KUALA LUMPUR: Global e-commerce platform, eBay is keen to tap into the Malaysian robust small and medium entreprises (SMEs) in line with the government's Digital Free Trade Zone (DTFZ) initiative.
“Today, eBay has 168 million active buyers worldwide buying items from over 1.1 billion listings in our marketplace. With this, we can help Malaysian SMEs expand their business opportunities by providing a global shop front accessed by buyers across the world,” said Wong Mei Inn, Country Head Trade, eBay Malaysia said in a statement.
“With Malaysia’s current developed internet infrastructure and the DTFZ on the horizon, there’s no better time for Malaysian SMEs to go global.”
She noted as well that the increase in broadband penetration coupled with strong government support for Internet-based retail has lowered the entry barriers for Malaysians to do business online.
As such, eBay will focus on offering localized seller support to catalyse the growth of Cross Border Trade sellers in Malaysia by developing strategic initiatives to equip local business owners with a competitive edge over host sites’ sellers.
This support will encompasses three pillars which are technical, logistical as well as education and business.
“In the era of the digital economy, eCommerce is the way to go for businesses, especially with the nation’s market growth expected to grow to RM 16.3 billion in 2017 alone,” continued Wong.
A survey that was done recently by eBay also noted that the top three export destinations for Malaysian sellers are the United States of America (USA), Australia and United Kingdom (UK).
USA remains its position as the top export destination for businesses based in Malaysia, with a 60 per cent growth from the previous year.
Additionally, the fastest growing corridor for cross-border transactions are Germany (336 per cent), Ukraine (108 per cent) and China (107 per cent) respectively.
Asia Pacific is recognised as the world's fastest growing eCommerce region and Malaysia is now leading the eCommerce market in the region, generating a revenue of US$2.3billion in 2015.