows for easy inventory checks, as well as ease of tracking in terms of deliveries.
She also talked about how Lelong was a complete commerce ecosystem, with the brand including a payment gateway, marketplace, and real-time updates on purchase status for both the buyer and seller.
Rushdi Siddiqui then talked about the concept of ‘Ummah’, which is about the concept of community, and how there is much that remains untapped in the global Muslim market, in a time he calls “the rise of Muslim consumerism”.
Through Zilzar, he noted that he wished to strengthen the global Ummah, and Zilzar allowed its merchants to be able to trade to the global Muslim community, by providing a multi-language platform that works with 18 certification bodies that would certify whether or not a product on Zilzar was halal.
Mohd Hasnol Mohd Yunus then spoke about MyBazar, which is a mobile marketplace centered around the high penetration rate of smartphones and internet use in Malaysia. According to Hasnol, the MyBazar app allowed a merchant to be able to register, sell, negotiate, and engage buyers all in one app, combining a marketplace and a social media platform.
Hasnol noted that this was a solution to the main concerns of SMEs not moving into e-commerce, namely the technical know-how needed, and the cost of buying a computer and acquire an internet connection.
Through mobile data and the prolific use of smartphones, MyBazar, which will be launching soon, aims to gradually expand the marketplace to the world.
At the end of the session, three lucky winners walked away with 11street vouchers, and one winner received a bag sponsored by Terminus.
