Shah Alam, 19th February 2016 – The Selangor Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (SITEC), with support from industry partners and Invest Selangor, the investment arm of the Selangor State Government, launched the nation’s very first E-Commerce awards at the Selangor Digital Creative Centre in i-City, Shah Alam, on February 18th, 2016.
SITEC is an initiative by the Selangor State Government, under the secretariat of Invest Selangor, with the aim of establishing Selangor as an E-Commerce hub in the region, as well as to uplift the startup community in Selangor.
The Malaysia Top E-Commerce Merchant Awards 2016 aims to increase the recognition and reliability of the vendors behind online stores, or e-merchants.
“Buyers only know of e-merchants through their products. With this event, we hope to raise the recognition of the vendors by the buyers, and help the buyers get to know the e-merchants they buy from,” quipped SITEC Chief Executive Yong Kai Ping.
The event was attended by e-Commerce players and merchants, members of the media, as well as the public. Representatives from Invest Selangor and the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) also made appearances at the launch.
Officiating the event was Guest of Honour YB Dato’ Teng Chang Khim, Committee Chairman of Investment, Industry & Trade, and Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) and Transport.
“This marks another milestone for SITEC, which was set up to leverage on the strength of the state to aid SMEs in Selangor,” said YB Dato’ Teng, adding that Selangor was the highest-contributing state to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Malaysia in 2014.
YB Dato’ Teng also added that, trendwise, cross-border trading looks set to be big this year, with the government increasing efforts to promote cross-border trade, as well as leveraging on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) to help promote cross-border trading to local merchants.
“E-commerce is a great vehicle to boost exports and promote Selangor as a trading hub as it closes the gap that traditional selling is limited by, in that buyers need to travel to Malaysia, while online buying cuts down massively on transportation.”
YB Dato’ Teng had also noted that he is pleased by the increased efforts by industry players to reinvest in Selangor to further enhance the state’s logistics and transportation facilities.
“For example, big e-commerce names such as Lazada and Photobook are reinvesting funds and efforts to expand their warehouses and/or new offices,” he said.
YB Dato’ Teng further added that logistics providers are increasing the size of their fleets to cope with increasing domestic demands, which is a strong indicator that e-commerce is rapidly picking up in Selangor and Malaysia, based on these developments.
“All these, and more, are part of Selangor’s maturing e-commerce ecosystem, which shows Selangor is ripe as a springboard to explore cross-border trading within the AEC, as well as the international community.
YB Dato’ Teng had also commented on the upward trend of technological penetration in Malaysia, as Malaysians become increasingly connected through mobile devices. This, he noted, makes the concept of the mobile marketplace very lucrative for e-commerce players.
On the topic of milestones, SITEC Chief Executive Yong Kai Ping had also shared that their Online 100 programme is set to see them reach their target of getting 100 brick and mortar merchants online this year. Only 9 months into the programme, SITEC has successfully managed to achieve 78% of their target, with another 5 months to go.
“I really appreciate this programme. Joining this programme is a good opportunity for us, has allowed merchants like us to reach out to a wider scope, a wider audience, with our products. We have never been involved in e-commerce before, but through this, we can sell our products in this way. I personally find that joining this programme can increase and maximise the exposure of a company on social media. For example, YouBeli has helped my company to set up our mobile application, and with this help, I hope and I believe we can achieve our first 100,000 sales in 2016. ” said Mr. Lee Meng Kwang of local grocery e-Store iPEOPLE, which is a participant of the Online 100 programme.
Similar to the Online 100 programme, the Malaysia Top E-Commerce Merchant Awards 2016 represents the next step in SITEC’s plan of action to further uplift and strengthen the country’s e-commerce ecosystem, with the competition, which offers RM25,000 worth of cash prizes, will be judging participants on four core areas, namely on their products, the quality of their service, their activity on social media, and the participant’s sales and transaction volumes.
Judging will be split between online voting and the competition’s panel of judges with a 50-50 split, with the panel of judges featuring e-commerce players such as Lazada, 11street, MOLPay, Exabytes, iPay88, Lelong.my, Logon.my, Youbeli, and eCommerceMILO.
Any inquiries about the Top EC Merchant Awards can be directed to Mr. Loke Chee Hoo. For enquiries on the Online 100 programme or SITEC’s activities, please contact Ms. Fatin Fadila.
Official photos:
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