MDEC aims to bring 1,500 businesses onto online markets

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) aims to bring at least 1,500 sellers from its Extraordinary Exclusive Product by eUsahawan (Blee) initiative into online markets this year.
Blee is a MDEC initiative aimed at educating local entrepreneurs about online businesses and the digital economy.
MDEC eUsahawan global track manager Premla Balakrishnan said there were about 150,000 local businesses under the eUsahawan programme, and 500 of them were selected for Blee.
“Blee promotes local products that are homemade, exclusive and unique. The MyBazaar e-commerce marketplace has been appointed as the first online platform to pilot this initiative.
Meanwhile, MyBazar Malaysia Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Fazil Irwan Som said the company initiated the Blee programme with 500 selected local merchants selling 2,000 products ranging from foodstuff to fashion, home decor and handicraft.
Fazil said MyBazar is a social marketplace that transferred physical shopping to e-commerce regardless of a merchant’s size, location, budget and technology constraints.
Fazil added that MyBazar was also present in the Middle East and it would try to create a pipeline for Malaysian products to penetrate the market.
On the experience of onboarding small local sellers into its online marketplace, MyBazar marketing director Aaliyah Soraya Darus said the experience involved a lot of hand-holding.
“Blee merchants are predominantly new entrants into e-commerce.
“They face many challenges, including the lack of technology access at home, lack of knowledge in photo shooting their products, lack of confidence in the acceptance of their products in urban areas, small product quantity and logistics issues. – Bernama