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About This Blog
Hello and welcome to Websites Made Simple. I'm Danny Foo and this is my Malaysia website design blog. I also co-founded a registered Malaysia website design company; Simpleet Solutions. -
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E-Commerce Malaysia
I browsed todays InTech and Business Times (I think that’s what it’s called). Both were speaking on the same topic of e-commerce and its booming numbers. Much to my dismay, the article that spoke of the boom referenced to only the success of e-commerce in US. Now, when I read that article, it made me think. How do you convince the local public that e-commerce in Malaysia works and is safe?
Sure the numbers in US are booming and it shows that e-commerce does work but it doesn’t reach the local market well. I’m sure you’ll all say that if your revenue covers the local market loss than it’s alright. Well, it isn’t entirely alright because you aren’t doing any good to the local market in the first place but only for selfish gain. Malaysia might not be the safest place to trade online but there are methods to ensure safe online transactions. The online banking payments made on bank websites is one of them.
With the exception that no one hacks the website.
I would love to hear more in the media covering local e-commerce websites which are doing well. It’d also be great to know if the sales numbers generated were of local or international. Those numbers will prove whether or not Malaysia is venturing into an e-commerce era.
The last article of InTech documented the ease of getting things done via outsourcing. It’s great to hear news like that for a freelancer but it also hurts to know that most people think outsource is the best of the best because you get everything cheap. Anyway, I’d only like to focus on one part of the article. The writer mentioned how cheap it is setting up a website and emphasized on reasons having not to pay so much to a local designer to get the job done.
It’s rather disappointing to have notions like that in the media that people read and put in their head. I think now if freelancers ask why they aren’t being paid well? I’d just answer it’s because of propaganda like this that helps spoil the market. Propaganda that our own local newspapers never considered harmful to our local market.
The article written in the NST Business Times on running an e-commerce business was rather informative. Some pesonas to why most people abandon their shopping carts half way on a local website:
- Unfriendly website
- Inaccurte search
- Prices aren’t in Ringgit Malaysia (RM)
- Lack shipping information
- Does not ship to Malaysia
- ..etc
Now do you understand why is it important to feature local e-commerce websites in the country?
Malaysians use the Internet because they assume to find anything. They assume they can get what they want quick. They expect to not waste time just searching for something they know what they want. They expect the product(s) to be shipped locally and lastly, they’d prefer viewing prices in their local currency.
I’m damn sure there are a couple of successful local e-commerce websites. That’s excluding eBay or Lelong because what I’d really want to see are online shops than auction type websites.
Posted by Danny Foo on July 19, 2005 | Filed Under News | 
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Miss P, I really appreciate your experience sharing and I’m shocked to hear your experience with them wasn’t was professional as expected. Now all we can hope is they stumble upon this blog and your comment too.