PETALING JAYA: The rise of e-commerce is certain especially with the new normal after the movement control order (MCO) because people now trust such platforms and websites to conduct businesses, said an e-commerce expert.
Commerce Asia founder and executive chairman Ganesh Kumar Bangah said the MCO has made average Malaysians who usually do not shop online realise that e-commerce is convenient and easy to use.
With more people working from home, they are switching to buying their items online, he added.
“If we go back to the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2003 in Hong Kong and China, that was when Alibaba and other tech companies really started to grow because people just have no option to shop but through online,” Ganesh told theSun yesterday.
“But with the MCO, what happened in Hong Kong and China will happen in Malaysia, where retailers and grocers find that they got a better advantage switching to e-commerce.”
He said brick-and-mortar shops will still exist as they still generate a certain amount of revenue, but it is slowly being overtaken by online sales.
Ganesh said businesses should not hastily transition to e-commerce without looking for their product market fit, which is finding a niche in the sea of competitors online.
“They need to invest in marketing and finding their unique selling point.
It is not as simple as setting up a store and waiting for customers to come in, he said.
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