PETALING JAYA: Lazada Malaysia unveiled a RM10 million stimulus package, available from April to June this year, in a bid to aid local small and medium enterprises (SME) as part of its ongoing corporate community commitment.
Dubbed the “Pakej Kedai Pintar” cash fund, it aims to help SMEs sell online, stabilise jobs and support the country’s economy during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The initiative is aimed at helping an estimated 50,000 local SMEs via a series of customised benefits, especially those in the fresh food and groceries categories, new and existing e-commerce sellers, and brick-and-mortar retailers, including those who were planning to set up stalls for Ramadhan bazaars.
Lazada Malaysia’s CEO, Leo Chow commented that local SMEs are essential to the nation’s economic growth and the people’s livelihood and hoped that the assistance would bolster Malaysians’ confidence amid the Covid-19 situation.
“We believe it’s the responsibility of all platform operators to lend support in times like this to the merchants who have made us successful.
“We want to reach out to anyone who has a business. Without any payment or charges, you can continue to run your business while benefiting from Lazada’s eCommerce expertise and robust logistics infrastructure,” he said in a press release.
According to the e-commerce platform, those eligible will be able to enjoy free shipping services and receive fixed weekly payments, as well as the services of a dedicated support team to onboard, train and develop customised sales campaign with them through Lazada University.
It highlighted SMEs from fresh food and groceries categories, as well as new and existing sellers will also be entitled to zero commission and zero listing fees, on top of access to micro loan facilities.
Through the initiative, SME retailers that are new, or have little experience in e-commerce can expect 100% of their costs of selling online covered, and be able to quickly diversify their revenue streams beyond traditional bricks-and-mortar model on a platform where one in three Malaysians are users.
From April to June, SMEs can sign up online and have 100% of capital costs waived. Capital costs refer to the services provided by Lazada Malaysia, including delivery and shipping of parcels to customers, content development services, product listing and advertising.
Lazada will work with SMEs to curate and list products for up to four months, participate in promotional campaigns, fulfil orders and analyse sales and traffic data.
This is not Lazada’s first effort in helping the local community.
Previously in March, it had reached out to local agricultural businesses, such as vegetable farmers and fishermen to digitalise and to match urban demand for fresh produce and groceries during the movement control order.
Following the move, Cameron Highland farmers, who onboarded the platform in less than 48 hours, were able to sell 1.5 tonnes of vegetables to nearly 200 households on a single day.
Lazada also reiterated its commitment to rollout new trade activities and training programmes to increase the adoption of e-commerce amongst local SMEs, and support the government’s “Buy Malaysian” campaign.
